What is Google for Jobs?
Google for Jobs is a powerful tool that enables job seekers to find and apply for roles in a few clicks… all from the Google search bar.
It works in a similar way to collated job boards such as Indeed, which pulls data and vacancies from across a multitude of sources to display on a single page.
Why will Google for Jobs be important when recruiting?
Because Google is a household name, it’s almost inevitable that Google for Jobs will change the way people search for jobs. According to a candidate behaviour study by CareerBuilder, 71% of candidates in the UK already visit Google in the first instance to find their next job. Simply by Googling “Project Manager jobs in Devon” they will be presented with a list of suitable jobs in a single search. Recruiting can be made much easier or more difficult with Google for Jobs – it’s all about how well we use it when hiring.
What can you do to feature your company’s vacancies on Google for Jobs?
There are a number of measures companies can take to feature on Google for Jobs. And the good news is that it only involves some time and clever planning. Here are our top five tips for hiring managers to make the most of Google for Jobs.
Tag your web pages properly
Google is an incredibly clever tool. However, it’s simply a series of algorithms that make up its AI. It ‘crawls’ a website’s coding to find specific words and phrases. It then displays results for a search based on the quality of the content within a website’s pages. This is why when a user searches for “Dog groomers in east London”, they are provided with localised results that will be tagged with phrases such as “dogs”, “dog groomers”, and “east London”.
This is a (very) basic outline of a key SEO principle, and the concept is the same for Google for Jobs. If a company website isn’t tagged for phrases such as “job vacancies”, “current jobs”, and of course, the role itself, i.e. “Marketing Executive”, then it may struggle to be recognised on Google for Jobs and be shown to relevant searchers.
Ask your web team to explore tagging pages properly and also to ensure that there are no “robots.txt” files or “robots” meta tags blocking Google from crawling your website. The longer these blockers are in place, the less likely it will be that Google will crawl your website in future, as it “learns” that your website is blocked. This will massively hinder your company’s success on Google for Jobs.
Keep job titles universally recognisable
In some industries, job titles have recently become more creative, but keep in mind that internal job titles do not always translate to the external job market and will be less favoured by Google. For example, while a “Marketing ninja” role may work as a job title within your company brand, this may struggle to place in Google for Jobs results as it may not be recognised as a job title. Stick to the descriptive, traditional job titles for maximum impact. This is also a great tip to apply more widely to your recruitment, as this applies to the majority of searches on job boards.
Take advantage of the location feature
The better the quality of the job vacancy page, the higher the Google for Jobs results will appear. Consider every ‘blank field’ as a missed opportunity. Location is a very good example of this. Many organisations feature a location of the head office or a broad location where the successful candidate will be based. However, an exact location will trigger Google for Jobs’ location feature, which will show candidates what their commute would look like. As Google will likely want to show off this unique sub-feature, the weighting on it for SEO purposes will likely be relatively high. If your vacancy does not include this, it may be penalised in terms of where it appears in search results.
Exercise good website housekeeping
In addition to the above, an accurate, easy to read (for robots!) sitemap will propel a company’s page to the first pages of results pages. Clearly name the vacancy area of your website accordingly (“Current vacancies”, “work for us”, “jobs”) and feature them on your sitemap. Of course, the usual tagging and indexing rules apply, but a sitemap is a great place to start.
A good website is regularly updated. Be sure to remove filled vacancies and keep wider web content fresh so that your website remains appealing to Google.
Make sure your website is mobile friendly
This is also very important. A little while back, Google prioritised mobile sites in its SEO criteria. Simply put, if a company’s desktop website is phenomenal. Still, the mobile version was clunky and difficult to navigate; the whole website was penalised by disappearing into the depths of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Therefore, for wider SEO, as well as for Google for Jobs – which we have established works similarly to SEO – this relies on a solid, easy-to-use mobile site. Make this a priority and you will see your candidate applications – and website visits – increase.
If you don’t have time, Teamtailor can do it for you!
Fitzgerald HR’s job advertising website and candidate management system, Teamtailor, is already configured to intelligently optimise your adverts to appear on Google for Jobs by using structured data known as job schema to communicate with Google. By advertising your roles on Teamtailor, your job listing will automatically be more likely to be listed on Google for Jobs results, and you will benefit from reaching a wider audience of potential candidates. To find out more about advertising on Teamtailor contact our team.
We hope you found this article useful. If you would like support with your recruitment process, including appearing in Google for Jobs, please contact our team on 0330 223 5253 or office@fitzgeraldhr.co.uk
