The SEO Quiz From SEOmoz

[randfish]

Moderator Note: Thread split from Which SEW Member is The most Knowledgeable (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=5844)

True, Brian - probably too long to list actually. This community is filled with great, knowledgable people.

If only there was some way to test them on their knowledge... wait I've got it!

socengine.com/seo/guide/seomoz-quiz.php

Enjoy! It's purely for fun and not a serious test of knowledge.

[orion]

Some suggestions, rand.

You are using a multiple choice format. By educational standards, when using this type of format, unlike the questions, the answers should be very short.

Also, I would replace all the questions involving specific individuals/firms for how-to and knowledge base questions driven by material that is a must-know rather than "like-to know".


Overall, I do like some of the questions of the test.


Orion

[randfish]

Orion,

It's all in fun - that's why I have a lot of the industry-type questions. It's nothing serious. Maybe in the future, I'll put something more comprehensive and engaging together and ask for your advice!

I would love to see everyone's name on the leaderboard (http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/quiz-leaderboard.php)!

[orion]

Ok, rand. I understand.

Regarding the poll, I see it as a silly, for heck off fun exercise/popularity contest rather than anything else. It gives me flashbacks of homecomings.

BTW. Let me know when the article is up.

Orion

[dannysullivan]

SPOILER ALERT -- DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T YET TAKEN THE TEST.

Rand, very cool. I know it's just for fun, but a couple of comments:

Question one is applicable to at least Google and Yahoo, and I think MSN as well. I went with what I thought you thought was correct and guessed right.

Question two, well, I got right. But you might change "do not measure it" to "it may vary depending on numerous factors"

Question three, was impossible to get right, from what I can see. All are accepted regardless of claims.

Question six on emphasizing important text isn't really an SEO question, to me.

Question 8 was fun, but you should say most effective at ranking for XXX term. I also could have gone with either B or D, but I guess what you thought was right.

On the link bombing one, I suspect it depends on who you believe :) Daniel Brandt would take a different view, but I went with what I believed and was right.

The Google employee blog question -- that wasn't on their blog but instead on the Google Blog. But the person was right.

The first SES was a year later than what's list. The source material you linked to had it wrong. Here's the info: http://www.jupiterevents.com/sew/sf99/

Ah, good times, good times...

Was it cheating to do open book, like look up Yahoo title tag length before answering? (By the way, for word count, you might want to say including spaces).

[randfish]

Thanks Danny! I shall attempt to make your recommended changes. Hope the inconsistencies didn't spoil the fun for you. I see you still got the highest score of anyone yet :D

[Marketing Guy]

I did what all good SEO's do - guessed my way up the ladder! ;) When in doubt, choose b.

[dannysullivan]

Definitely enjoyed it. I want more. I want a news quiz each month :)

[randfish]

Danny,

You meant 'news' and not 'new', right? I think that's a great idea - have a new quiz every month on the events in the SEO world last month...

I'll see what I can drum up.

[dannysullivan]

Yep, news. I especially liked things like the patent question. I had to think, now what was that Yahoo patent on again. A good way to see if you've been paying attention.

[rustybrick]

Hmm, now who is that guestbook spammer at http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/quiz-leaderboard.php ? Tim? ;)

[randfish]

All the links have "nofollow" tags, so they're not gonna help link pop much. I also instituted IP checking and have deleted users that had taken the quiz anonymously before taking it with their "handle" - for shame!

Anyways, I'll continue to delete bunk entries as often as I can. Hope y'all enjoy!

[Nacho]

All the links have "nofollow" tags, so they're not gonna help link pop much.
Ohhhh man! and I thought that was the reward for taking the test. :p

Rand, you forgot to ask, "What's Danny Sullivan's favorite donut?" :D

[randfish]

Nacho,

There's some bits of trivia to which I'm not privvy... That's one of the reasons I can't take the test myself - obviously I know all the answers (although Danny corrected me on quite a few!!)

BTW - Thanks for splitting off the thread, I should have probably started a new one.

[randfish]

Open book is fine. You can search for answers while taking it. In the blog entry on SEW it says this, but on the quiz itself, I've got this:
Please don't cheat by using another browser window to find the answers - you'll spoil all the fun.
I think folks might get a tad bit confused... not that I don't appreciate the link :D

[dilvie]

Oh, I'm no fun at all. I'm bothered by the DMCA question (it's actually a notification of copyright violation that happens to be DMCA compliant, not a "DMCA violation report").

