What is one SEO best practice for talent acquisition (TA) teams to get their jobs to rank better on search engine result pages effectively?
To help your talent acquisition team’s job postings rank better on search engine results pages, we asked HR, recruiting professionals, and marketing leaders for their insights. From keeping content fresh to publishing educational content online, there are several SEO best practices that you can incorporate to maximize your position online.
Here are 12 SEO best practices for TA teams:
- Explain a core or specific task of a job
- Publish education content
- Write the perfect meta description
- Use standard job titles
- Don’t underestimate local SEO
- Keep content fresh
- Optimize the career page for SEO
- Focus on page titles
- Create evergreen blog posts to target applicants
- Use keywords to reel in talent
- Push jobs on high-ranking channels
- Post on multiple platforms, stagger and repost
Explain a core or specific task of a job
There are always opportunities within niches, so if you can specifically explain a core or specific task of a job, it might increase the probability of someone searching and finding that job. Often, especially for “newer” and less defined jobs, it can be more of a challenge for job seekers to explain what type of position they are looking for.
This is where using core tasks or responsibilities might provide an opportunity. Instead of saying “Social Media Manager,” you might decide to focus on one platform to highlight within a core responsibility of the position, like looking for an “Instagram engagement expert with experience managing accounts of over 10k.” It’s a subtle difference, but it provides an opportunity to rank for very specific searches that job seekers might have.
Gresham Harkless Jr., Blue 16 Media
Publish educational content
I always try to encourage talent acquisition teams to publish educational content related to the jobs they place on their sites. Take, for example, the job: SEO writer. If you’re a talent acquisition company with a high volume of SEO writer jobs, you should publish educational content that potential SEO writers would be searching for.
Consider topics like how to become an SEO writer, best courses for SEO writers, and best events for SEO writers. This will help your site get more relevant traffic and appear more authoritative to Google considering that jobs and education go hand in hand.
Mike Krau, Markitors
Write the perfect meta description
In SEO, one of the best practices I can recommend is writing the perfect meta description. The meta description is what appears at the very top of the user’s web browser. The meta description is (sometimes) what shows up on Google’s search results page underneath the title tag.
Search engines also use the meta description as the heading for their search results. A meta description also helps Google understand what your page is about.
To create the best meta description, be sure to add your company and open a job position in an attractive tagline under 70 characters because Google typically cuts any meta description longer than 160 characters.
Alexander Shute, FaithGiant
Use standard job titles
I learned this one the hard way. I was helping my recruiting team post open positions, and we were not getting much visibility in searches, which meant we weren’t getting many qualified candidates. I was able to talk to LinkedIn to dissect what was going on.
I discovered our clever job titles were confusing the algorithm. I revised our posting to be listed with common job titles. I inserted our clever titles into the job descriptions to maintain our brand culture. Boom. Almost overnight, our search results improved.
Eric Rutin, Easy Marketing Lessons
Don’t underestimate Local SEO
Bettering your local SEO is just as important as fixing your on-site and technical SEO, and it shouldn’t be ignored. Moreover, you’ll have targeted results that increase the odds of finding the right candidates in your city.
The best place to start is by creating a Google My Business listing with all the necessary details of your business — from your working hours to pictures of your organization, and most importantly, an updated address and contact number. Ensure that all online citations of your business details are consistent so that search engines will have an easier time reviewing your information.
Harry Morton, Lower Street
Keep content fresh
Make sure you have a dedicated page for job openings and keep it up-to-date along with the rest of your website. A great way to ensure you’ll have fresh content, even in hiring slumps, is by having a blog that you update regularly. By doing this, you’re improving your SEO and encouraging Google to display the website higher in its results.
Ryan Brown, Kenra Professional
Optimize your career page for SEO
Unfortunately, many career-related pages deal with the same problem. While the job descriptions are well-written, there are enough keywords placed organically in the text, and all tags are SEO-optimized. The website itself might be the issue. This technical side of SEO is as crucial as writing compelling content.
Website loading speed is definitely one of Google algorithms’ ranking factors, especially when it comes to mobile devices. Check your page’s benchmark loading speed and move from there.
There are a few relatively painless ways to improve it. For instance, you could compress images (a crucial one), use lightweight website themes, and use something called Lazy Loading when pictures and text show up as you scroll. These technical tips can really help to drive vacancies to rank better and, ultimately, attract more potential candidates.
Ewelina Melon, Tidio
Focus on page titles
Page titles are an important “on page” factor when it comes to search engine optimization. When creating a page for a new role, make sure you use the right title, your company name and include “Remote” if applicable.
There are common mistakes with page titles to be cautious of: Don’t use a default page title, leave the title blank or copy an existing page, and forget to update the title.
If your page title doesn’t match the job description, you’ll have a tough time ranking in search engine results.
Logan Mallory, Motivosity
Write evergreen blog posts to target applicants
One way to attract applicants via search is to write an evergreen blog post targeting people who are actively looking for a job in your industry. As an example, on my blog, I have a post titled “75+ Online Transcription Jobs for Beginners and Pros.” In this post, I’ve listed companies that hire remote transcriptionists, and I’ve featured my own business at the top of the list. Although the post isn’t itself an actual job listing, I receive applications year-round as a result of this content.
Chloe Brittain, Opal Transcription Services
Use keywords to reel in talent
Choose your keywords carefully. Job seekers aren’t typing in elaborate terms when searching for their next job. They’re most likely searching for titles they’ve held in the past or titles they desire. Use terms that are commonly used. You can even use Google Trends to see how well certain keywords are trending.
In the actual job description, use positive keywords that will attract your ideal candidate. Also, don’t forget about your location. Most candidates are looking for a job near them and will use their city as a keyword when they search. By carefully thinking about what keywords to use in your job listings, you’ll have a higher number of qualified candidates applying for your open positions.
Isaiah Henry, Seabreeze Management
Push jobs on high-ranking channels
When attempting to rank better on search engine results pages, it is important to push your jobs on the higher-ranking hiring channels. Placing your positions on Indeed, LinkedIn, and Monster capitalizes on the SEO rankings these channels already possess. Next to this, ensuring you categorize your position using buzzwords and popular topics will help with your success.
Kashish Gupta, Hightouch
Post on multiple platforms, stagger and repost
There are multiple ways to increase your organic SEO, but some of the most effective ways are to make sure the job post is being posted on three to five social media platforms in a staggered manner.
Staggering the post simply means that the posting is daily going up on a different social media platform, one at a time, until the job is filled. Opposed to the jobs posting being placed on all platforms, on the same day, and sometimes only once or twice.
Also, utilize your Google business page and post the highlighted job on the free postings area. Lastly, create an effective hashtag strategy that’s relevant to the area, skills, and profession.
Michelle Lagos, Get Lagos Now LLC
