| RIGHT Question 1 |
| Will you use an ordinary html sitemap with Google? |
| a. |
Any sitemap is OK to use it with Google. |
| b. |
No, I will not because it is duplicate content. |
| c. |
I’d rather use the special XML format that Google uses for sitemaps. |
Explanation: c. is correct because Google has a special format for sitemaps, rather than the ordinary html format. For some of the other search engines a. would have been also correct but not with Google. b. is completely wrong - sitemaps are not duplicate content because they provide only links to pages, not the pages themselves.
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| WRONG Question 2 |
| Which of the following ways can be used to hide files from search engines? Check all that apply. |
| a. |
Put a robots.txt file and write in it not to index particular pages. |
| b. |
Put the sensitive files in a separate directory. |
| c. |
Hide them with dynamic URLs. |
| d. |
Protect them with a password. |
| e. |
Put them on a separate server. |
Explanation: a., d. and e. are the correct answers and e. is the best option because if the files are not physically accessible, they will not be indexed. Protecting them with a password is also good because search engines will not break the password to get inside the files but still there is a chance that the names of the files can appear in a directory listing. Most search engines do not violate your wishes in the robots.txt file, but this file was not meant to be a 100% secure way to avoid indexing, so for very sensitive information, use it with caution. Simply putting the files in a separate directory or “hiding” them with dynamic URLs has nothing to do with protection from being indexed.
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| RIGHT Question 3 |
| In terms of Web marketing, what does the abbreviation PPC stand for? |
| a. |
Points Per Click |
| b. |
Pay Per Click |
| c. |
Paid Placement Cost |
| d. |
Paid Points Calculator |
Explanation: b. is correct. Pay Per Click measures how much online advertisers must pay each time their advertisement is clicked on.
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| WRONG Question 4 |
| You have a book selling site. If you have a keyword density of 7% for the keyword “book”, 6% for “reading” and 3% for “bestseller”, how does the following metatag relate to your keyword density: |
| a. |
The metatag is completely useless. |
| b. |
The metatag might mislead the search engines that we offer mainly American literature. |
| c. |
I would have never had such high keyword density, if it were not for the stuffing of this tag. |
| d. |
This metatag helps to point out that some of our bestsellers are the novels of Grisham and other American authors. |
| e. |
It might help to get some additional traffic without having to optimize the site for additional keywords like “Grisham” and the different genres. |
Explanation: e. is correct. The keywords in the “Keywords” metatag could be a slight boost for minor keywords like authors and genres but in any case this tag is not as important as the onpage keyword density and the anchor text of backlinks. On the other hand, if the keywords in this tag had nothing in common with the major keywords - for instance, you decide to list the names of the most popular novels on your site - this could be a confusion for the spiders and you’d better avoid it.
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| RIGHT Question 5 |
| What is necessary to do for optimizing Flash sites? Check all that apply. |
| a. |
Put the most important items in a Flash presentation on the home page |
| b. |
Add descriptive metatada to the Flash presentation. |
| c. |
Provide alternative pages that describe the contents of the Flash presentation. |
| d. |
Have a good keyword density in the Flash presentation. |
Explanation: The correct answers are b. and c. Although metatada might not be as important as a couple of years ago, skipping it for Flash sites is not recommended. Alternative html pages must be provided not only because they are text that can be indexed by search engines, but also because there are users who might not be willing to see the Flash movie. a. is the ultimate SEO killer, so this is something that must be avoided always, when possible. d. is also wrong because no matter what the keyword density in a Flash presentation is, since it is not accessible to search engines, it is irrelevant.