The notification you're talking about is not about violating some new copyright law codified by the DMCA. It's not a DMCA violation, but a violation of copyright that existed long before the DMCA. The DMCA notification is just a codified way of saying, "hey, you're violating my copyright" (not the DMCA itself):

(3)ELEMENTS OF NOTIFICATION.—

‘‘(A) To be effective under this subsection, a notification of claimed infringement must be a written communication provided to the designated agent of a service provider that includes substantially the following:

‘‘(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

‘‘(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.

‘‘(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.

‘‘(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if avail-able, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.

‘‘(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

‘‘(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly in-fringed.

Incidentally, if you sue for copyright infringement, and you don't have a strong case, the party you sue can countersue and win (http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65173,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2). It's good to have a clear understanding of what qualifies as fair use, and what doesn't.

Also, a lot of people think you have to register to claim copyright protection. Not so. Everything produced and published (electronically or otherwise) is, by default, protected by copyright law in the United States. You don't even have to put a (c) notification on the page.

Always get written permission unless you know for sure that your use qualifies as fair use.

Copyright law existed long before the DMCA. Copyright violation is still called copyright violation.

So, please stop perpetuating this "DMCA Violation" nonsense in the context of duplicate content. =) The DMCA did not add any strength to protection against duplicate content, it actually made the law more lenient to clarify that services like the ones Google provides are legal.

Boy, am I a buzz kill, or what?

=)

- Eric

[dilvie]

BTW.. what does that have to do with SEO, anyway? ahhehehe

dilvie runs away ducking well-deserved flames...

- Eric

[NFFC]

>had taken the quiz anonymously before taking it with their "handle" - for shame!

Shame? shame?? It is the way of the SEO ;)

[dilvie]

>had taken the quiz anonymously before taking it with their "handle" - for shame!

Shame? shame?? It is the way of the SEO

Heheh, isn't it silly to expect whitehat quiz taking of this bunch? ;)

- Eric

[randfish]

dilvie - welcome to SEW!!

Thanks for your input. How would you suggest I re-phrase the question?

[webconnoisseur]

Great quiz - if I was better at clicking, I would have been the 2nd place finisher instead of tied for 2nd (I left one question blank that I had the right answer for).

To really test people, you could have timed their test (let them know in advance) and forced them to use their SEW nickname. Of course, people could still cheat, but it would be more difficult.

It would be interesting to build a similar test, but focus in more on the skills rather than the history & name recognition.

[bentho]

Thanks for the test - lots of fun.

A friend of mine is a web designer and he thinks that all SEO is, is puting a site map in and and using Alt tags so ill foward this to him - sucker. LOL

I was hopeing the test wasnt timed and hurring - it would be funny if you did publish the time taken as well for the "SEO board of shame". :D

[Chris_D]

Thanks Rand, good fun!

Two suggestions:

1. I agree that you need to put a timer on it
2. Why display the IPs? You can track them - but don't display them

Best

Chris

[randfish]

Chris - You're right. I'll fix that straight away. I'm glad everyone's having fun!

[dilvie]

dilvie - welcome to SEW!!

Thanks for your input. How would you suggest I re-phrase the question?

s/DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) violation report/DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) notification of copyright violation/g

Cheers! =)

- Eric

[dannysullivan]

Oops, I thought you said open book was fine. I'll change the blog entry!

[Marcia]

That was fun, thanks!

[Jorge]

I knew most but guessed right for quite a few of them. Specially names. The multiple choice format is always easier. Other people here (that may be more knowledgeable than myself ) scored really crappy because of the English factor. It was fun!

[DanThies]

Rand, some comments on the quiz...

Question #3 in the first section needs work. Google does index Flash, but they don't associate the .fla file extension (a Flash/Shockwave authoring file, or unpublished project, according to my references) with Flash. They display URLs with the .swf file extension (these files are usually filetype:application/x-shockwave-flash) as Flash, although they may have been authored with Director/Shockwave. However, you do see URLs with the .fla extension in Google's database. I answered with what I thought you wanted (a) but ground my teeth together as I did so.

In the second section... #1, easy to figure out what you want, but I don't know that the engine in question has actually given any new guidance on the subject since SES NYC, when I think they said they were still considering the issue. #6, um... I don't like any of your answers. Went with what I thought you wanted, and turned out to be "right," but I could suggest something more accurate, or at least something unqiue to PageRank that depends less on grokking a whole other concept.

In the people/gossip section, I think that all of the answers on Ian are probably more or less true, including the "right" answer. If you get enough beer in him, he was probably an astronaut, ballerina, and the Duchess of Kent at some point as well.

