How SEO helps HR Professionals hire Qualified Candidates

Job seekers are actively looking for work online. Here’s how to optimize your job postings for online search engines.
How SEO helps HR Professionals hire Qualified Candidates
By
Jëanne Ismal

Many HR professionals boost their search in the recruitment space with several tools and strategies.

One of the best tools that an HR rep can use is Search Engine Optimization(SEO).

The world is evolving daily with the advancement of modern technologies. It cannot just be left to IT and marketing departments to find qualified candidates. By using SEO tactics in their online recruiting efforts will enable them to find the right people to match their specific goals.

Working with an experienced SEO company will help any agency attract qualified candidates and recruit them in respective niches.

There are over 180 million searches on Google that have the keyword ‘jobs’ each month.

SEO tactics can prove to be quite beneficial to drive traffic to their prime job openings and positions. Job seekers are actively looking for work, and making it easy to find job openings is what SEO job postings are all about.

SEO for HR

SEO is a process of involving certain strategies by optimizing your websites to increase your ranking on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. It is often overlooked by many recruitment agencies but is it is important to optimize your online job listings.

SEO will help raise your website to the top of the results list when potential candidates search for job openings at companies in your agency.

  • Create job listings that provide solid information for the reader
  • Format job listings so they are readable and easily digestible by the user
  • Select relevant keywords for each job listing

The goal for any HR professional is to make sure that your online listings appear in the search results. HR reps who make the time to understand SEO will be able to deliver more qualified candidates and see an overall improvement in online recruitment efforts.

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Use these SEO tips to reach your specific recruitment goals

1) Target Relevant Keywords

Keywords are the most important step in building an SEO strategy. Building keywords that are relevant to the job opening that is available will help in boosting your website ranks.

Digital marketing is evolving and in order to rank higher, you need to match the ranking factors set by search engines.

There are many competitive keywords out there, so you must choose wisely which can be beneficial for your niche. Keywords that have medium or low levels of search can work best for you. This will also enable you to target the right candidates for the job with a combination of the right relevant keywords.

2) Long-tail keywords

Remember to optimize your web pages with the right keywords so that when someone searches for that particular word on the internet, they can easily find your website.

A long-tail keyword can be extremely beneficial as you are able to narrow down your searches to specific targets.

It can help you get the most qualified leads. For example, talent manager position in New York, and so on. They are relatively cheaper as well so spending a smaller amount of money can help you attract higher targets.

3) SEO optimized Job descriptions

Whether it is a company website, career pages, or even web landing pages there are many ways to optimize your descriptions which can help in reaching out to a wider audience. Include keyword combinations not just on job postings, but within your company website.

While job descriptions traditionally serve a compliance purpose, they also offer the opportunity to elevate your company’s page within a search engine.

4) An excellent Careers section

An excellent SEO technique is having a strong career section. It plays a vital role to attract enthusiastic and motivated people to your site and hunt for jobs.

A Careers page on your website is basically an internal search engine for job seekers that is simple and efficient.

You can even add filters that can narrow down the searches to different categories such as job position, qualification, location, and even companies.

A sound career section will help boost brand image which will help in attracting qualified leads with the right specifications that are required for the job titles available.

5) Mobile-Friendly website

Mobile-friendly optimized websites are a must in today’s digital world, with billions of people active on the internet through smart devices every day.

Over 80% of job seekers search for jobs on their smartphones.

Having a mobile-friendly site is necessary, but you need to make sure it’s Search Engine Optimized to send positive signals to search engines. Your website should be available on all possible screens to enhance the user experience.

The images on your website can be optimized, fonts can be adjusted or even the finger tap buttons. If your website is being a hindrance to your user, it may be penalised by Google and your pages will not be indexed for mobile searches. This will affect your overall ranking.

6) Social Media

Social media is by far the easiest way to attract candidates to your website. There are many SEO strategies that you can benefit from your social channels. Now, this may not have a direct impact on your web ranking on search engines, but it will surely help to attract people to your web career pages.

You can use these channels to promote job openings and listings which increases brand awareness and credibility.

You can even opt to use only one social channel that drives the most traffic and focus all your time and efforts on building that profile. By having a good social media presence you are enabling candidates to look for your company and your job postings on platforms where they are already highly engaged.

Conclusion

SEO is one of the most crucial elements required in any business that helps in not only attracting organic traffic but also helps to rank higher on search engines. If you are a HR professional or a newbie, consider optimizing SEO to find the right candidates that match the required goals of your niche.


Finding candidates but struggling to keep them? See how Hi5 can help with employee engagement >