SEO: Link Building

[clark]

Hi,

I want to be a Search Engine Optimizer. Presently I am working as a link builder and want to switch from this job.
I have a call from a SEO Company.
Any one give me some tips for this interview as I have a interview with in 15 days.

Thanks
Clark

[jimbeetle]

What kind of position is it?

[AussieWebmaster]

Read as much as you can.... be aware of the basics... including the need for link building

[Reflection]

Search and read some articles about seo techniques. You can also get huge informations on seo sites.

[Arun Lakhera]

Hi Clark, you have raised an intelligent question in this forum. As a newbie I cannot give you assured advice but will try to explain SEO. As far as I understand SEO has two parts.

Raw SEO: Meta tags, keyword tags, header and footer tags and keyword searching come in the raw part. For learning this part you have to read some books. I cannot suggest because I have not read but you can search it.

Collecting back links: It is the second but most important part of SEO. It contains submitting articles, blogs and press releases to different directories for getting back links. You will be surprised to know that forum posting is also a part of SEO.

I hope that this will help way. For corrections in my post I look forward at the masters.

[Reflection]

Originally Posted by Arun Lakhera

Hi Clark, you have raised an intelligent question in this forum. As a newbie I cannot give you assured advice but will try to explain SEO. As far as I understand SEO has two parts.

Raw SEO: Meta tags, keyword tags, header and footer tags and keyword searching come in the raw part. For learning this part you have to read some books. I cannot suggest because I have not read but you can search it.

Collecting back links: It is the second but most important part of SEO. It contains submitting articles, blogs and press releases to different directories for getting back links. You will be surprised to know that forum posting is also a part of SEO.

I hope that this will help way. For corrections in my post I look forward at the masters.

In SEO language we call "Raw SEO" as on-page seo and collecting backlinks is known as off-page SEO.

[AussieWebmaster]

I would start with seobook best text out there

[juergen]

Link building works fine. Only use one way links and do not use very global keywords, only long tail phrase keywords.
Read my
Replay to a Forum Post about link building.

[jhen]

SEO Book, and online articles from seomoz.org and seoks.com might help you

[submitqueen]

Clark, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

[kavita]

you can read this questions and find them answers online.
1) Give me a description of your general SEO experience.
2) Do you currently do SEO on your own sites and give me some examples. Do you operate any blogs? Do you currently do any freelance work and do you plan on continuing it?
3) Where do you think the SEO industry is headed?
4) What industry sites, blogs, and forums do you regularly read?
5) Have you attended any search related conferences?
6) What SEO tools do you regularly use?
7) What SEO areas are you weak and strong in, and give examples of both.
8) What areas do you think are currently the most important in organically ranking a site?
9) Do you have experience in copywriting and can you provide some writing samples?
10) What kind of strategies do you normally implement for backlinks? What do you think about link buying, link bait, and other specific backlink strategies?
11) What are your thoughts on the direction of Web 2.0 technologies with regards to SEO?
12) Are you familiar with any blackhat SEO techniques, search arbitrage, and affiliate marketing?
13) Are you familiar with enterprise web analytics and what packages are your familiar with?
14) Are you familiar with A/B testing and multivariate testing?
15) Do you have experience in email marketing, banner advertising, other types of media buys and other forms of online advertising?
16) Are you experienced in managing PPC campaigns? To what extent and on what platforms?
17) Do you have experience in bid management tools, API tools, and click fraud issues?
18) Do you have experience in extensive competitive analysis and what techniques do you use?
19) What technologies are you familiar with? (We primarily use HTML, CSS, ASP, .net, PHP, SQL, and JavaScript)
20) Why are you moving from your current position and/or leaving any current projects?
21) Do you know who Matt Cutts is?
22) What is the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?
Thanks to Rand at SEOmoz.org for this post on SEO hiring. It helped quite a bit in assembling this list. Any additional questions anyone can think of?
*** UPDATE ***
22) What is page segmentation? (ever heard of VIPS?)
23) What’s the difference bewtween PageRank and ToolBar PageRank?
24) What is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI - Indexing)?
25) What is Phrase Based Indexing and Retrieval and what roles does it play?
26) In Google Lore - what are ‘Hilltop’ Florida’ and ‘Big Daddy’?

