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mediumSEO Specialist interview question

How do you do keyword research for a new section of a website?

What the interviewer wants to hear

  • Start with business goals and audience
  • Gather seed terms from tools, customers, Search Console, competitors
  • Judge volume, difficulty, intent and business value
  • Cluster keywords by topic and map one cluster to one page

Model answer

I start with the business: what products we sell, who the customers are, and what problems they search about. I collect seed terms from sales and support teams, Search Console, competitor sites and tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Google Keyword Planner. I also look at forums, "People also ask" and AI answers to find real questions. For each keyword I check search volume, difficulty, intent and business value, because a low-volume keyword with strong buying intent can be worth more than a big informational one. Then I cluster keywords that share the same intent and map each cluster to one page, so we avoid cannibalisation. The output is a content plan with priorities, target pages and briefs for writers.

Can you answer it under time pressure?

Take a timed medium round and get scored on every answer.

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