Prerequisite Exam for Advanced SEO Online Course

Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops

If you have any questions or concerns about this quiz,
please contact the creator of the quiz.

If you haven't taken the beginning online course, you'll need to take this prerequisite test to see if you have the basic background to benefit from the Advanced Search Engine Marketing Course. If you score at least 75% on the test, you can take the Advanced course. If you don't, you'll need to start with the beginning course in order to finetune your skills before moving on to the Advanced. Answer the questions below and then click "submit" to send your answers. Results of the test are sent to you by e-mail, generally within minutes. Remember: you need to score 75% to go into the Advanced course. Good luck! (Last updated on 6/07)

If you're having problems getting visibility in Google and have tried everything else, consider submitting to the Yahoo! Directory. It might help.

Your answer:
TrueFalse

From this list, what is the most important thing you can do for your Web site (keep in mind that all of these are important, but I'm looking for the most important one)?

Your answer:
Have graphics that load fast
Place important information "above the fold"
Offer contact information
Build content on a regular basis

When considering keywords or keyword phrases, which of the following should you do?

Your answer:
Use a single keyword
Use extremely broad keywords
Don't worry about keyword research -- you know better than anyone else how people are searching for your site.
Use a service like Wordtracker to determine your competition and how many people are actually searching for your important keyword phrases

It's considered bad form to misspell keywords in your META keywords tags. True or false?

Your answer:
TrueFalse

When creating title tags for your Web pages, you should:

Your answer:
Write a separate title for each page of your site, focusing on the content of that particular page.
Use the same title tag for every page, so that a central "theme" is created throughout the site.

Which of the following ranking criteria is used when grading the placement of your Web page?

Your answer:
Prominence of the keyword on your page
Link popularity
One central theme, or focus, throughout the page
All of the above

How early in a Web page's title or description tags should a keyword/phrase appear?

Your answer:
Anywhere
Beginning of the tag (first few words)

Whenever possible, use hidden links to other pages of your site, so that the engine can spider those links and index the pages. True or false?

Your answer:
TrueFalse

Which of the following factors are considered "spam" by most of the major engines?

Your answer:
Keyword stuffing
Hidden links or link farms
Creating "old fashioned" doorway pages of no value
All of the above

You should include keywords in:

Your answer:
<TITLE> tag
Body of the page
<Div> tags
1 and 2

What is GENERALLY considered the most important HTML tag on your Web page?

Your answer:
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION">
<META NAME="KEYWORD">
<TITLE>
<H1> heading tag

When designing your site, is it better to provide detailed product/service information on your homepage, or design a separate page for each product and provide a description about the product/service there and then a link back to the homepage?

Your answer:
Detailed product/service information on your homepage.
Separate page for each product with a description, and a link to the homepage.

When writing your description tags, you should:

Your answer:
Just list your keywords one after the other.
Repeat the same words you used in your title tag.
Use all caps
Start the sentence with a capital letter, then use lowercase letters. Make your descriptions easy to read and captivating!

Are META tags making a come back?

Your answer:
This is true, because Google is now indexing the contents of META keyword tags.
This is true, because Yahoo considers the contents of META tags when determining relevancy.
This is true, because Ask considers the contents of META tags when determining relevancy.
Still use your important keyword phrase in your META tags, because you never know when the major engines will consider the contents of META tags when determining relevancy/ranking.

An excellent way to rank high with the search engines is to hide words on a page by using the same or similar color of text as the background.

Your answer:
TrueFalse

The best way to get into Ask is to use their Add URL page.

Your answer:
True
False

Which of the following design strategies has the potential to present problems with SOME of the engines when trying to get top rankings?

Your answer:
Database-generated sites
Flash movie as the main page of the site
Javascript navigation
All of the above

When studying a top ranking Web page to determine why they've succeeded, which of the following areas should you consider?

Your answer:
The page's link popularity and link reputation
Source code
Where the keyword phrase is being used on the page and how often
All of the above

Which of the following areas will get you in trouble with the search engines for spamming?

Your answer:
A page that doesn't load fast
Music on your site
Joining a link farm
All of the above

The best way to add new pages to your site is to create content-rich information pages that target different sets of keywords or target audiences but not to be excessive. True or false?

Your answer:
TrueFalse

The ideal way to submit pages to the search engines is:

Your answer:
Submission software programs or tools
Let the search engines find pages on their own

Which of the following are directories?

Your answer:
ODP
Yahoo! Directory
Ask
#1 and #2

If you have several different pages that strictly sell affiliate software or services, you can submit every page to the Open Directory Project and expect them to get in.

Your answer:
TrueFalse

Once you've achieved a top ranking position, what is your next step?

Your answer:
Celebrate!, then continue to monitor your rankings and log files on a daily or weekly basis to make sure your rankings don't slip and that your rankings are converting to traffic that converts to sales.
Kick back in an easy chair and let your Web site do the work for you.
Look at your log file periodically to see how many visitors are coming to your site.

Which of the following engines have paid inclusion programs?

Your answer:
Yahoo!
Google
Ask
None of the above

Name:

Full email address:

Class:

NOTE TO THE STUDENT: If the answers are sent successfully, you will see another page come up in the web browser. If you don't see this page, it is possible that an error occurred during transfer and you should either resubmit your answers or notify your instructor.

Prerequisite Exam for Advanced SEO Online Course

Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops

If you're having problems getting visibility in Google and have tried everything else, consider submitting to the Yahoo! Directory. It might help.

From this list, what is the most important thing you can do for your Web site (keep in mind that all of these are important, but I'm looking for the *most* important one)?

When considering keywords or keyword phrases, which of the following should you do?

It's considered bad form to misspell keywords in your META keywords tags. True or false?

When creating title tags for your Web pages, you should:

Which of the following ranking criteria is used when grading the placement of your Web page?

How early in a Web page's title or description tags should a keyword/phrase appear?

Whenever possible, use hidden links to other pages of your site, so that the engine can spider those links and index the pages. True or false?

Which of the following factors are considered "spam" by most of the major engines?

You should include keywords in:

What is GENERALLY considered the most important HTML tag on your Web page?

When designing your site, is it better to provide detailed product/service information on your homepage, or design a separate page for each product and provide a description about the product/service there and then a link back to the homepage?

When writing your description tags, you should:

Are META tags making a come back?

An excellent way to rank high with the search engines is to hide words on a page by using the same or similar color of text as the background.

The best way to get into Ask is to use their Add URL page.

Which of the following design strategies has the potential to present problems with SOME of the engines when trying to get top rankings?

When studying a top ranking Web page to determine why they've succeeded, which of the following areas should you consider?

Which of the following areas will get you in trouble with the search engines for spamming?

The best way to add new pages to your site is to create content-rich information pages that target different sets of keywords or target audiences but not to be excessive. True or false?

The ideal way to submit pages to the search engines is:

Which of the following are directories?

If you have several different pages that strictly sell affiliate software or services, you can submit every page to the Open Directory Project and expect them to get in.

Once you've achieved a top ranking position, what is your next step?

Which of the following engines have paid inclusion programs?

From this list, what is the most important thing you can do for your Web site (keep in mind that all of these are important, but I'm looking for the most important one)?