HubSpot SEO II Certification Answers 2024

Adding inline CSS dimensions to images, videos, and gifs helps improve which Core Web Vital?

1. Largest Contentful Paint
2. First Input Delay
3. Cumulative Layout Shift
4. It does not help improve any of the Core Web Vitals.

Correct Answer :

• Cumulative Layout Shift

Blake is going through a technical SEO audit for his company’s website when he notices that several pages are taking 6 or more seconds to load. He knows this is too slow and he needs to speed them up, but isn’t sure how to identify what’s causing the slowdown or how to fix it. To get started, what should Blake look into?

1. Large code files that could be minified
2. Non-essential JavaScript that could be moved to the footer
3. Large image or video files that could be compressed
4. All of the above

Correct Answer :

• All of the above

Claire is analyzing her website’s Core Web Vitals and notices that LCP is occurring at 10 seconds, which is much longer than what Google recommends. Which of the following elements could be contributing to slowing down Claire’s page?

1. A pop-up banner, appearing halfway down the page
2. A navigation menu with more than 7 items
3. An embedded video below the page header
4. A non-responsive website design

Correct Answer :

• An embedded video below the page header

Crawl budget is mainly a concern for which types of websites?

1. Websites with less than 1,000 pages
2. Websites with over 10,000 pages
3. Websites in regulated industries
4. All of the above

Correct Answer :

• Websites with over 10,000 pages

Dana is an SEO freelancer working with a client who is redesigning their website. The client’s designer has come up with a design that uses four custom fonts, but Dana voices their concern that this could have a negative impact on the site’s performance. How can Dana explain this issue to their client, and what solution can they propose?

1. Using custom fonts is looked up unfavorably by Google, as they prefer designers to use exclusively Google fonts to promote their brand. The designer should use Google fonts in order to comply with these guidelines.
2. Using more than two fonts of any kind can confuse users, provide a poor user experience, and increase the page’s LCP. Instead, the designer should use just a single Google font across the entire site.
3. Using more than two custom fonts can cause fonts to flicker on loading, showing a flash of unstyled text. This is a poor user experience and increases the CLS score. Instead, the designer should try to find comparable Google fonts to use.

Correct Answer :

• Using more than two custom fonts can cause fonts to flicker on loading, showing a flash of unstyled text. This is a poor user experience and increases the CLS score. Instead, the designer should try to find comparable Google fonts to use.

During which stage of a migration should you benchmark site performance metrics?

1. Pre-migration
2. During the migration
3. Post-migration
4. There is no identified stage for benchmarking site performance metrics.

Correct Answer :

• Pre-migration

Fill in the blank: ___ happens when the server saves the result of a single render and serves that same result when requested again.

1. Server-side caching
2. JavaScript rendering
3. Minification
4. Client-side caching

Correct Answer :

• Server-side caching

Fill in the blank: ___ happens when the server tells a web browser to keep the files it downloads, so it doesn’t have to download them again in the future.

1. Browser caching
2. General caching
3. Server-side caching
4. Client-side caching

Correct Answer :

• Client-side caching

Fill in the blank: ___ occurs when a user quickly navigates back and forth between pages in search results.

1. Rendering
2. Bouncing
3. Pogo-sticking
4. Rebounding

Fill in the blanks: ___ and ___ form the foundation of technical SEO.

1. Website performance; crawlability
2. Crawl budget; mobile-friendliness
3. Site speed; on-page SEO
4. Content; keywords

Correct Answer :

• Website performance; crawlability

Greta is an SEO professional working for a large law firm. She is gathering her monthly reports on their website performance, and her manager has asked that she focus on demonstrating how SEO is contributing to the business’ bottom line. What type of report should Greta pull in order to best show the ROI of SEO?

1. A goal completion report, which shows which pages are generating the most form submissions
2. A content to leads report, that shows which pages are converting the most leads
3. A keyword rank report, which shows the overall web presence of their keywords
4. A top pages report, which shows which pages are generating the most traffic to their website

Correct Answer :

• A content to leads report, that shows which pages are converting the most leads

If a website has content added via JavaScript, what additional stage do search engines need to complete?

