This month, over 226 million people will search Google for job postings.  If your job postings aren’t displaying on the first page, you could be missing out on candidates.  So how does a recruiter get their job postings featured on the first page of Google? Contrary to that salesman’s pitch, they don’t hold spots open for anyone.  The best way to feature your job postings prominently is with SEO.  SEO, or search engine optimization, is increasingly being adopted by savvy recruiters.  Used during the recruiting process, it can be a secret weapon.  SEO can translate to more visibility for your open positions and more candidates. If you’re not flush with resumes, SEO can be your game changer.

How to Effectively Use SEO in Your Recruiting Process

SEO may be a new tool to many recruiters, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating.  SEO can become second nature in no time.  So how does a recruiter insert SEO into the recruiting process? Try the following methods:

• Film a Job Posting Video.  Search engines are increasingly showing more visuals in the top few spots of search results.  If you want to be among those in the top, you should film a video.  Video currently accounts for 62% of all internet searches.  Whether people are searching for information about a company, job postings, or entertaining cat videos, video represents the most widely searched and shared media today. Video job postings are wonderful tools in the recruiting process because they are also highly shareable. Candidates can view the video, assess whether the position sounds like something they’d like, and share it with their friends.  This boosts links to your job position and attracts candidates.  Your recruiting process could be improved dramatically by filming a video of open job positions.
• Write Keyword Driven Job Postings.  All SEO is driven by keywords.  Keywords inform a search engine what your post is about.  When there is a great mixture of organic keywords in your job posting, it tells search engines that your posting is relevant and important to job seekers. The key is to not overstuff your keywords in a posting.  You don’t want every other word to sound like spam.  Focus on creating a well written job posting and then evaluate whether you’ve included a healthy mix of keywords.  For example, if you’re hiring for a sales director in New York, you’ll want to feature these keywords within your text.  If your job position only mentions them once within a block of 400 words, you communicate less relevance to search engines.  Top performing job postings feature keywords peppered throughout their text.
• Share Socially. SEO’s two main components are links and keywords.  Social media is a great place to combine both efforts and attract more candidates.  Try tweeting out a link to your video job posting with a hashtag of your keywords.  These stand out in users’ news feeds and are hard to ignore. I see video job postings in my Twitter feed all the time and am always tempted to click on them.  The more your followers share your post, the more you’re visible to networks of potential candidates.  This can be a game changer in your recruiting process!

The key to being effective at SEO is to keep it simple.  As a recruiter, your primary focus is to attract and hire talent, not build back links to job postings all day. Using these three SEO tools alone you can increase visibility of your job postings today.  Try it out and see how many new candidates you can attract!

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