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

I’d liken this to a brickie not ‘getting’ what an architect does – or even trying to understand the process of architecture. A brickie could pretty easily build a house without an architect – so why would they need one?

This fascinating story on SEOMoz shows a web developer’s foray into the world of SEO – it’s a great read.

Not a ‘template’ as such, but some ‘new-starter’ guidelines for SEO copywriting and page architecture for recruitment websites:

Links to the job:

Make sure the job title is the anchor text of the link (not ‘click here‘ or ‘more info‘)

Jobs pages

Just make sure there is one page per job!

In-page factors

Your Keyword Rich areas should be:

• Meta Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Job Title

… then other important keywords – especially job / sector or geographical ones should feature prominantly on the page.

Job description copywriting

1. Try to make the job title a term people would search for in Google / Yahoo etc
2. Avoid ‘non-search’ terminology like “Opportunity” or “Seeking a “, … “My Client is “ etc.  You can use these terms, but they’re wasting valuable space up in the Title and the early part of a job description
3. Familiarise yourself with the different levels of headings (or <h> tags as developers call them).  Headings and sub-headings on a page should flow properly, so if you want to break your job description down, don’t use bold headings, use h3 or h4 (Heading 3 or Heading 4) tags – like ‘Job Description copywriting’ is, above.
4. Avoid, at all costs, pasting anything into a web site’s text editor using Microsoft Word or another similar program.  These are designed for print and can put all sorts of unnecessary code into your text that could – in some cases – mean that Google can’t properly index the content.
5. Repeat those search keywords  coming wherever possible and relevant (think of candidates searching and what they might type into Google – then keep thinking it – what candidates call their job may differ to what recruiters call it)
6. Use lists if needs be to increase keyword density.
7. Think about synonyms — e.g. “team leader” as well as “project manager” or “sales manager” as well as “business development manager”

For developers:

• Make the Title Tags work dynamically in the following format
  • Meta Title: Job: [Job Title] – [Location] – [Category-or-sector]
    
  • Make the Meta Description dynamically take the Job Title then first characters of the Job Description up to a max of 160 characters
• Place the Job Title in <h1> tags
• Place the Location and Category in <h2> tags
• Ensure that the job editor allows site admins to add <h3> headings within a job description and train them to use them.

Google insight was launched recently and is proving to be a great indicator of what people search for if you learn to use it wisely.

The graph shows how we can put the example in the opening paragraph to bed…  People search for jobs.

But it doesn’t end there… Google Insight gives you some massive powers to get under the search results. For example; you may want to target people in Leicester if it’s ‘Jobs in Retail’ search traffic you’re after, whereas more Brentford People search for “retail recruitment” (see below, taken from the ‘Download CVS option on the Google Insight search shown above.