The 'buzz' word in the recruitment industry at the moment is 'Google Jobs' and more so, the uncertainty that this change will bring to how recruitment websites are currently working. The main focus of all good recruitment websites or careers portals is to get the right jobs in front of the right people, with the best candidates then applying. Google plays its role in getting your recruitment site in the top of the search results rankings.
Some keys areas to consider when developing / reviewing your recruitment website or careers portal for Google Jobs optimisation are:
Your Domain Name
One of the key factors to ensure Google Jobs can find your jobs with ease is to ensure that your jobs are on your domain. This is easy to check:
- Navigate to your careers area of your website
- Search for a job
- Look at the website address
If the address looks like examplecompany.ATS-name.com or any domain different from you company website, then your jobs will not likely show on Google at all. If the address looks like - www.examplecompany.com/careers/ jobs/, this also includes jobs.examplecompany.com/jobtitle/ - this is Google Jobs friendly, so all ready to go. All Recruiter Sites and Jobboard.com products have been set up to work this way.
Key Words / Searched Phrases
Key words have always been important, it is one of the ways Google asses the relevance of your website to the search phrases. Using the most important words like the Job Title, Location and words relevant to your services/product/brand will help you appear closer to the top when a relevant person searches for jobs. These key words / phrases are key components for adding a job to all Recruiter Sites and jobboard.com sites, so this is already set up to work this way.
Job Title
This is about providing a relevant job title to your users and not making them guess.
Location
The accuracy and location of your job advert essential, again this is about not making your users guess. If the user is looking for a job near them, then they may search #jobsnearme. Both Recruiter Sites and Jobboard.com allow you to add the actual location, which is Google Jobs friendly, but to then add a display location which appears on the job advert when it is displayed.
Styling
Google Jobs looks at the styling of your job advert to decide what is the most relevant information. The styling of your website it defined within HTML. An example of this is to include H1's for the heading of the pages, which is included across all pages for Recruiter Sites and Jobboard.com.
Links
Google uses a number of ways to decide how trustworthy you site is and how much value it provides to your audience. If your site is very trustworthy and provides lots of value, you appear higher in search listings. Having trustworthy industry websites linking you your jobs, recruitment website and careers portal will likely help you list higher in search results. The Recruiter Sites and Jobboard.com platforms both allow you to add in as many links as you require and these can be updated as and when required.
Include you jobs in your main sitemap
Your website agency or development team will have included a document on your website that is to help google understand your content. You can only see it if you know where to look. The document is called a sitemap. Including your job listing and career content within the sitemap will help google know where to look and to list your jobs on their search engine. All our sites have robust and up to date sites maps.
Mobile Friendly
All of our sites are fully responsive, so deliver am optimised user experience across all devices, ticking that box for Google Jobs.
HTTPS
Ensuring that your site is secure is an essential requirement from Google Jobs. This will show up as the URL being 'unsecure' and marked in red from October 2017. The green, padlocked sign is essential and this can be achieved on both Recruiter Sites and Jobboard.com via obtaining an SSL certificate from the team.
Salary & Benefits
Displaying the salary can increase the number of applications by a third. Some companies are reluctant to display the salary, but candidates will want to search for a job that matches their salary requirements. Both Recruiter Sites and Jobboard.com have the salary field as mandatory, but this can be hidden from view by ticking a box. This does mean that the job will appear in the correct salary band when a candidate refines their search by salary.