How to Optimize Your Job Postings for Search Engines
Job seekers are increasingly turning to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to find jobs. If you want your job postings to rank higher in their searches, you’ll need to optimize them with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques.
To do this, it’s important that you use the right keywords on your job posting website or blog. You should also include a link back to the company’s home page and add some social sharing buttons so others can easily share your job listing with friends and family members on Facebook and Twitter.
The following best practices can help you optimize your job postings so they rank higher on Google, Bing, Yahoo! and more!
How to Write Effective Job Postings
How To Optimize Your Job Posting for Search Engines
There are many ways you can go about optimizing your job posting to help it rank higher in search engine results. Let’s jump right in and talk about how to make the most of your job postings. We’ll discuss a few of the most effective business practices and steps you can take to enhance your postings.
Use Proper Search Optimized URLs
When you post a job, it is important that the URL of your job posting has relevant keywords. In other words, people should be able to see what type of jobs are available at your business by looking only at the web address (URL). Make sure that this includes “jobs” or any related terms without being deceptive about where they will end up on the page. This might include putting a space between certain letters such as “j obs”.
Include proper HTML tags so search engines can better understand how your content looks online. Avoid using flash if possible since many search engine crawlers don’t read it very well and therefore won’t find all the pages within them. Keep your alt tags up to date. This is how search engines know what pictures are about since they can’t actually see the images themselves.
Use SEO-Friendly Keywords
The first and most effective SEO strategy is to incorporate phrases or words frequently used by job seekers in your industry into your job title and description. You may use services like Google AdWords and Google Trends to see which keywords job seekers in your sector are employing.
If you are creating a job posting for a Java engineer, you could input “Java Engineer”, “java developer” or “software engineer java” as keywords.
Simply said, you want people to notice your job listing. After that, use these words or phrases in strategic places throughout the posting’s content to enhance its search visibility. It’s critical to remember that “keyword stuffing” isn’t a good idea. Trying to stuff as many keywords as possible into every sentence may make the message and content unreadable or unauthentic. Only utilize keywords when they are genuinely relevant.
Include Location Specific Phrases
Job seekers frequently include the city and state of their open position afterward relating to employment, such as “java engineering jobs in Los Angeles.” Always make sure that the location and state of your open position are included in your job posting.
Although your city and state should be mentioned in the content, including other location-specific phrases can help job seekers find you more easily as well. Try to incorporate geographical terms such as “San Diego” or locations that are important for those looking at similar types of positions, like “Silicon Valley.”
Include Video In Your Job Description
Video is highly favored by search engines! In addition to improving your search engine rankings, videos will engage prospects and encourage them to stay on your company’s site longer. Interesting films also entice job seekers to learn more about your firm and, as a result, apply for your vacancies.
Video ideas you can use for your job posting:
- Add a YouTube video about the city where the job is located
- Add a YouTube video about a ‘technology’ they will be using (ie. Python, CRM, Salesforce, Workday, etc.)
- Create a video in which a current employee talks about the company culture
- Create a video about your company
- Create a video of all the ‘snacks’ in the kitchen
Search engines favor content that is frequently updated, so try to update your job postings regularly. This will ensure your positions stay fresh and relevant for searchers.
Avoid Common Word Phrases, Make It Pop
Avoid clichés and phrases in your job posting to make it stand out and attract candidates. During a job search, applicants are subjected to numerous postings that use similar language. As a result, it is critical to set your employment opportunity apart from the rest.
Make your job posting unique by using phrases that are both relevant to the position and different than what other companies post.
Here are five broad phrase categories for job postings:
- The company itself – Be specific about why candidates should work for them
- The role or responsibilities of the applicant(s) – Tell people exactly what they’ll be doing every day
- How a candidate will benefit from this opportunity – What can applicants do with their newfound skills?
- Results-driven metrics used in performance reviews at the end of each year/quarter/month/etc. – Why is it important to track these results?
- Narrow down relevant keywords while avoiding commonly used word choices across multiple industries (e.g., “manager,” “executive,” etc.).
Setup A Job Landing Page
Job posting comes and goes on job boards and aggregator websites, but a good landing page lives for years. Landing pages are the first thing that your prospects will see on search engines like Google or Bing when they do a related search of keywords from your job posting.
Create a ‘job landing page’ that highlights job seekers’ skills and experience. The page should be well designed, easy to navigate and follow a clear path of where the prospect can go next (apply for the job).
The most common way to accomplish this is to set up a ‘job landing page’ for each department in your business and emphasize each role you are looking to fill.
You’ll need to hire someone who is familiar with HTML and CSS coding languages, but you can also use a site like Squarespace or Wix that will let you create your own job landing pages for free!
The bottom line: Optimized job postings drive more qualified leads to your company website. When it comes to hiring in today’s tight labor market, every advantage counts! With all of the different online resources available (job boards and aggregator sites), shouldn’t we be using them?
We should – when used correctly, they are great tools for recruiting top talent. However, if any part of this process isn’t done right – from posting jobs on these sites to following up after the candidate applies – recruiters risk losing out on the best potential hires. This is why it’s important to follow these job posting best practices when using online resources, in order to get the most qualified candidates into your interview process.
We hope this helps you optimize your job postings for search engines!
Let us know how we can help.