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| WRONG Question 6 |
| Which of these keywords will you optimize a pets site for? The site provides information about different breeds and also fundamental facts about breeding pets at home. It does neither sell pets, nor is interested in wild animals. The main audience are adults. The words in the different options (a., b., c., etc.) are arranged in order of importance. |
| a. |
pet, pet at home, pet animal, pet breed. |
| b. |
pets, kids, puppy, kitten. |
| c. |
pets, breeds, dogs, cats. |
| d. |
pets, cats, dogs, animals. |
Explanation: c. is the best option because it has the relevant keywords and if you keep the percentages in the range 5-8 for each of the keywords, it is likely to get incredible results. a. is not advisable because you risk a penalty for keyword stuffing. b. would be the right choice for a pets site for children, while in d. you miss a major keyword – “breeds” – and substitute it with a more general one - “animals”. Of course, you can optimize for more than 4 keywords, so the alternatives here are just samples but in any case you can’t optimize for an unlimited amount of keywords, so you always need to make choices.
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| WRONG Question 7 |
| Is the following metatag appropriate for a site that sells books? |
| a. |
Yes, the following metatag contains all the keywords I need. |
| b. |
No, it is rather short, I have more keywords to optimize for. |
| c. |
I would rather swap “publish” and “novel” because “novel” is more important than “publish”. |
| d. |
Yes, this metatag is OK even though it could have had more keywords. |
| e. |
Why bother with metatags at all? |
Explanation: d. is correct. This tag might not be the masterpiece for a book selling site but since most spiders don’t read the whole tag but only the first 5-6 or so words, having a longer tag, with all the keywords you need (generally one needs more than 5-6 minor and major keywords) will not make a big difference. a. is wrong because there are at least 10 more (minor and major) keywords that would have been good to rank well for. c. is a little tricky because while generally the order in metatags matters, it is not vital to have the words arranged according to their presumed importance. Besides, novel might be more important for a novel-selling site but for a general book-selling site, it might not make a difference at all. e. does not need explanation at all.
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| WRONG Question 8 |
| You plan to launch a new site. Does it make sense to register the domain early, when you are not ready with the site itself? Check all that apply. |
| a. |
No, this is a waste of money. I will pay for the domain, when I am ready with the site. |
| b. |
Yes, early registration helps to have a mature site sooner and I will have to wait less till I get out of the sandbox. |
| c. |
Yes, by registering early, the site will get older sooner and since the age of the domain is important, this will help. |
| d. |
Yes, early registration will help me keep competitive without spending much on advertising. |
Explanation: b. and c. are correct. Early registration of a new domain is related to getting out of the sandbox sooner and reaching the age when a domain is not treated like a new one. a. is wrong because, having in mind the current price of new domains, waiting for the site to be ready and then buying the domain could save you a couple of cents only. d. is also wrong, because even when the domain is out of the sandbox and is old enough, this will not turn it into a high-ranker automatically and you still might need to spend some money on advertising.
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| RIGHT Question 9 |
| Which of the following are criteria for the uniqueness of a page (unique as opposed to duplicate content)? Check all that apply. |
| a. |
Code similarity. |
| b. |
Text similarity. |
| c. |
Page names. |
| d. |
Titles, headings, page titles and metatags . |
Explanation: All the above are criteria if a page is unique. Although no one knows for sure how these criteria are calculated, it is certain that the code of a page is checked as well. If you want to see if two pages are similar, you can use this tool.
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| WRONG Question 10 |
| What aspects of a hyperlink are important for SEO? Check all that apply. |
| a. |
The visibility of the link text. |
| b. |
The anchor text, especially the keywords in it. |
| c. |
The place from which the link originates. |
| d. |
The place to which the link leads. |
| e. |
The image that is used as an anchor for the hyperlink. |
Explanation: Correct are b., c. and d. The anchor text is very important and for backlinks the reputation of the site from which the link originates is also crucial. d. is also important, although not as much as c. because if you link to link farms, this might get you banned from search engines. a. is wrong because if the link is visible or not is a design issue, not a SEO one. e. is wrong because images shouldn’t be used as anchors; if it cannot be avoided to use an image as an anchor, then the ALT tag must contain description of the image, though this is not the same as having a proper link with anchor text. |