Recently, Indeed changed its job feed from Hireology to “Sponsored Only” visibility. A sponsored job posting means an employer pays to boost the posting’s visibility in a job seeker’s search results, and will do this directly through Indeed.
Organic Visibility and Search Quality
While Hireology has no control over Indeed’s Search Quality Standards or policies, our customer success team is committed to helping you stay compliant and further diversify your recruitment channels by reaching the most organic applicant sources. You can achieve this by maintaining a high search quality with each and every open position.
Search Quality is central to Indeed’s mission and refers to the process that ensures search results for job seekers are free of spam, predatory offers and misleading listings. Indeed has an entire team dedicated to Search Quality and reviews all jobs submitted to determine their suitability. Jobs flagged for possible violations of search quality guidelines are held for review before being made visible in search results. Most are quickly cleared for inclusion but many are not.
Review the following guidelines to make sure your job postings go live and achieve organic visibility on Indeed:
Offer a Real Job.
Indeed is a search engine for jobs. Non-job content–including spam, scams and other offers–will not be shown to job seekers.
- When using an existing job profile, remember to delete the words “MASTER PROFILE” from the title.
Use Specifics, Not Clickbait.
Make your job title the name of the particular job as it might appear on a business card, with no extra information or eye-catching gimmicks.
- Only post one job title in the job title field. Posting “Caregiver/CNA” or “Auto Technician/Mechanic” might get your posts flagged as spam. Simply use “Caregiver” or “Auto Technician” instead.
- Additional information such as “full time,” “signing bonus” or “needed now” is unnecessary and may result in your post being flagged as spam.
- Use title case, not all capital letters.
- Do not include the location or mention relocation within the job title description.
- Avoid job titles like the following: Part-time CNA Certified Nursing Assistant NEEDED in Chicago – $200 Bonus!!!” and instead simply use “Certified Nursing Assistant.”
Job descriptions should include the particulars a qualified candidate would search for as well as other details you think are important.
- Indeed will reject any job descriptions that are too short or that the team deems to be “poor quality.”
- Job descriptions should include several sentences and preferably include mention of your company overview, benefits/perks, day-to-day responsibilities and qualifications/requirements.
- Do not list keywords or terms in the job description field. Instead, use your job description to highlight specifics about the job opening.
You can find more information on Indeed’s suggestions for crafting job titles and descriptions in this eBook.
Create Unique, Non-Duplicate Jobs.
Duplicate listings posted within the same account will not be approved for organic visibility. It’s also confusing for job seekers to see multiple versions of the same job. If you create a new version of a job, make sure to close the old one.
Specify the Location in the Job Profile.
- Only list the city where the job is located or the nearest major city. Search results will automatically pull any city within a 25-mile radius. If you want to extend your reach outside this 25-mile radius, you need to open a second job profile.
- As a best practice, include additional cities in the body of the job description. If you create multiple job postings in different geographic locations for a single position and don’t include these cities in the body of the job description, Indeed will consider this be “location blasting” and will reject your postings.
- Do not include or mention relocation within the title or job description.
Avoid “General Recruitment Language.”
It’s okay to source multiple candidates with one job posting, but the description should read as though it’s for one person.This means there should be no mention of the following in the title or description:
- Hiring for multiple roles within the same position (i.e. “Caregivers” should be “Caregiver” and “Auto Technicians” should be “Auto Technician”)
- References to self-employment and commission only salaries
Don’t Try to Game the System.
Like other search engines, Indeed uses algorithms to provide the freshest, most relevant content in response to searches. Listings that attempt to exploit these principles by reposting roles within a short timeframe or posting roles in more locations than the job is offered for increased visibility will not be given the same visibility as a more relevant job.
- We recommend turning on Automatic Job Refresh for your jobs! This feature automatically refreshes your jobs every 60 days keeping them relevant in job searches while adhering to Indeed’s Search Quality standards.
- If a job starts to see a significant decrease in traffic in this window, we recommend sponsoring the job for a boost in search results.
- Reposting the job too frequently to have it placed higher in search results is not accepted and may result in the post being flagged as spam. Learn more about Indeed’s Job Reposting Guidelines here.
Make Applications Accessible and Transparent.
Job seekers should not have to navigate through complicated steps to begin the application process.
What Happens Next?
All jobs sent to Indeed are reviewed by Indeed’s Search Quality Team. The first time you submit your job postings, the process can be as fast as a few days or as long as a couple of weeks.
Their team reviews every aspect of your job posting and company to make sure the posting meets their criteria and that your company is legitimate. The good news is that once the team has reviewed your company and postings once, any subsequent job postings you submit should be posted within 24 hours, provided the postings meet Indeed’s guidelines.
Please note that Indeed does not give every reason why a job or a company may be removed and they always retain the right to removal if they feel it is in their interest or their users’ interest.
Remember, organic job boards are only one channel in a broader multi-channel recruitment strategy. If organic job boards are a part of your strategy, this article is designed to help you navigate the process of getting your postings approved by Indeed.
Hireology data found that a multi-channel recruitment marketing helps drive 10x more quality applicants than relying on a single channel. Hireology is here to help you implement a multi-channel recruitment marketing strategy that includes organic job boards, sponsored job boards, a strong career site and targeted recruitment ads.
If you have any additional questions about increasing organic job board visibility and attracting qualified applicants for your open roles, contact your Hireology Customer Success Manager or support@hireology.com.
