Writing Job Descriptions for search engines

I know SEO gets a bit of a bashing – especially when it comes to copyrighting.  Some people get it sooooo wrong and become obsessed by keyword density.  This is one of those ’small’ factors in SEO that can frighten the heck out of people writing job descriptions, so here are some simple rules…

1. Write for people first
   Shock, horror.  If you write something that’s aimed at the (worthy, talented) candidates themselves then let it be Google’s job to index and deliver that content to the good candidates.  Remember – if Google doesn’t understand your website well then it’s not doing its job right – have faith – keep other SEO factors in trim and let your copy writing skills run wild.
2. Go back and review
   Okay – ignore what I just said above now you’ve finished writing the human-facing job description.  Go and look at those keywords.  Imaging people searching for that job in Google.  Does it contain the phrases that they might actually type in.  No?  Then use a few tricks…
   • “My client requires a [name-of-role]” helps you to repeat the job title.
   • So does “A good quality in a[name-of-role]“
   • List those core skills
   • List any qualifications that may be desirable or  (not required) – to capture those people searching based on their qualifications.
3. Run it past someone
   Any good colleague or mate has a few minutes to read a job description.  If they tell you it feels spammy or hard to read, listen to them.

Remember that the content copy is important – very important, but banging on about keywords (like “Recruitment SEO”)  is not half as valuable as other Recruitment SEO factors