SEO for Recruiting

Search engines are the perfect place to showcase your open job postings. However, we’ve noticed that search engine optimization is still underutilized in the recruitment and HR sectors.

Many companies are facing a mountain of unfilled job openings. They often already use a separate job or recruitment website. However, they’re still missing out on a lot of important SEO aspects.

Do you want to optimize your job postings for search engines? In this guide, we’ll take you through the world of SEO for recruitment.

Candidates are looking for a new job. That actually answers the question of how a search engineperfectly complements your strategy. Getting your job postings to rank higher on Google is a must.

By optimizing your job postings for search engines, you can reach people who are actively looking for a new job. SEO therefore doesn’t fit into the outreach strategy that many companies use.

So, do you want to attract candidates who are genuinely looking for a new job? Then search engine optimization is a perfect fit for your recruitment strategy.

SEO fits into your hiring process in two ways.

• Top of the funnel, even before a candidate starts looking for a new job
• Active search for a new job

We’ll discuss the top of the funnel in more detail later in this article. Essentially, it means building brand awareness among potential job seekers even before they start looking for a new job. You do this by positioning your company as one that aligns with their values and establishing yourself as an expert in the market. It’s also a great way to attract new customers—a win-win situation.

In addition, there are also candidates who are actively looking for job openings and are therefore literally searching for them on search engines like Google.

Do you have one or more job openings at any given time? If so, it’s time to get started with SEO. In this scenario, search engine optimization offers the best return on investment.

Depending on your vision and SEO mindset, SEO not only supports your job postings but also generates leads and customers. You can find more information on this in our search engine optimization guide .

When posting job openings, try to really dive into your niche. Yes, general keywords often have higher search volume. Don’t get caught up in that—instead, figure out how to be as specific as possible.

A smaller, highly relevant keyword that lands you in the No. 1 spot in search engine results has 10 times more impact than being stuck somewhere near the bottom for a general keyword.

In addition, a highly relevant keyword is often more effective at attracting high-quality candidates. They’re searching for something specific, so they know exactly what they’re talking about. This gives you an initial filter even before you’ve spoken with the candidate.

From a technical standpoint, there are many strategies you can use to help your job postings rank highly on Google and other search engines.

Google for Jobs

You can display your job posting on Google for Jobs using structured data. Structured data is a globally standardized format for data. It uses a standard code that every search engine can easily understand. The advantage of this is that the correct information is displayed alongside your job posting.

Be careful with duplicate content

Duplicate content refers to the situation where multiple pages rank for the same search term. This means you’ve optimized roughly the same content, so Google isn’t sure which one to display. As a result, they’ll either rank you lower, alternate between your job listings, or not display them at all.

It’s common for (roughly) the same job openings to be posted. Think of junior, mid-level, or senior positions for a specific role.

Decide which keyword you want to be found for, optimize one page, and incorporate any skill levels or other variations into a single, overarching job posting.

This makes it clear to your candidates and to Google where they can apply.

After all, when are you considered a junior, and when are you a mid-level or senior employee? As a company, you’d better have a clear definition of that yourself.

Content is king, and that’s no different in recruitment SEO. The right content in the right place. In recruitment SEO, “at the right time” is also a key factor. Not every (prospective) job seeker is already at the same stage in the job search process. Sometimes they aren’t even thinking about it yet.

Selecting Relevant Keywords

The most obvious keywords are, of course, “job opening + job title” or “job title + jobs,” but also think more broadly about the industry, educational background, skills, challenges, and so on. Keyword research is key to narrowing down your selection.

Establishing a presence with job applicants at the top of the funnel

Even if someone is still satisfied with their current job, you can start building your employer brand right away. Help junior professionals solve problems through your blog posts. That way, they’ll come to know you as an expert, and you’ll leave a positive impression.

People want to grow and develop, and you can help them do that and reap the rewards in the (very) long term. Although that long-term perspective isn’t for everyone.

Competing for job candidates at the national level is much more difficult than at the local level. And in 90% of cases, companies are looking for people from the local area. Local SEO is often the ideal way to attract local applicants.

Include your location in your job posting to ensure it’s easily found by local candidates.

Even when you’re looking for employees at different locations, it’s best to explicitly include the location to avoid duplicate content.

Ideally, you should use mini content clusters to group related job postings at the local level under the umbrella job posting. That’s a much more advanced approach, but we’re happy to share it with you.

Posting your job openings on well-known job sites is a good idea. When you start working on SEO for your job postings yourself, you’ll quickly realize that you’re up against these giants. It’s not that simple, of course. They have years of head start, a dedicated SEO team, and have already built up a great deal of authority.

So make sure you know what you’re getting into. Don’t be afraid to dive into a niche, focus on local job search SEO, and use structured data to attract future employees.

Look for relevant websites about HR, recruitment, and employer branding. A backlink should be as relevant as possible and come from a high-quality website.

You now have all the knowledge and tools you need to make your job posting rank well in search engines. Let’s bring it all together and lay it out in a practical step-by-step guide.

• Conduct keyword research
• Identify who ranks for your HR search terms
• Group your keywords
• Choose a local or national approach
• Write your job posting and include your keywords in it; check out our SEO guide for specific tips on how to incorporate your keywords.
• Avoid duplicate content; if you do your clustering right, this will happen naturally
• Use structured data via our generator
• Post Your Job Opening
• Have your job posting indexed by Google
• SEO process: Follow up on your job posting, optimize your content, and review it regularly