When it comes to marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) is used everywhere.
But what does it have to do with recruitment?
In this blog, learn about its importance, how it can help the recruitment industry and steps you can take to ensure your business is ticking all the right boxes to get your job advert seen.
When a candidate searches for a job online, search engines will pick up relevant keywords from job boards and websites, ranking the top 10 links on every search engine results page (SERP).
Despite around 30% of Google searches every month being job-related, only 5% of people will bother going to the second page of Google search results.
Thus, making it super important to make the first page for relevant search terms.
Looking ahead, Google for Jobs feature is set to further increase the importance of SEO in recruitment.
The search engine's thinking behind the idea is to simplify the process of finding job sites, career pages of companies and the most relevant jobs for candidates.
This means, if your business wants to keep up with your competitors and ensure every job advert attracts the best candidates, you're going to need to invest in your SEO strategy in recruitment to adhere to Google's imminent market takeover.
While there's no quick-fix guarantee to getting your job advert seen on Google, there are certain steps you can take to improve your SEO in your recruitment pushes.
For instance, when you're writing a job advert, using obscure job titles and forgetting to add the right search terms into your job description will make it near-on impossible for it to be organically found by candidates.
Generally speaking, you'll have a better chance of improving your job advert ranking when you're on the hunt for professionals with niche skills.
However, if you're recruiting in a highly competitive field, you should think about improving your website's career page, as a lot of businesses don't even bother considering SEO when they post an ad.
Google also ranks job adverts on websites and job boards according to relevance too.
So, it's not a simple case of littering your content with an unhealthy amount of keywords.
Every sentence needs to be deemed as clear and as appropriate information for it to be SEO-friendly.
Candidates are also more likely to hit the back button if the content doesn't give them the information they need.
Instead, you need to write a job advert that resonates with top-performing professionals, as well as adhering to SEO and the UX (user experience).
This includes:
Choosing the right length
Keep the job advert under 700 words.
Focusing on the job
Don't natter on about how amazing your company is. Think about what a candidate wants to hear/see.
Keeping candidates confident
Don't list every 'desired skill' or daily duty involved in the role, otherwise, a candidate will feel underqualified and won't bother applying.
Getting the tone right
Forget stuffy, formal corporate language. If you make your content sound exciting, candidates will view your company as a vibrant place with a top working environment.
For more top tips on writing the perfect job advert, take a look at our handy guide to attracting the best candidates.
In preparation for Google for Jobs, you must make a few adjustments to your website.
You see, Google uses machine learning artificial intelligence across your whole website to generate results for a candidate's job search queries.
So, if possible, you need to include keywords throughout the whole site, as well as the careers page.
Google also uses structured data to identify the type of content on your website, meaning you'll need to mark-up your job adverts by applying a piece of code on your website using Job Posting structured data.
Granted, this might sound a bit daunting if you're a coding novice, but it's actually relatively simple to do when you use Google's resources.
On top of this, you must add a <lastmode> date in the sitemap for every job advert you post on your website.
Finally, don't forget to look into the performance of your website too ' including its size and speed.
Both of which play a vital role in determining your ranking.
If applying technical SEO practices sounds too timely and complicated, the good news is that posting your adverts on job board sites can be just as effective.
Google for Jobs was launched in partnership with Monster, LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Facebook.
So, if you can include keywords and/or pay for your advert, these platforms will help you surge to the top on Google.
It's just a case of whether you want to pay for your career advertisements or not.
Whether you choose to ignore or embrace Google for Jobs, SEO in recruitment is relevant and highly effective when the necessary steps are taken.
If you don't mind putting in a bit of extra effort, you can save money by organically improving the ranking of your career page.
Otherwise, you can always invest in job boards and paid ads to remove the stress and generate a healthy amount of applications.
However, at the heart of any job advert, you must make quality content your priority.
In the highly competitive modern job market, there's no replacement for producing relevant copy that's perfectly formatted and SEO-friendly.
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