Photo by Caio | This post is sponsored by ZipRecruiter, the #1 hiring site.
Do you know how many job seekers use Google to find jobs?
There was a widely-cited article from Business.com that claimed 30 percent of all Google searches were job-related. While that number has been debunked by Jobiak, there are still an estimated 150 million job-related searches every month, which means there are about 5 million job searches on Google every day.
Even if you aren't well-versed in search engine optimization, you can use Google's best practices (along with some help with ZipRecruiter) to ensure that your job post makes Google's algorithm smile.
Additional research from climber found that job seekers’ searches are broken down further into these categories
- Searching for open positions: 29.94%
- Applying to Positions: 27.28%
- Networking: 24%
- Researching Companies: 12.89%
- Working with Recruiters: 5.56%
So, as a business owner, you might want to ensure that you’re getting some of that traffic to hit your open job, right?
Enter Google for Jobs, Google’s Free Job Listing Tool
Google for Jobs is Google’s solution for employers and job seekers alike. A free service, Google for Jobs crawls and lists relevant job listings from across the web. Using AI and machine learning, Google for Jobs will show a job listing in its search results, towards the very top of the page. It looks like this:
Unlike posting directly to many premium job search engines, Google for Jobs does not offer a sponsored tier to increase visibility. Just as Google strives to serve the most relevant results, Google uses its powerful tools to allow employers to reach job seekers directly through their searches.
As an employer looking to hire for an open role, it’s pretty advantageous to have the most powerful search engine on your side—and that’s exactly where Google for Jobs comes in.
Google brings together job postings from across the web, from small businesses hiring for a few roles to large corporations hiring for thousands of positions. This helps job seekers in all stages of their job search.
How Hiring Managers Can Connect Job Postings to Google
If this all sounds great, your next question might be, well, how does it work? We’re glad you asked.
There are two ways to ensure that your job post gets listed on Google's organic search results. One requires a little more legwork from the employer to post jobs to their own site. The other allows third-party job boards and search engines like ZipRecruiter to do all the heavy lifting to get your job to appear front and center in Google’s search results.
If you're already a ZipRecruiter user, you can read something else, because almost everything we'll explain is handled behind-the-scenes already. Lucky you!
1. Use a Third-Party to Post Jobs
The best way to ensure that your job shows up in Google SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) in that pretty Jobs box is by enlisting help from a third party like ZipRecruiter or other job sites, like Linkedin, Monster, or Glassdoor.
When Google launched its search experience designed specifically for serving open jobs and job posts in 2017, ZipRecruiter took notice—and took action.
In response to Google’s structured data for jobs, ZipRecruiter easily implemented its structured data to meet all of Google’s guidelines.
Translation? They rearranged some 0s and 1s to ensure that every job posted on ZipRecruiter would be eligible to be served on that delicious first page of search results, to be seen by the job seekers who were ready to apple.
This proven method of combining a real, powerful job search engine with the world’s best job search engine is the key to success. After ZipRecruiter integrated with Google’s job search experience, the conversion rate of job applications that came to ZipRecruiter from Google searches increased by 4.5x.
2. The DIY Route: Use Your Own Website (+ HTML Magic)
If you’re a business owner or hiring manager with a little HMTL knowledge and a decently-trafficked website, you might not need to enlist any help from a third party.
If you’re familiar with HTML, structured data, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and the “backstage” of your own company’s website, you can get your jobs listed in a Google SERP.
If that sentence was absolute nonsense to you, contact your own web developers.
In fact, there are detailed instructions on how to add structured data to your website so that Google can swiftly find and serve your job descriptions to the right candidates.
Think of it like this. Your job is stranded on a deserted island. It can wait for a ship to pass by eventually or it can send some flares up into the night sky. The structured data is the flare gun. Use it!
Aside from the nitty-gritty details, here are the basic steps that Google provides in order to get your job posting listed, per their recommendations. Pay attention to the key information to include in your job descriptions as well as any job details that make it stand out.
