It wasn’t long ago that an employer would simply place a want-ad in the local newspaper to fill a vacancy in his company. Some employers still post signs in the window when they’re hiring. What better candidates to consider than loyal customers?
Mostly though these days, the world of hiring has a whole new set of rules and a totally different ballpark to play in. Your employee pool is now global and your options are nearly infinite. To get your job ads to pay off, you need to employ some crafty marketing and search engine optimization tricks.
The advent of the Internet has changed everything from the way we buy shoes to the way in which we search for employees. Because the scope of hiring has expanded so dramatically, it makes sense to cast a wide net when you’re looking for exceptional employees.
When it comes to applicants, though, you need a high number of quality people to choose from. How can you narrow your search in such a way as to bring in the very best applicants from such an enormous pool?
How to Select Job Posting Keywords with SEO
Using clear and relevant keywords in your job posting is important. Search engines employ algorithms that identify keywords to rank web pages and job boards in the same manner. Linking job seekers to job ads.
Keywords should be clear and descriptive. Terms that are too general or too complicated will both have a negative impact on your search engine success and on the number of applications you receive.
The most basic keyword for your job posting is the job title itself. It may contain a title or acronym that is widely understood in your company but is foreign to others.
“Outbound Manager” is clear to you, but people who are looking for positions as warehouse supervisors might not know exactly what an outbound manager is. Include the more generic description in your posting, which also gets you more views for your ads as well.
Slang terms also create a problem when trying to connect candidates with job postings. For example, the desire to spruce up job titles with terms like “Coding Ninja” prevents people using the more traditional title in their search from finding your positing.
Monster.com’s SEO Manager recommends including location directly in the post title. Most job boards have a special field so you don’t need to worry about this, but if you are advertising elsewhere or hoping for search engine hits, it may make a big difference. As an expert in SEO for job listings, he also recommends including the job title and location in both the title and the body – but not too often.
More generic skills can also serve as keywords, but this only benefits you if used in combination with more specific needs. Your perfect customer service employee may not realize that you consider a sales job great training for the position. In this example, you might want to include “sales” in your description to attract more applicants.
Be aware that some keywords may attract both qualified candidates and bad matches. A good example is a phrase like “flexible schedule.” Qualified people who prefer a varied schedule may apply, but people who don’t actually have a flexible schedule might too – when they use this phrase, they mean that they need an employer who will be flexible about when they can work.
Making Keywords Count
The Internet runs on keywords. There is an entire industry growing up around the way to effectively use search terms. SEO or Search Engine Optimization sounds impressive but it really isn’t rocket science. It’s merely a matter of knowing which words people use to describe what they are looking for.
You have seen television advertisements from a clothing manufacturer that advertises longer-length t-shirts to avoid embarrassing gaps when you’re bending over.
In the ad, they refer to this condition as “plumber’s butt.” You could search the internet for, “long length t-shirts + plumber’s butt,” and if you did such, you would immediately be served up the website for “Duluth Trading Company,” which claims to have vanquished the gap forever.
It’s easy to do if you know the right words.
Use Tools Already Available
Using the best keywords for your purpose begins with an excellent job description. It isn’t enough to use general terms like “computer programmer,” especially when you want a programmer who is fluent in a specific code.
As of this date, the list of languages people use to script computers runs from A#.Net to ZPL, so if you want an employee who can write Game Monkey Script or VisualData Flex, you must use the correct terms.
Effectiveness of Keywords
When it comes to keyword effectiveness, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, because of course, Google has already done it for you. Google’s aggressive collection of search data pays off for not just those who advertise online, but also those who are searching for products and services.
Their keyword tool makes your employee search much easier and far more effective by connecting you and your pool of applicants through common words.
Let your competitors help you out. You are not the only company searching for a Game Monkey Script expert. Check out hiring sites like Jooble, Monster.com, oDesk, or TheLadders.com. See how others are baiting the hook for the really well-qualified candidates, and then include some of their strategies in your own invitation to apply.
As you write your advertisement, use your specific keywords several times to make them stand out in the search engines.
Once it is written and optimized, be sure to place your ad on your own “Career Opportunities” webpage, and don’t forget to backlink this page to the ads you place elsewhere on the net.
Also, be certain that your “Career Opportunities” link appears on every webpage on your site. Why waste an opportunity to reach out to as many applicants as possible?
By knowing and exploiting the keywords and SEO tricks your applicants are using in their job searches, you can help them find your position announcement more readily from among the hundreds of thousands of similar ads on the web today.
You must employ the best tools available to funnel excellent applicants your way and it all begins with using the right language.
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