1. Crawling
2. Indexing
3. Ranking
4. Rendering

Correct Answer :

• Rendering

Jenny is in charge of creating the URL mapping file for her company’s website migration project. While working on it, she notices that there are many pages which have no corresponding page on the new site, because they have been either removed or consolidated. She isn’t sure what to do about these pages. What would you suggest Jenny do in this scenario?

1. She should redirect all orphan pages to the website homepage.
2. She should redirect each orphan page to its parent category page or the most relevant similar page.
3. She should not redirect these pages.

Correct Answer :

• She should redirect each orphan page to its parent category page or the most relevant similar page.

Jeremiah is an in-house SEO specialist for a car rental company with locations across the U.S. He works closely with the firm’s web designer, Maria, who mentions to him that she’d like to contextualize the site’s homepage by displaying the nearest car rental pickup spot based on the user’s location. Jeremiah thinks this is a great idea, but has concerns about how it may slow down the site. What solution could Jeremiah employ to keep the functionality while maintaining the site speed?

1. There is no solution to keep this functionality and avoid slowing down the page, resulting in decreased performance. Therefore, Jeremiah should recommend that Maria not use it.
2. Use an open source web bundler to combine all the JavaScript on the homepage, placing it at the bottom of the page.
3. Put the JavaScript that generates the site location in the HTML of the page where it’s needed, and keep non-essential JavaScript in the page footer.

Correct Answer :

• Put the JavaScript that generates the site location in the HTML of the page where it’s needed, and keep non-essential JavaScript in the page footer.

Liam is an SEO specialist at an advertising agency. He believes that he can improve the company’s search performance by creating a blog series and pillar page. However, the CEO has been hesitant to sign off because content creation takes a lot of time and she isn’t sure they’ll see the ROI. How can Liam convince the CEO that this is a worthwhile investment?

1. Show the CEO the Google Analytics and Search Console reports on how much traffic the company website is getting, their keyword rankings, and their click-through rate.
2. Create a slide deck presentation on content marketing and why it’s important to be constantly churning out fresh content for Google.
3. Gather data about the search volume for the keywords Liam wants to create content for, showing the CEO the potential search visibility, clicks, and leads they might gain by following this strategy.

Correct Answer :

• Gather data about the search volume for the keywords Liam wants to create content for, showing the CEO the potential search visibility, clicks, and leads they might gain by following this strategy.

Mariah is performing an SEO competitive analysis on her client’s website. She identifies that their backlink profile is relatively weak, primarily because her client believes backlinks are a trend and isn’t interested in investing in them. However, she notices that their top competitors have received backlinks from a few reputable news agencies and aggregator sites. As a result, they are outranking her client in the SERPs. How should Mariah approach this situation with her client?

1. Mariah should educate her client on the value provided by high-quality backlinks, then suggest a strategy of approaching the same sites which link to their competitors and ask for a similar backlink to their website.
2. Mariah should send her client information from popular SEO blogs about backlinks, then propose that she start a cold outreach campaign to 100 relevant websites to ask for links.
3. Mariah should instead focus on content marketing and creating more high-quality blog posts.

Correct Answer :

• Mariah should educate her client on the value provided by high-quality backlinks, then suggest a strategy of approaching the same sites which link to their competitors and ask for a similar backlink to their website.

Raquel is working on a technical SEO audit for a new client who recently decided to move their website from HTTP to HTTPS. When starting her audit, Raquel notices that some HTTP pages were never redirected to the HTTPS pages, which is now causing issues for the site in search. However, this client is very resistant to the idea of implementing more redirects, since they’ve heard that this can lead to a drop in their search performance. How should Raquel approach this situation with her client?

1. She should stop the technical SEO audit completely and tell her client that she cannot continue until they have resolved the issues with redirecting the HTTP pages to HTTPS.
2. She should explain to her client how redirects work (focusing on how 301 redirects pass “link juice” to new pages), explain how having both HTTP and HTTPS pages creates duplicate content, and how this can negatively affect the site’s performance.
3. She should explain that while improperly implemented redirects can result in a drop in search performance, they are a necessary evil and redirecting the HTTP pages to HTTPS must happen immediately.