[rustybrick]

Also, I think the sandbox question should use this as its definition;

A site is sandboxed when it is new and does not rank for keyword phrases that are not incredibly competitive (such as a unique company name) in Google after making the page "search engine friendly" and after being indexed.

But that is my opinion.

[DanThies]

So hard to define a myth, isn't it? I think Rand has it pretty well pegged. The term 'sandbox' is used as a catch-all to describe a lot of different symptoms, none of us knows the cause of any of them. :D

[rustybrick]

So hard to define a myth, isn't it? I think Rand has it pretty well pegged. The term 'sandbox' is used as a catch-all to describe a lot of different symptoms, none of us knows the cause of any of them. :D
Myths have definitions. :) Wont argue that it is a myth. But it should have a definition, IMO.

[randfish]

Dan & Barry,

Thanks for your input, I've made some changes to the quiz based on them. I'll have to be exceptionally careful the next time I make one of these :D

As far as Sandbox goes, I much prefer the definition of disparate rankings - it explains the phenomenon, without getting into the whos or whys.

dilvie - I made your change as well - thanks!

I believe I'll shut down the leaderboard next Friday evening. It's a lot of work to pull out all the duplicate entries - I guess even a link with nofollow is fairly alluring.

[DanThies]

Dan & Barry,
I believe I'll shut down the leaderboard next Friday evening. It's a lot of work to pull out all the duplicate entries - I guess even a link with nofollow is fairly alluring.
They must be betting on the butler. ;)

[Chris Boggs]

I have printed out the test to do some serious studying this weekend. So much to learn... :o

[krisval]

Is this quiz rated R. You may want to check the names used on the leaderboard:)

[randfish]

Sorry about that. It's edited now. Some people just aren't cool.

[robwatts]

Good quiz there Rand :)

Some well crafted thought provoking options ;)

Just out of interest, do you intend to create these at regular intervals?

Certainly something that could be developed further. Some people love tests and grades and letters after their names.

Just a thought here, but maybe some form of certificated online test, administered by an authoritative body of course, could even add value to the overall industry pot.

Maybe the newly formed SEM associations could look at integrating something like this into their membership offerings. In combination with all sorts of other initiatives, it would IMO certainly contribute in some small way to creating an enhanced outsider view of SEM in general.

"All [insert sem org] members undertake a rigourous certification process that demonstrates a key understanding of..etc etc blah"

[randfish]

Rob,

I was definitely planning on making another one next month. Perhaps, if I can work out a secure way of doing it, I'll try to put something together that's more comprehensive and serious - I worry that it's always going to be too easy to cheat on any test administered over the web...

Danny had recommended making a quiz for each month covering the last month's news & updates. That seems very doable to me.

[robwatts]

Cool :)

Ive been racking my brains for the name of a website that does this kind of online test, but for the time being, its escaped me.

Anyhow, if memory serves correctly, they were pretty clever in their approach. In that they assigned x amount of time for the test itself, which was aligned to some kind of session variable. Once the clock had started you had x number of seconds for each one. One question shown at a time, multiple choice type format.

Users had to be registered of course, which I guess would take the fun gloss of this thing, which after all is what its supposed to be, fun! Right?

<added>Just remembered the site in question was called BrainBench.com This is the nearest they have to Internet type stuff http://brainbench.com/xml/bb/common/testcenter/taketest.xml?testId=109</added>

[Nacho]

I'm so happy to see many taking the test. Personally, I'm pumped up --to not say challanged-- to take once a month.

Rand, this was a great thing! :)

Sorry, gotta "spread it around".... Someone, please do the honors for me. Thanks!

[dyn4mik3]

I can't wait for more of Rand's monthly quizzes. This time around I only got 26 and I'll be looking forward to see how I improve! I really enjoyed the SEO Industry section even though that was my worst section.

Inspired by Rand’s SEOmoz Quiz, I started a new series over at my blog called SEO Quiz. The goal is to ask some practical questions about SEO and generate some good discussion. These questions will deal with preferred methods for optimizing (on-page and off-page) - similar to Rand's title question.

Hopefully the questions and answers will become useful information for SEOs.

Every week I'll post a new question and at the end of the week I'll pull out the best comments and explain the answers.

I encourage everyone to drop by and give their answers. Add one or two lines about why you think your answer is correct.

SEO Quiz (http://www.socialpatterns.com/seo-quiz/seo-quiz-part-1-urls/)

This week's question deals with proper URLs.