According to Zippia, only 26% of job seekers hopped on the web to discover new openings and apply for jobs back in 2005. In 2023, a whopping 90% leveraged search engines to find available positions, and 84% applied to their potential jobs online.
The search volumes for the Internet's most searched positions speak for themselves:
Human resources – 1.18M
Accountant – 951,860
Graphic designer – 951,623
These numbers highlight the obvious – SEO for talent acquisition isn’t an option anymore. It’s a MUST!
Search engines offer human resources an unprecedented opportunity to tap into larger talent pools and drive lots of relevant applications in less time. Respectively, they get an opportunity to pack their companies with the industry’s best employees.
If you are not using this to your benefit yet, this guide will help you make this switch!
SEO Fundamentals for Recruitment
The number one thing for SEO recruitment strategies is keyword research. The primary aim of keyword research is to determine which keywords and phrases your potential candidates are using to find relevant job opportunities. By revealing these keywords and integrating them into your listings, you should be able to extend your outreach and get noticed by a larger number of talents. Hence, keywords play a pivotal role in enhancing the recruitment process.
Now, how do you use this tip? First of all, you need a reliable keyword research tool that will give you the insights you need to drive your SEO tactic. Check out https://top10seosoftware.com/collections/ to find reviews and comparisons of the best tools that match your needs, together with available discounts (e.g. a SEMrush coupon). When you identify a tool that works for you, start looking for search queries that align with your job offer. Assess and compare the keywords you find based on the core metrics:
Search volume;
Competition;
Intent;
Keyword Difficulty, etc.
For maximum outcomes, you should build your tactic around keywords with lower competition and high search volume. These phrases are the most searched ones. Yet, they don't require you to compete with too many companies for the users' attention. Hence, such words and phrases give you the best opportunities to rank your listings high in search engines and get noticed.
Also, be sure you tap into both short-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail ones are more superficial and only contain one or a few words. An example of such a keyword is “IT jobs”. Long-tail keywords, on the contrary, are more specific and consist of 3 or more words, for example, “system engineer jobs in Michigan”.
As you can see, these phrases are much more intent-strong, meaning that people who search for them are already in a more active job search (which is exactly what you need). You need to use both types to get the best results.
Once you find keywords that might work for you, you need to integrate them into your digital recruitment SEO. First of all, optimize your listings and job descriptions with the detected keywords. If your company’s website has a careers page, optimize it as well. And don’t forget to integrate keywords into all your meta tags, descriptions, and titles.
Enhancing SEO for Talent Acquisition Through Platforms
According to the career expert - Zippia, 57% of job seekers relied on social media in their job search in 2023. No wonder why 84% of companies are already using social networks in their recruitment marketing SEO efforts. And you should do it too!
Here are a few core strategies for using social media SEO for recruitment:
Identify your targets – Depending on the type of vacancies you want to fill, you might want to look for people of specific age groups, qualification levels, locations, etc. To get in front of the right people, determine the demographics of your target candidates early on.
Choose the right platforms – Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other social networks all have different purposes and, respectively, demographics. Use the specs of your target audience to detect the right social networks to focus on in your strategy.
Establish your employer brand – While creating your organization’s profiles on various social media, clearly demonstrate your employer brand. Show potential candidates who you are, what you do, what your team looks like, and how you organize your workflow. This is your opportunity to demonstrate the value of working for you and encourage your potential employees to apply. Also, don’t forget to incorporate the keywords you found earlier in your social media profiles for better visibility.
Create a consistent and tailored strategy – Once you have profiles, create a complete social media strategy tailored to each particular network. You need to plan the right types of content, publication times, CTAs (calls to action), visuals, keywords, and other aspects of your tactic. After this, you must consistently stick to your strategy to start getting the results. The more active you are, the more potential employers will find you.
Consider using paid ads – If you want to take your recruitment to the next level and get in front of more candidates, don’t hesitate to try paid ads on social media and Google search. Think through an effective message that makes professionals want to learn more and apply to your vacancies.
Use all these tactics to achieve your goals. Most importantly, remember to set goals and track your performance. This way, you will know which approaches bring the desired results and which don’t and must be changed or improved.
Bonus tip: If you want to make the most out of SEO for talent acquisition, prioritize mobile. Whether posting on social media, making publications in professional networks, posting listings on various platforms, or simply running your company’s website – making it all look good on mobile is a must. The global number of mobile users is predicted to reach nearly 7.5 billion in 2025.
More and more people will be using mobile devices to find information on the web (including job-related). So, if you want to reach more potential candidates, you must make your site and all content mobile-friendly.
Quality Content and Backlinks
Creating high-quality content is crucial for search engine optimization. And it matters no less in SEO recruitment strategies.
You can achieve multiple goals through your content:
Gain more traffic;
Boost visibility and brand recognition;
Address the pain points your potential employees have;
Showcase the value of your organization and the perks of working in it.
Additionally, compelling recruitment content can help you earn backlinks from other resources. Quality backlinks serve as indicators of credibility and trust. Hence, they can bring you higher search results, double your traffic, and help you find the best talents.
How do you create digital recruitment SEO that earns backlinks? There are a few rules to keep in mind:
Define your perfect candidate (aka target audience).
Understand the needs, motivations, and pain points of your perfect candidates, such as:
Work-life balance;
Career growth;
Compensation;
Contribution in the workplace, etc.
Use your expertise to craft excellent content that taps into these motivations and pain points. Focus on delivering helpful advice, unique and fresh data, and general value.
Don’t hesitate to emphasize the vision and values of your company, as well as the benefits that employees get from it.
Optimize your content with relevant keywords, internal links, images, and links to trusted sources.
Promote your content in search engines and on social media. Also, consider guest posting.
To make your content shine, also steer clear of common recruitment marketing SEO mistakes, such as duplicate content, keyword stuffing, poor or broken links, lack of technical optimization, etc.
Analyzing and Adapting Strategies
Now that you know how to develop and implement your SEO recruitment strategies, let’s wrap it all up with the last crucial tip.
Whether you are just getting started with SEO for recruitment or have been doing it for some time, the only way to guide your strategy and achieve greater results is to regularly measure and adjust your tactics.
To see how your current efforts are working for you, assess the following metrics:
Traffic;
Application completion rate;
Source of hire;
Applicants per opening.
These essential metrics should help you see how many candidates find you, where they come from, how they align with your needs, and how many of them proceed to submit their applications. The insights you will gain from these metrics should help you further improve your recruitment tactics and fill in jobs faster and easier while also ensuring the best match.
What should you do to refine your tactic? The options are many, and they really depend on which metrics you need to improve.
For example, if you gain lots of traffic from different sources (indication of interest) but don’t receive many applications, consider changing your value proposition or creating a more effective call to action. If the qualifications of applicants don’t really match your needs, consider rethinking your target audience. Analyze your metrics from the same critical position and look for strategic solutions that will help you achieve set goals.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that most online experiences now begin in search engines. This is true for entertainment, shopping, and many other industries. And recruitment isn’t an exception.
Leveraging effective SEO recruitment strategies can help companies extend their outreach and reduce the time needed to fill every position. At the same time, it can help you establish a better image for your company, promote awareness, and boost trust. So don’t hesitate to give it a try. After all, now you have an actionable plan to get started!
