With Google receiving 3.8 million searches per minute worldwide and job boards remaining the best way to reach candidates, it’s no surprise why search engine optimisation (SEO) in job ads is key to recruitment success. 🔑
In this blog, we explain why it matters and show you how to master the art of recruitment SEO.
SEO in Job Ads: Why Does it Matter?
When 75% of candidates begin their job hunt through a search engine, SEO in job ads is becoming increasingly important.
Of course, you have the option of paid advertising.
But why pay for ads when you don’t have to?
Optimised ads will generate organic traffic, especially if they appear in the top search engine results pages (SERPs).
According to Smart Insights, websites and ads sitting in first place generate 34.2% of the total number of clicks, 17.1% for second place and 11.4% for third.
Everything below drops drastically down from 10%.
Placing your job ad at the top of SERPs gives you a much higher chance of candidates applying, as well as generating trust in your business with a brand awareness booster. ✨
Optimising your ads will improve the user experience (UX) and keep candidates engaged.
In fact, Web Hosting Professional reports how strategic UX can improve conversion rates by 400%.
Making these improvements should go alongside optimising the content.
For example, you can make the ad location-specific.
Sticking to the basics of SEO in your job ads will help it rank at the top of popular job boards too.
What Should Be Included in Job Ads to Optimise Them for Search Engines?
When optimising your content, there are a few SEO components to consider before putting them into action.
These include:
Keywords 🗝️
Probably the most important feature of SEO – keywords. The “key” is in the word. 😉
For a job ad, the keyword is the job title. Other keywords would then include location, salary, company etc.
For fear of keyword stuffing, you don’t want to overcrowd your content with too many keywords.
Be sure to maintain the quality of the piece and have it read as naturally as possible.
You should aim for a keyword density of around 1-2%.
Before, you start writing with an SEO strategy in mind, do lots of research via an SEO tool.
Then maintain quality over quantity and don’t forget to update as time moves on.
Job Title
Don’t make the mistake of getting creative with the job title.
After all, budding copywriters won’t be searching for a wordsmith wizard! 😬
Just keep it simple and to the point.
Don’t try and be a hero. 🦸
Think about who is searching for your unique job title on Google.
No one, that’s who.
It’s good to be creative and show some personality within the job ad content, but this is not the place to do it.
The number one rule, make your job title searchable!
Location
Location is key, especially if the role isn’t solely working from home (WFH).
The more specific you can be with the location, the more relevant it becomes to the candidate.
Introduction
The opening to the job ad plays an important part regarding SEO.
From the off, you want to include your keywords while keeping the content concise and readable.
This is where search engine and job board algorithms will want to pick up the relevance of your content as a suitable job ad.
Keep it simple and natural but packed with keywords for the ideal SEO results. 👍
How Can I Bring Organic Traffic to Job Ads?
First things first, you need your job ad to be seen.
The best way to achieve this is to get within the top four SERPs or page one of a job board.
Now, you can go down the paid route, but we’d recommend you go organic. 💚
SEO vs PPC
PPC might help you get to the top quickly, but the payment remains ongoing with no guarantee of applications.
More so, when you consider 70-80% of users ignore paid ads altogether, you probably want to go organic on this basis alone.
Use an SEO Tool
To get a lay of the SEO landscape, you’ll want to invest in an SEO tool so you can analyse the right keywords and check out potential opportunities to rank.
Sites such as SEMrush, Ahrefs or Moz have trusted SEO software reviews.
These sites are known to give an accurate assessment of the current SEO climate.
Make it smartphone friendly
Across the globe, 68.1% of website visits were made on a smartphone.
This means the chances are candidates will first see your job ad on a mobile device.
This corresponds directly to UX with 85% of people agreeing that mobile access to a website should be just as good as desktop.
Optimise the URL
When you share your job adverts on a separate job agency website, make sure your URL is optimised.
Keep it concise, straightforward and include as many keywords as possible without it becoming stuffy.
This also includes the metadata.
In the URL, don’t use numbers, special characters and avoid overusing hyphens.
Make Your Job Ad Visible
To give yourself the best chance of recruiting the best candidates on the market, you need to make sure your job ad is visible.
Investing time and energy into SEO best practise, from analysis to content, will give you the right skillset to place ads on top of SERPs or job boards and keep them there for free.
Understanding SEO is one thing but putting it into action is another.
Once you become aware of the market and competition for your position, you can improve the quality and consistency of your job ads with AdBuilder.
AdBuilder is a specialist software tool that creates effective job ads for various positions and industries.
After this stage, you may want to check for any unconscious bias or offensive content in your job adverts.
Believe me, you’ll be surprised by how many words have multiple meanings when read in different contexts. AdGrader will ensure all your job ads stay inclusive and diverse.
