Canceled an interview because I felt the exercise was unrealistic based on the tools available and the expected time to complete it.

Below is what they asked me to do. I felt that if I spent the 2 hours or less doing this what I would provide wouldn't be sufficient enough compared to what they were looking for. I'm ok if a company tells me to look at a page and give some thoughts on ways I could improve it, etc. But I don't even have access to any paid tools, so my keyword and backlink analysis would be crap. Was I wrong to cancel on them, or do you guys think I made the right decision?

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Overview

This Assessment covers the three core areas of SEO: content, technical, and outreach (link building). The

Assessment represents the main aspects of what it means to be a SEO Analyst at our agency. This

will give you a better sense of the work you’ll be doing while also showing us how you approach SEO.

Content Optimization, Technical Analysis, and Links

You have joined our agency and are creating a strategy brief for vonlanes dot com, a

hypothetical client that just started with us. Their goal is to grow their organic channel. Your job is to create

and present a preliminary SEO strategy that will best achieve their goals. Use the questions below as a

guide, but feel free to be creative in your approach to their opportunities. This is not meant to be a

comprehensive SEO Strategy but an overview of high-value opportunities as you see them.

Presentation Format

Prepare a preliminary strategy presentation that outlines your SEO approach for the client.

The audience is the client.

● We recommend no more than 15 slides. It shouldn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to present.

● Include supporting data and information that showcases your thought process.

● You are welcome to use Google Slides, PowerPoint, or a presentation platform of your choice.

● We respect your time; we recommend you limit yourself to 2 hours on this exercise.

Content Optimization

Your strategy should include recommended keywords, suggested content fixes or opportunities, and

address the competitive landscape.

● What keyword themes offer the best opportunity and why?

● What topical gaps exist, if any, in the content of the website?

● What are 2-3 recommendations you would have for a specific page or two for onsite content?

Technical Analysis

Your strategy should include recommendations on technical SEO as it pertains to crawling and indexing.

● What recommendations would you make to their robots.txt or sitemap (if applicable)?

● What issues, if any, are affecting what is showing up in the index? Are pages showing up that

shouldn’t or vice-versa?

● Are there any opportunities for the site/URL structure?

● What issues, if any, exist in relationship tags (canonicals, hreflang)?

● What recommendations, if any, would you make regarding structured data?

● What recommendations would you make concerning site speed?

Outreach / Link Building

Your strategy should include ideas on how the website can gain quality backlinks.

● What are 1-2 ideas you have to help the site gain relevant links?

● Are there any inbound links that may affect performance?

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