[AussieWebmaster]

Like the questions though some of them would have answers very open to interpretation

[Sonal]

U give such good question - Kavita

[pmbenai]

1) Give me a description of your general SEO experience.
A)I have been working on SEO for 2 years and its been my full time job for just over 1 years. In the past I have lead a few SEO chats with the 'big' boys and I have gained a lot of knowledge through doing so.
I recently started a network of sites which are earning through adsense

2) Do you currently do SEO on your own sites and give me some examples. Do you operate any blogs? Do you currently do any freelance work and do you plan on continuing it?
A)I have a few blogs up and running at the moment as well as a few forums to. I no longer do as much freelance work as I used to but I do a bit and I plan on doing this for the next 6-12 months

3) Where do you think the SEO industry is headed?
A)PPA will become the norm. Finally MSN will become big with cleaver marketing but Google will still be king

4) What industry sites, blogs, and forums do you regularly read?
A)Webmaster-talk.com. I also read a lot of blogs and forums related to my sites

5) Have you attended any search related conferences?
A)Yep. In the past I have lead conferences like this

6) What SEO tools do you regularly use?
A)tools.SEOBook.com and SEOElite

7) What SEO areas are you weak and strong in, and give examples of both.
A)Link bait is my strong point while boring jobs such as writing content and directory submission are a weak point for me

8) What areas do you think are currently the most important in organically ranking a site?
A)Links Links Links. Link bait is very important to get your site to success with the SE's

9) Do you have experience in copywriting and can you provide some writing samples?
I try to outsource jobs like this

10) What kind of strategies do you normally implement for backlinks? What do you think about link buying, link bait, and other specific backlink strategies?
A)I love link bait but try contacting webmasters for a link exchange. Many will be happy to do so.

11) What are your thoughts on the direction of Web 2.0 technologies with regards to SEO?
A)SEO is my thing. Not designing ect

12) Are you familiar with any blackhat SEO techniques, search arbitrage, and affiliate marketing?
A)Yep but I don't use blackhat ever

13) Are you familiar with enterprise web analytics and what packages are your familiar with?
A)-------

14) Are you familiar with A/B testing and multivariate testing?
A)I split test and compare Google AdWords advertising occasionally on new sites

15) Do you have experience in email marketing, banner advertising, other types of media buys and other forms of online advertising?
A)Again I believe this can be interlinked well with SEO and SEO techniques

16) Are you experienced in managing PPC campaigns? To what extent and on what platforms?
A)Google Adwords professional even though I don't use my status.

17) Do you have experience in bid management tools, API tools, and click fraud issues?
A)Try to keep away from anything other than manual stuff. Bid management is done manually and I have had no real click fraud problems

18) Do you have experience in extensive competitive analysis and what techniques do you use?
A)------

19) What technologies are you familiar with? (We primarily use HTML, CSS, ASP, .net, PHP, SQL, and JavaScript)
A)HTML, CSS and PHP

20) Why are you moving from your current position and/or leaving any current projects?
A)I'm not

21) Do you know who Matt Cutts is?
A)He's a Google Geek. No but really he is the most influential of the Google team

22) What is the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?
A)Dunno

[AussieWebmaster]

22) What is the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?
A)42

[jimbeetle]

Ya' know, this is actually a pretty funny thread. The original poster who was "working as a link builder", well, he was actually just out doing is job -- dropping links. I posted a question to him simply to see if he came back.

Kind of strange how a thread that's basically about nothing can take on a life of its own.

[AussieWebmaster]

yeah I know what you mean....

[Reflection]

Nice Questions Kabita

[amitbhalla]

Very good question.
I am highlighting some important questions-
1- What is a shingling algorithm and how is it used?
2- In Google Lore - what are ‘Hilltop’, ‘Florida’, and ‘Big Daddy’?
3- What is Phrase Based Indexing and Retrieval and what roles does it play?
4- What is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI - Indexing)?
5- What’s the difference between PageRank and Toolbar PageRank?
6- Are you familiar with any blackhat SEO techniques, search arbitrage, and affiliate marketing?
7- Give me a description of your general SEO experience.

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by amitbhalla

Very good question.
I am highlighting some important questions-
1- What is a shingling algorithm and how is it used?
2- In Google Lore - what are ‘Hilltop’, ‘Florida’, and ‘Big Daddy’?
3- What is Phrase Based Indexing and Retrieval and what roles does it play?
4- What is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI - Indexing)?
5- What’s the difference between PageRank and Toolbar PageRank?
6- Are you familiar with any blackhat SEO techniques, search arbitrage, and affiliate marketing?
7- Give me a description of your general SEO experience.

Hilltop, Florida and Big Daddy where Google algorithm updates - when massive changes were made - old days when there were done every 3-6 months or so... HillTop and Florida were right before the Christmas Holiday season and had major impact on many ecommerce sites