Interview Questions for Internet Marketing Manager

1) What makes you a good candidate for this position?
2) Do you currently have a website that gets alot of targeted traffic?
3) What kinds of sites would you use to generate lots of traffic to a website?
4) Have you ever made money online? If so, are you still making money? How?
5) How would you go about getting more affiliates for a particular product?

Thanks for the reply. I have some variations of those questions. The only one I really didn't have was #3. I'll add that one to the list!

#1 - What is your view on each of the following -
- Cloaking (links and entire websites)
- Content spinning
- Automated back-link building
(I need to know the person won't drive us backwards)

#2 - Describe a long-range strategy to reduce our dependance on Search Engine Traffic
(I need to know that all my eggs are not going into the Google basket)

#3 - Describe how you could utilize our direct competitors to improve our own sales
(it's a red-herring question designed to upset a geek. I'm looking to see that the person has an astute sense of business and not just technical ability. A good answer would cover competitor analysis/research, utilizing competitor data to find new niches etc).

I prefer to ask questions which don't allow for canned answers. Make the person uncomfortable and you'll get a good sense of their potential worth.

First off you want to weed out the guys who don't know what they're talking about, ask them some questions such as:
what do you believe is the future of search marketing?
to what extent does LSI (latent semantic indexing) affect search rankings?

If guys don't buckle under these questions then you can carry on with your actual questions.

For ecommerce then obviously PPC will be a huge factor in your marketing efforts, you need to ask them for examples of their other large scale PPC campaigns, what services they use, what their basic philosophy is. You don't want a guy who has spent a few ££ trying to get cheap traffic to his affiliate offers, you need somebody who has worked in a corporate setting and managed large campaigns.

I also like to ask their opinions on link building, most guys will jargon on about article directory submissions (no professional company uses this as a viable link building method), it's fine if they mention it but it's what they say other than this you're looking for, if directory submission are all they say, steer well clear, this guy is not a professional.

Then finally, ask for examples of sites they have ranked, although ask about conversions etc because ranking is only important for your business if those rankings make you money.

THE most important question to ask is, what expectations can we have in regards to our ROI if we employ you?

In this question it can go two ways, they will tell you that they will make you a million pounds per week or that they can't answer that question. Either one is cool but you're looking for a confident, considered response, not just some guy spouting bull**** that doesn't actually answer the question.

Some GREAT ideas rooze and massiveray. I looked at my list again, and I can't believe i missed LSI keywords. I have some round about questions about 'automated tools' and 'black hat' / 'grey hat', but not quite as to the point as specifically pointing out some of the techniques. You guys definitely are helping out.

Lets keep em coming!

Show him a couple of example sites, ask him what he would change about the site and how he would drive traffic to it.

IMHO anyone really *good* at SEO wouldn't need a job.

Ask them if they provide statistics. Numbers don't lie