Today, millions of job searches begin at Google.
So it’s big news that Google announced a new feature related to jobs on Google Search. This isn’t Google’s first foray into jobs, but it is arguably the biggest. And that means there are potentially big implications for employers and your job seekers.
What is job search on Google?
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google values the candidate experience and is focused on providing the jobs that are most relevant and useful for job seekers in alignment with that mission.
Now, when a user enters a job search as their query, Google recognizes this as a job search and will provide an appropriate list of relevant jobs within a new interface specific to job search. The user will have access to filter jobs by location, title, category or type, date posted or whether it’s full- or part-time, among other things.
To best obtain jobs and company information, Google is partnering with recruitment technology providers as a part of this initiative and Recruiting.com is pleased to be part of this collaboration with Google’s new job search feature. We will be sending Google our clients’ career site and job information in real-time, allowing them to have the best access to share your employment information with their vast search audience.
What does this mean for my recruiting?
Strong visibility on the web relies on many factors, among them strong meta data and mobile responsiveness, as well as having comprehensive employment content about your jobs and company. These are all critical elements that elevate your visibility and relevance for search engines.
According to Google, “For employers or site owners with job content, this feature brings many benefits:
Prominent place in Search results:
Your postings are eligible to be displayed in the new job search feature on Google, featuring your logo, reviews, ratings, and job details.
More, motivated applicants:
Job seekers can filter by various criteria like location or job title, meaning you’re more likely to get applicants who are looking exactly for that job. Increased chances of discovery and conversion: job seekers will have a new avenue to interact with your postings and click through to your site.”
How do I get my jobs to Google?
Great question; as stated by the Official Google Blog, it requires employers to:
Mark up your job listings with Job Posting structured data. Submit a sitemap (or an RSS or Atom feed) with a date for each listing. Or, to ensure your jobs are indexed by Google, post your jobs with a third-party technology provider, such as Recruiting.com, that has integrated with Google.
What else can I do to best position my career site and jobs?
UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBILITY
To make information universally acceptable, start thinking about the way people consume the information that you’re sharing. That means considering the type of device they are using and the limitations or challenges that may be associated with their usage. Regardless of whether your candidates are using Chrome, Safari or Firefox, ensure that your site is readable and presentable with all currently supported versions. And with mobile-usage on the web surpassing desktop usage for the first time last year, you can no longer afford to ignore or provide a degraded experience on mobile devices. In fact, the decision to deliver a sub-par experience can really hurt your search visibility, and as a result, your recruiting. Remember to make your best effort to host a career website inclusive of all users.
USEFUL & UNIQUE
No one wants to hear the same story repeatedly, and certainly being boring won’t win you many new friends. Start by considering your audience and how to deliver information that is interesting, useful and unique. Google recommends, “Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.” Beware of a “me too” strategy when developing your corporate career site. Share what separates you from the crowd by telling that story to job seekers on your career site. A significant aspect of what makes information valuable is that it’s highly relevant to the audience. Help make your job content more relevant by providing comprehensive and complete information that helps job seekers determine if your job is a good fit for them. Examples of information for which job seekers search in order to make their employment decisions include:
Location – Job seekers typically search for jobs close to home with the goal of limiting commute time due to a priority of managing work and personal time effectively. A highly searched phrase on search engines is “jobs near me,” so whenever possible use the precise street address to allow yourself to be part of the consideration set if your location is a good fit. Job Details – Job seekers search in different ways using keywords and phrases that are more relevant to their desired role, and the type of work they will do or the skills they possess. By including a broad description of the job you increase the likelihood of being a match. Include information such as job responsibilities, skills and/or requirements, job type, pay, etc. Company Information – The best candidates care about culture and company fit. Job seekers may also search by industry or company size. Share information about your company and your employment offerings to provide this key information to your job seekers and search engines.
FOLLOW DIRECTIONS
While search engines won’t be providing the secret sauce to their search algorithm anytime soon, the search engine is transparent about actions you can take to give search engines greater visibility into your website and site content. Follow SEO best practices such as utilizing page titles, URLs, tags and other metadata that are both descriptive and accurate. Make it easy for search engines to crawl and index your site, for example by making important information visible, using recommended markup and submitting updated sitemaps.
Finally, be a good citizen of the web. There’s no magic answer to building SEO quickly, so skip the black hat strategies such as link farms, doorway pages, and keyword stuffing. Search Engine Optimization is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes doing the right things every day and that means providing meaningful, relevant, high-quality information to your audience—your job seekers.