Correct Answer :

• She should explain to her client how redirects work (focusing on how 301 redirects pass “link juice” to new pages), explain how having both HTTP and HTTPS pages creates duplicate content, and how this can negatively affect the site’s performance.

Select all that apply. What are the advantages of migrating a large site in sections?

1. Making fewer changes at once decreases the risks of errors.
2. Google recommends migrating large sites in sections if possible.
3. It can be less expensive for the business.
4. There are no advantages to migrating a site in sections.

Correct Answer :

• Making fewer changes at once decreases the risks of errors.
• Google recommends migrating large sites in sections if possible.

Select all that apply. What are the goals you want to achieve through an SEO competitive analysis?

1. Discover your competitors’ winning strategies
2. Benchmark your current SEO performance
3. Reveal any competitor gaps or weaknesses
4. Identify areas of improvement in your SEO strategy

Correct Answer :

• Discover your competitors’ winning strategies
• Benchmark your current SEO performance
• Reveal any competitor gaps or weaknesses
• Identify areas of improvement in your SEO strategy

Select all that apply. What are the main categories of site moves?

1. Site moves with domain name changes
2. Site moves with URL changes
3. Site moves with infrastructure changes
4. Site moves without URL changes

Correct Answer :

• Site moves with URL changes
• Site moves without URL changes

Select all that apply. Which of the following are examples of site moves with URL changes?

1. Protocol changes
2. Domain name changes
3. Hosting provider changes
4. URL path changes

Correct Answer :

• Protocol changes
• Domain name changes
• URL path changes

Select all that apply. Which of the following are included in Google’s Page Experience update?

1. Intrusive interstitial guidelines
2. Safe browsing
3. Mobile-friendliness
4. Core Web Vitals

Correct Answer :

• Intrusive interstitial guidelines
• Safe browsing
• Mobile-friendliness
• Core Web Vitals

Select all that apply. Which of the following can negatively impact your CLS score?

1. Images and iframes without inline dimensions
2. Large items like YouTube video embeds or image sliders
3. Dynamically injected content
4. Improperly loaded custom webfonts

Correct Answer :

• Images and iframes without inline dimensions
• Dynamically injected content
• Improperly loaded custom webfonts

Select all that apply. Which of the following metrics should be included in a content quality report?

1. Bounce rate
2. Average time on page
3. Goal completions
4. Organic search impressions
5. Percent exits

Correct Answer :

• Bounce rate
• Average time on page
• Goal completions
• Percent exits

Select all that apply. Which of the following should you avoid to reduce a site’s crawl budget?

1. Duplicate content
2. Navigation menus with over 7 items
3. Long redirect chains
4. Infinite spaces

Correct Answer :

• Duplicate content
• Long redirect chains
• Infinite spaces

Select all that apply. Which of the following status codes should you focus on resolving during a technical SEO audit?

1. 200
2. 300
3. 400
4. 500

Correct Answer :

• 400
• 500

Select all that apply. Which of the following strategies help you communicate the value of SEO to stakeholders?

1. Putting the user at the center of everything you do
2. Making your work accessible to people outside the SEO field
3. Following SEO blogs, newsletters, and social media
4. Tying your actions back to business goals

Correct Answer :

• Putting the user at the center of everything you do
• Making your work accessible to people outside the SEO field
• Tying your actions back to business goals

Select all that apply. Why is it important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your website and your competitors’ sites?

1. To capitalize on your competitors’ weaknesses
2. To stay up-to-date on trends in search
3. To optimize the strengths of your website
4. To improve the weak areas of your site

Correct Answer :

• To capitalize on your competitors’ weaknesses
• To optimize the strengths of your website
• To improve the weak areas of your site

True or false? Cumulative Layout Shift is only measured on a page’s first load.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• False

True or false? If you improve the speed at which individual pages load, you’ll improve your overall site speed.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• True

True or false? It is best practice to avoid redirect chains by redirecting straight to a page’s final destination.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• True

True or false? Most elements of a website can be cached.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• True

True or false? Moving a site from HTTP to HTTPS does not count as a site migration.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• False

True or false? Page experience is the primary ranking factor for Google, even more important than a page’s content.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• False

True or false? When performing an SEO competitive analysis, you do not need to analyze your site on a page-by-page basis.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• False

True or false? You can minify code or compress it, but you cannot do both.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• False

True or false? Your business competitors are not always the same as your SEO competitors.

