Tips on Optimizing Job Postings for Job Boards, Search Engines and Aggregator Sites

I recently received a question from a Client on what makes a strong posting for a variety of sites - including page rankings on job boards, search engines, and various job aggregator sites.  While there are many factors, the biggest issue we’ve encountered is postings are not always written in the format a candidate may search for them.  When posting your next position online, keep the following tips in mind:

• The job title is critical.  Think of how candidates may search job sites or search engines for positions.  A majority of job seekers would likely not search a job site or search engine for a "Member Service Representative II".  Refer to the title as your target market would refer to it.  More keywords can help.
• As with the first point, avoid using too much internal language that is irrelevant to the average candidate.
• Be careful with acronyms.  We always recommend including them, but also expanding on them.  Job seekers search with a variety of terms - be sure to include them.  If you are recruiting for a CFO, be sure to include the term Chief Financial Officer in your posting too.  You might lose prospects if you do not include both.
• Use wise headers.  Again, depending on your ATS you may have flexibility or control.  Most job sites today include the title and location in the page header for you.
• Use keywords in multiple ways throughout your posting.  As an example, if you are recruiting for a role and potential prospects might have retail, customer service, call center, or other experiences, include these terms.
• Research.  Spend a few minutes looking at various sites to see how others - and competitors are advertising their opportunities.
• While this is obvious, your posting is should "sell" your organization and opportunity.  If you are simply cutting and pasting the job description into the posting your results will be impacted! Especially with more passive candidates as job descritions are typically written for internal purposes, not sales documents.

Spending a few extra minutes up front before posting positions on top job sites is worthwile and should be worth the return in additional exposure to prospects or their referrals you may be missing out on.

Posted on April 1st, 2008 by Cara
Categories: advertising, internet recruiting, job boards, recruiting

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