- 1. Make sure your website is set up for frequent crawls.
- 2. If you are posting several job posts that are similar but hosted under different URLs, use canonical URLs to differentiate them. This could happen when you’re hiring for several open roles that have similar titles or responsibilities.
- 3. Add all required and recommended properties to your job post (ie. location, company name, job role, salary range, employment type, etc)
- 4. Follow all technical guidelines and content policies.
- 5. Test it! Use the Rich Results Test to preview what your job posting would look like!
- 6. Post them! Try out your new pages with structured data and use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool to preview how Google “sees” your page.
If it works, repeat, repeat, repeat!
Many employers and job candidates may find it quicker and easier to use a job recruiting website like ZipRecruiter, which takes care of most of the work without either party having to think twice.
Optimizing Your Job Post for Google
We have way more information about how to write a job post (along with free templates) that will attract candidates. However, these next tips take it up a notch to ensure that your job post adheres to SEO best practices.
Once you've worked out your catchy job title, qualifications, job responsibilities, and everything your job post needs, get it looking extra spiffy for Google.
Google has helpful tips to get your job post more viewability and a higher click-through rate. Our next section will spill the best ways to get your job post clicked by the right folks.
This allows Google to serve your job ad even better to potential applicants looking for remote jobs, salary range, and other filters.
1. Real Information About Salary
No, “competitive pay” doesn’t cut it. Google offers estimated salary structured data to allow employers to share their salary range. If you can share this information, do it. We know it’s sensitive information that you might want to customize depending on the candidate.
However, if you have a strict budget or a salary range that you know you’re going to have to adhere to, communicate that in your job post to ensure that only interested candidates will apply. Save everyone a little time in this hiring process.
2. Remote or Work From Home Options
We know that every job cannot be done from home, but can yours? Since March of 2020, job seeker interest in work-from-home jobs has more than doubled. If you can offer a hybrid, flexible, or 100% remote work option, you will receive more applicants.
When creating structured data, this is how different work from home data structures can look:
Fully Remote Roles:
"applicantLocationRequirements": {
"@type": "Country",
"name": "USA"
},
"jobLocationType": "TELECOMMUTE"
"@type": "Country",
"name": "USA"
},
"jobLocationType": "TELECOMMUTE"
In-Office In Chicago With WFH Opportunities:
"jobLocation": {
"@type": "Place",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"addressLocality": "Chicago",
"addressRegion": "IL",
"addressCountry": "US"
}
},
"jobLocationType": "TELECOMMUTE"
"@type": "Place",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"addressLocality": "Chicago",
"addressRegion": "IL",
"addressCountry": "US"
}
},
"jobLocationType": "TELECOMMUTE"
3. Type of Employment
Make sure to also include the type of employment and the potential for weekly hours. Differentiate between part-time, full-time, and contract roles.
Also, make sure to mention whether the job is exempt or non-exempt so that a candidate can factor that into their decision-making before entering into an interview process.
4. Your Logo
When using structured data or posting your job through a third party like ZipRecruiter, include your logo. Make sure your logo is optimized for display in Google for Jobs’ search engine results. These logos are currently displayed 55x55 pixels.
This is how the infamous Starbucks logo appears in Google's job results. Cute, right?
When Should Employers Use Google for Jobs?
Google for Jobs is an incredibly powerful feature when coupled with a third-party site like ZipRecruiter.
For web-savvy employers looking to hire for a few roles, adding structured data is a great way to be in control of your hiring process. However, with that control comes lots of extra work in handling incoming resumes and cover letters, scheduling interviews, and generally keeping track of the entire process. These are all to-dos that job sites generally handle through built-in applicant tracking features.
That’s why we think using Google for Jobs in addition to a third party is the best way to expand your reach as an employer.
If you’re looking to couple the world's largest search engine with the #1 hiring site, try ZipRecruiter today—and delight in seeing your jobs appear on the very first page of Google.
