Basic SEO Literacy Test

How the Basic SEO Literacy Test works

The Basic SEO Literacy Test shows one question at a time. Pick an answer and the card turns to Google's answer: the exact quote, a link to the Google page it comes from, and a screenshot of that passage with the words highlighted.

Each round draws 30 questions at random from a pool of 90: from each of the ten areas, one easier, one middle and one harder question, sorted by how often people get them right on a first try (new questions start from an estimate), so every round is about as hard as the next. Some questions show a robots.txt file, a redirect or a server response and ask what Google does with it. Taking it again brings mostly new questions, and the multiple choice answers come in a new order every time. After question 30 you get your score out of 30, a score for each of the ten areas, every question you missed with Google's words, and a link to share your result. You pass with 24 right.

Every answer is graded against the Google page it cites, quoted word for word. Choosing which passage settles a question is still an editorial call, so each answer links to the full page for you to check. If Google's own pages don't settle a question, it isn't in the test.

What the SEO literacy test covers

The SEO literacy test covers ten areas of how Google Search works. Each area has nine questions in the pool, and every round asks three of them, one easier, one middle and one harder:

• How Search worksThe three stages of Search, Googlebot, paying Google, guarantees, and Search Essentials
• Crawlingrobots.txt rules, noindex, recrawl requests, JavaScript, and mobile-first indexing
• IndexingSitemaps, canonicals, duplicate content, pagination, and indexing reports
• Status codesRedirects and redirect chains, 404s, soft 404s, 410s, and server errors
• On-pageTitles, meta descriptions, headings, URLs, alt text, and word count
• Content and E-E-A-TE-E-A-T, AI content, scaled content, freshness, and raters
• LinksPageRank, link attributes, anchor text, internal links, and disavow
• SpamCloaking, hidden text, keyword stuffing, manual actions, and core updates
• Experience and localCore Web Vitals, HTTPS, page experience, and local results
• AI searchAEO and GEO, llms.txt, schema, fan-out, and SEO tool scores

Where the SEO literacy test answers come from

Every SEO literacy test answer quotes Google's own public pages, copied on October 25, 2026: Google Search Central documentation, the Google Search Central Blog, and Google's help centers. These are the 43 pages the test quotes:

1. SEO Starter Guide: The Basics
2. Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
3. In-depth guide to how Google Search works
4. Introduction to robots.txt
5. Block Search indexing with noindex
6. Ask Google to recrawl your URLs
7. Learn about sitemaps
8. What is canonicalization
9. Page indexing report Search Console Help
10. Redirects and Google Search
11. How HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers
12. Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking 2009
13. Influencing your title links in search results
14. Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content 2023
15. Spam policies for Google web search
16. How Search Works: Rigorous testing
17. A guide to Google Search ranking systems
18. Qualify your outbound links to Google
19. Evolving "nofollow": new ways to identify the nature of links 2019
20. Manual actions report Search Console Help
21. Google Search's core updates and your website
22. Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results
23. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google Google Business Profile Help
24. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search
25. Do you need an SEO?
26. Google Search Essentials
27. Create and submit a robots.txt file
28. How Google interprets the robots.txt specification
29. Understand the JavaScript SEO basics
30. Mobile site and mobile-first indexing best practices
31. Pagination, incremental page loading, and their impact on Google Search
32. Build and submit a sitemap
33. Do 404 errors hurt my site? 2011
34. URL structure best practices for Google Search
35. Google image SEO best practices
36. How to write meta descriptions
37. Google Search's guidance on using generative AI content on your website
38. Disavow links to your site Search Console Help
39. Link best practices for Google
40. Search Central documentation updates
41. HTTPS as a ranking signal 2014
42. Understanding page experience in Google Search results
43. Generative AI performance report Search Console Help

SEO literacy test FAQ

The SEO literacy test FAQ covers who made the test, what passes, and why only Google's words count.

Is the SEO literacy test made by Google?

The SEO literacy test is an independent quiz, not made by Google and not affiliated with Google. It quotes Google's public documentation and help pages, and links to every page it quotes.

What score passes the SEO literacy test?

The SEO literacy test pass mark is 24 of 30, which is 80 percent. Your result also shows a score for each of the ten areas, so you can see where you're strong and what to read next. Each area score rests on three questions, so read it as a rough guide.

Why does the SEO literacy test only accept Google's answers?

The SEO literacy test grades against Google's own words because Google is the primary source on how Google Search works. Each answer is correct according to the Google page it cites, and choosing that passage is an editorial call, so every answer links to the full page. Studies, tools and experience are useful too, but they aren't what this test checks.

Does the SEO literacy test save my score?

The SEO literacy test saves each finished score and its answers with your IP address, so the running tally counts real people and repeat spam gets blocked. Your IP address is never shown on the site; the public results show totals only.

Can you take the SEO literacy test again?

Yes, you can take the SEO literacy test again as often as you like. Each round draws 30 questions at random from a pool of 90, with the same mix of easier and harder questions, and the multiple choice answers come in a new order each time.