Trying to hire? Chances are that your candidates will type a job title into a search engine. Keep your job postings highly visible and optimized. If candidates can’t find your postings, you won’t get responses — but when your jobs are optimized, it can become one of the best methods of drawing traffic to the career section of your website. There is little cost involved to change your current posting methods, but the results could be well worth your time.
Keep your postings on your website. When your job posting is not housed on your website but rather aggregated from other sources, there is no search engine optimization value because the job content does not appear your website and therefore cannot be found by search engines. Keep your job descriptions posted directly on your website and make sure pages are optimized for each position and each location.
Make sure job titles are optimized. Be as clear as possible with your titles. For example, if you are searching for a manager of business development in New Jersey, most title tags read like this: Manager of New Business Development. Your job title’s code should be written as Manager of Business Development in Princeton, NJ.
Use unique URLs with keywords. Best practices for URLs include using dashes instead of underscores, and including the company name, job title, and job location. The more the URL represents the title, meta tags, and internal links, the stronger the theme of your page will be, resulting in a stronger optimization.
Include keywords in your job description’s meta description. Although they won’t affect your organic search results, certain keywords will show up bolded when searched, thus helping the job posting stand out to the candidate (and helping relevancy criteria in SEO).
Use familiar titles commonly used in your industry. Instead of titling a posting Traffic Sales Administrator, create a more common title such as Import/Export Administrator so more people find your listing. Instead of Application Engineer Expert, simply call the job what it is: a Technical Trainer. A wide net with searchable titles will make a great difference.
Create a landing page for evergreen and tough-to-fill positions. Since job postings last for only 30 days, a web page that links seamlessly to your main corporate website is a great way to build your SEO results. This will allow you to continually drive job seekers to your positions. For example, if you always recruit for sales executives, there should be an entire page with items such as pictures, testimonials, video, and your company’s unique selling proposition for candidates to see.
Educate job seekers with engaging videos. Why video? SEO loves video and there is no better way to keep candidates on your organization’s career page, and to “sell them” on your unique employer brand.
Don’t use cliché phrases. To draw job seekers to your posting, don’t elaborate too much, and keep your job description text down to 400-600 words. Make sure you keep candidates engaged by not using the typical statements every employer uses. High-growth position can be changed to Progress your career and Fast-paced environment can be updated to Exciting, ever-changing workplace. Create remarkable copy that job seekers want to read!
Be sure to mention the position a few times within the posting. If you don’t mention the position title to reinforce the megatags and URL, you may rank lower than other jobs that are properly optimized. An easy way to do that is in the response info such as To apply for the Payroll Specialist position, log onto …
And finally, don’t begin copy using your company name. Now that candidates have found you, don’t lose them in the first sentence with flat, descriptive copy. Instead of XYZ Metro Stores, an international coalition of organic food suppliers, is seeking … try beginning with an intriguing statement such as Becoming a Store Manager at XYZ is a career move that will allow your strong retail management expertise to grow in an environment that enhances personal development.
Optimizing your job postings is just as important for the recruiting of candidates as it is for product marketers trying to sell a product. In the end, you are both just trying to target a population, and a little effort up front will reap a much better response to your posting.