Today, there are more open roles than available talent to fill them, making hiring challenging for employers across industries. In addition to this, employers today face added hiring challenges keeping up with ever-changing search and job board algorithms. As search algorithms and job board posting policies continue to evolve, your team needs to be strategic about your careers page content — or risk losing prospective applicants to other opportunities.
It’s critical for your organization to have a compelling, search-optimized careers page in order to reach top job seekers where they’re searching for open roles. More than 70 percent of job searches begin on Google, so if your careers page isn’t ranking in search results, you’ll miss out on a significant portion of the talent pool.
Hireology data found that 85 percent of applicants that apply via careers pages are considered quality and result in 30 percent of overall hires — more than any other applicant channel. Your careers page should excite prospective applicants about the possibility of joining your team. Below, we’ve outlined some best practices to ensure your careers page reaches job seekers and encourages them to apply to your open roles.
1. Write detailed careers page content
In addition to appearing in search results, the goal of your careers page content should be to answer any questions job seekers have about what it’s like to work for your organization. Make sure the following questions are answered through your careers page content:
- How many employees do you have, and over how many locations? Include a list of your locations.
- What is a unique story you want prospective applicants to know about your company? In 10-15 words or less, explain why potential applicants should work for your team instead of competitors.
- How long have you been in business and what can you share about your company’s history or values? Highlight how much your company has grown, any unique challenges you have overcome, and how your company values contribute to your overall success. You want prospective applicants to be bought in and motivated by your company values.
- Has your company won any awards? Highlight these awards, why they’re important and any relevant images on your careers page. Job seekers will be especially excited to see if you’ve won any “Best Places to Work” awards.
- What are the benefits you offer employees? Include a bulleted list and explain how each benefit is unique.
- What do career paths look like at your organizations? Today’s job seekers want to build long-term careers with their employers. Share examples of career paths across a few different departments so prospective applicants can envision growing their careers on your team.
- Do you have employee success stories or testimonials to share? Providing authentic and authoritative testimonials from employees builds more trust among prospective applicants. Ask each employee to write 2-3 sentences about why they enjoy working on your team and how they’ve moved up in their careers.
- Does your company participate in any volunteer programs or extracurricular activities? Include pictures showcasing this involvement and write a brief description explaining why the volunteer programs or extracurricular activities are meaningful to your company.
- If you had to encourage a job seeker to apply to your open roles using only one sentence, what would it be? This is your primary value statement. This statement should let job seekers know they’ve come to the right place and lets them know how you can solve their problems.
For insight into what today’s top job seekers want from employers, download The Great Reassessment today. Based on a survey of 6,000 applicants, the report can help guide what you include on your careers page.
2. Continuously share engaging content
Once you have your careers page content built out, you shouldn’t stop there. It’s important to regularly share compelling content – such as any new awards, employee testimonials or benefits. Also regularly refresh any images and videos on your careers page, so job seekers can visualize what it’s like to work for your team.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind for images on your careers page:
- If the image contains people and faces – make sure that you can see the faces clearly.
- If you would like a certain image to be used as a header banner across the top portion of your career site, please be sure the image is abstract and does not include any text or people in it.
- Images must be of high-quality as to see all the encompassing elements (big or small).
- All photographs should be in JPEG format (JPEG 2000 preferred) and all other images should be PNG files.
- Remember, the images on your Career Site are a major part of ensuring a good first impression with a user, so make sure you’re only submitting quality content.
3. Optimize your job descriptions
Your job descriptions are also a big piece of your careers page content and it’s important to write job descriptions with Google search results in mind. Start by keeping your job titles short and sweet – avoid including anything about sign-on bonuses or other added details in the job title. In Google results, standard job titles that are most likely to match what job seekers are searching rank higher in search results.
Also keep your job descriptions short – ideally between 300 and 800 words. In your job description, share what makes your team stand out – including a strong company overview, list of responsibilities and requirements, an overview of your benefits and opportunities for career growth. Also state the exact address of your open role(s) – including the zip code – as jobs with specific locations outlined are more likely to rank higher in Google results. And make sure to refresh your posted jobs after a reasonable amount of time, as older jobs do not rank well on Google.
Finally, make sure to include an Equal Opportunity Statement. Simply including this statement at the bottom of your job descriptions and on your careers page can help you improve search results and stand out as a top employer. Here’s an example of an Equal Opportunity Statement: We’re an equal opportunity employer. “All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.”
Check out this 15 minute video for more in-depth tips and tricks on writing job descriptions that work.
The hiring landscape continues to evolve, so you need a proactive strategy in place to deliver compelling career site content to job seekers. By following these tips and maintaining a strong careers page, you can continue attracting top talent even as the job board landscape changes.