1. True
2. False

Correct Answer :

• True

What are keyword gaps?

1. The phrases that your competitors are ranking for, but you aren’t
2. The keywords that you currently aren’t targeting
3. The phrases that don’t have a lot of search traffic
4. The search phrases that your website does not rank for

Correct Answer :

• The phrases that your competitors are ranking for, but you aren’t

What are the proper use cases for 301 and 302 redirects?

1. Use 301 redirects for top-priority pages that you want Google to index first. Use 302 redirects for lower-priority pages which can be indexed later.
2. Use 301 redirects all the time. There are no proper use cases for 302 redirects.
3. Use 301 redirects when the change is not permanent. Use 302 redirects when the old URL is moving permanently to the new URL.
4. Use 301 redirects when the old URL is moving permanently to the new URL. Use 302 redirects when the change is not permanent.

Correct Answer :

• Use 301 redirects when the old URL is moving permanently to the new URL. Use 302 redirects when the change is not permanent.

What are the three aspects of a website’s user experience, as measured by Core Web Vitals?

1. Visual stability, interactivity, and design
2. Interactivity, mobile-friendliness, and speed
3. Loading, responsive design, and accessibility
4. Loading, interactivity, and visual stability

Correct Answer :

• Loading, interactivity, and visual stability

What is Google Page Experience?

1. A set of signals that measures a website’s user experience, specifically on mobile devices
2. A set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value
3. A group of metrics Google uses to determine if a website’s content is accessible
4. A report available in Google Search Console that shows which pages are mobile-friendly

Correct Answer :

• A set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value

What is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)?

1. The visual stability of a website or how predictable it is to use
2. The length of time it takes for a page to react after a user interacts with it
3. The length of time it takes for the element using the most amount of pixels to render on a user’s screen
4. None of the above

Correct Answer :

• The length of time it takes for the element using the most amount of pixels to render on a user’s screen

What is a technical SEO specification?

1. A document used during a website migration which captures SEO elements that need to be changed or transferred to the new site.
2. A list of technical SEO issues on a website that need to be resolved, which are gathered during a technical SEO audit.
3. A comprehensive definition list of technical SEO terms to use when communicating with stakeholders.
4. A spreadsheet used during a technical SEO audit which keeps track of metadata on the site

Correct Answer :

• A document used during a website migration which captures SEO elements that need to be changed or transferred to the new site.

What is an SEO competitive analysis?

1. The process of researching your business competitors to find out how you can beat them in the market
2. The process of generating reports on the search impressions, clicks, and click-through rate of web pages
3. The process by which you analyze the different keyword opportunities on your website
4. The process of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of you and your competitors’ SEO

Correct Answer :

• The process of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of you and your competitors’ SEO

What is lazy loading?

1. A technique that involves loading non-critical assets on a page only when needed
2. A type of responsive website design
3. A strategy that involves combining image resources by utilizing image sprites
4. A tactic to improve page speed by loading JavaScript asynchronously

Correct Answer :

• A technique that involves loading non-critical assets on a page only when needed

What is minification?

1. The process of reducing resource size by removing unnecessary comments and spacing in the source code
2. The process of replacing repetitive pieces of code with markers directing to the first instance of that code
3. The process of redirecting large groups of URLs in batches during a site move
4. The process of moving large JavaScript files to the bottom of a page for all non-essential functions

Correct Answer :

• The process of reducing resource size by removing unnecessary comments and spacing in the source code

What is the best practice for using website pop-ups in a user-friendly way?

1. The pop-up should appear in at least three different locations on a page to cater to all buyer personas.
2. The pop-up should take up as much space on the page as possible so that users can easily see it.
3. The pop-up should take up a reasonable amount of space on the screen and not prevent users from accessing content.
4. There are no user-friendly ways to use pop-ups and they should be avoided entirely.

