Job Title

I still seem to come across so many job descriptions on websites that appear to have been written for newspaper job ads. ‘Attractive’ headlines or calls to action may attract the eye in a newspaper, but the words are of no use to someone searching.

Make the job title simple and to the point.

• Use keywords that people might search for in the job title
• Don’t ‘waste’ words
• Describe – don’t ‘attract’
• Forget humour – keep it plain and businesslike
• Keep it to about one line (8 – 10 words, generally)

So – a good job title would be:
“Senior Mechanical Engineer for Rail Company in South Yorkshire, Permanent”

and a dreadful one would be:

“Are you a fast-mover who likes to keep on the rails?” … you get my point.  Think ‘keywords’ Which candidate would possibly be searching for a ‘fast mover’ etc etc.

Job Description

The description should always start with a brief summary paragraph. Think about having 30 seconds to get all the info possible across to a candidate. Use words they would use.

• Business area
• Role type
• Summary of tasks
• Level / seniority

Remember that the first 160 characters of opening paragraph is likely to be (or at least should be) the meta description.  This has keyword value in Google and other search engines, so get keywords in early.

Things you can use without ruining your SEO

• If you need to attract people to certain words, then use bold (or better, <strong> tags) – if needs be.  Search engines pay little or no attention to whether something is bold (depending on who you listen to) but the human eye can’t help but pick up on certain attractive words.
• Don’t be afraid of a bit of repetition – over-describe the role if needs be
• Qualifications can also be great keywords in some circumstances – list them in the job
• Use the word job.  It’s a job description.
• Location, location, location.  Say where it is.  People need to know.  They might be travelling to it.

… and things you shouldn’t use

• Precious few people search for ‘role’ or ‘vacancy’.  It’s a waste of a word in SEO terms. If you’re going to use it, use it sparingly.
• “My Client has an opening for” etc etc.  It’s obvious that they’re your client.  Waste of words.
• Humour, sarcasm etc.  Not good, waste of words, sets a bad tone.
• “Headline speak”  or “Questions” - Your site  is giving information out to people.  It’s plain patronising to says things like “Do you fancy a change of direction?” and it’s off-putting.

The template for a good job description

Job Title – round about ten words, keyword-rich

Introduction

• Describe role, location, employer-type, and anything else pertinent.
• Keywords in first 160 characters.

Full description

• about candidate requirements
• experience
• employer type
• job tasks
• area, hours of work, etc

Working details

• Conditions / pay
• Holidays if appropriate

‘About’ the application

• Closing date if appropriate
• Further contact info if appropriate
• Excluded applicants

Anything else about the job

• What will happen after application
• Other allowances if appropriate
• permanent or part time, etc
• Headline allowances, remuneration, and other attractive things in the package

Visually, your site needs to do the job well, and we must accept that one of the big tools in ‘grabbing’ people is animated, (usually Flash) graphics in some way. There’s no avoiding it… things that ‘move’ tend to work. (Within reason – we’ve all been to sites that are way, way too annoying before!).

The problem is, of course, that Flash is effectively a graphical interface – the words or messages in Flash are not indexed by Google or any search engines. They’re ‘empty’ words as far as SEO goes. So does that mean you should be avoiding Flash for your new recruitment website? Well… not really, but you do need to get the balance right.

As this article describes very well, there is a balance to be struck. On one extreme, you could go all out with Flash for that mega cool graphical interface, then try your best to optimise, or (at the other end of the spectrum) go for a more traditional text website but throw in the odd smidgen of Flash to lift things.  The latter is a significantly better route for SEO if you can make your brand work around the concept of organic SEO.  There is a lot that can be done by small bits of dynamic, ‘moving’ content without going for a wholly flash-based solution.  If you do go down the flash route, prepare yourself for some pretty poor organic search traffic.

1. Content – keep it coming and they’ll keep coming back.

If the content isn’t right then your market will let you know pronto.  A good site should have two new items a week. Less than one a week and you will endanger losing repeat visits.  Keep it fresh.

2. Know your analytics

Few visitors,  low levels of repeat visitors,  low or declining average session time, or a high bounce rate.?  See the signs!

3. Ensure that goals are prominent on the site.

How do your candidates register?  Apply? Subscribe?  Have you taken a step back and looked how easy it is?   How do your clients post jobs to your site?  If they can’t do, how can they contact you?  Will they bother clicking three times to find your phone number?