Correct Answer :

• The pop-up should take up a reasonable amount of space on the screen and not prevent users from accessing content.

What is the best timeframe to report on content to lead generation?

1. 1 month
2. 3 months
3. 6 months
4. 12 months

Correct Answer :

• 3 months

What is the first step in any website migration project?

1. Creating a URL mapping file
2. Putting together a technical SEO specification
3. Scoping the project to create a project plan
4. Setting benchmarks

Correct Answer :

• Scoping the project to create a project plan

What is the purpose of a URL mapping file?

1. To create a map for Google to follow the redirect path
2. To map out how many 301 vs. 302 redirects you need
3. To map the old site URL to the new site URL
4. To avoid pages being interpreted as soft 404’s

Correct Answer :

• To map the old site URL to the new site URL

What is the purpose of an image sprite?

1. To decrease the number of image files that are limiting your load speed
2. To reduce the load time of a page by automatically compressing the size of all images
3. To enhance consistency and ensure that all of your icons match across your entire website
4. Both A and C

Correct Answer :

• Both A and C

What is the purpose of limiting HTTP requests?

1. To remove extraneous code and empty spaces in HTML and CSS files to improve page performance
2. To reduce a page’s overall download size in order to increase its load speed
3. To reduce the frequency at which a browser needs to download information on a page, increasing its load speed
4. To maximize website caching so a page can load faster

Correct Answer :

• To reduce the frequency at which a browser needs to download information on a page, increasing its load speed

What would you be tracking in a goal completion report in Google Analytics?

1. Which goals are being completed (e.g., form submissions, pages visited, or events triggered)
2. Which pages attribute to the most goal completions and their conversion rates
3. The proportion of goal completions in comparison with overall page visits
4. All of the above

Correct Answer :

• Which pages attribute to the most goal completions and their conversion rates

When is the best time to execute a site migration?

1. On the day when the site historically has its highest traffic to maximize the visibility of the new site
2. On a weekday between 6PM and 11PM
3. On a day that will have the least impact on your business revenue, ideally during off-peak hours
4. It doesn’t matter what day or time you execute a site migration, they will all have the same effect.

Correct Answer :

• On a day that will have the least impact on your business revenue, ideally during off-peak hours

Which of the following does Google consider a good CLS score?

1. 0.1
2. 0.5
3. 1.0
4. 2.5

Correct Answer :

• 0.1

Which of the following is NOT a function of the robots.txt file?

1. Show search engine bots all the pages on a site
2. Prevent search engines from crawling private pages
3. Keep search engine bots from overwhelming server resources
4. Specify the location of your sitemap

Correct Answer :

• Show search engine bots all the pages on a site

Which of the following is NOT a strategy to limit HTTP requests?

1. Combining text resources
2. Moving render-blocking JavaScript
3. Minifying code files
4. Reducing redirects
5. Combining image resources

Correct Answer :

• Minifying code files

Which of the following is the most important aspect of a mobile-friendly website?

1. Mobile site matching the desktop site
2. Responsive website design
3. Images and videos
4. Avoiding intrusive pop-ups

Correct Answer :

• Responsive website design

Which type of report will show you what brought people to a particular page?

1. Keyword rank in Ahrefs
2. Content to leads in HubSpot
3. Goal completions in Google Analytics
4. Clicks to impressions to CTR in Google Search Console

Correct Answer :

• Clicks to impressions to CTR in Google Search Console

Why is it important to keep track of Google algorithm updates?

1. It can help you outsmart Google.
2. It can help you better communicate the ROI of SEO to your stakeholders.
3. It isn’t important to keep track of Google algorithm updates.
4. It can help you understand how your site has been affected in the past and/or could be affected in the future.

Correct Answer :

• It can help you understand how your site has been affected in the past and/or could be affected in the future.

Why is it important to keep track of trends and updates in your business’ niche?

1. So you can better communicate with your colleagues and/or clients.
2. So you can anticipate how trends and updates might affect your website.
3. So you can become a subject matter expert in your business’ niche.
4. It isn’t important to keep track of trends and updates in your business’ niche.

Correct Answer :

• So you can anticipate how trends and updates might affect your website.