Why SEO Matters For Hiring
Filed under: Branding, Hiring, Marketing, Recruiting Tools, SEO, Social Media
If you run a successful website, then you’re already somewhat of a search engine optimization expert. If you’re not, you’ve hired someone who is. SEO seeks to please the Google gurus by developing content and structure designed to attract the attention of the search engine. Without it, your site will never be seen. But what about your job postings? Have you submitted your career page to the rigors of SEO? If not, perhaps you should.
Why SEO for Hiring?
If you could guarantee that 3 million or more potential job candidates would see your job listings, what would that mean for your hiring process? That’s what a high SEO ranking can do for you. Organic search represents a largely untapped resource for the hiring process, and with millions of searches performed for keywords like “jobs” and “careers,” it’s one you can’t afford to ignore.
What Google Looks For
Google’s algorithms remain a well-kept secret, but below we’ve listed four elements you must optimize if you want to boost your organic search rankings.
- Quality Content
Google’s primary concern is for customers, not businesses. They’re looking to provide the most relevant information possible on any given search. That means your page should be chock full of quality, helpful information. To determine quality, Google looks not just at the primary search keyword, but also at closely related keywords and user behavior on the page.
- Keywords
Keywords should be as specific as possible to describe the content of your page. A keyword like “jobs” may receive a lot of hits, but it will also result in a high bounce rate as most of the traffic probably won’t be looking for the specific jobs you’re offering (unless you’re a job search website). You can use your keywords to target traffic based on location, industry, and whatever niche your company is seeking to fill.
- Links
So much has been written about link-building that I won’t go into detail here. Back-links are essential to your SEO efforts, so take the time to develop and implement a strong link-building strategy.
- Social Media
Google recently updated their algorithms to include social media references as part of their ranking process. That means all those “likes” and “shares” can impact where your site shows up in a Google search, especially when quality raters promote your site. Real-time social sharing and the addition of the +1 button to the search results also mean that social media just got a lot more important for your business.
It’s true that your best contacts for potential employees may not come from a Google search. But just about everyone uses Google (or another search engine) to find information, including information about potential employers. That means that up-and-coming talent in the field as well as contacts from your networking efforts will be Googling you to find out just who you are as a company. Implementing a sound SEO strategy can help solidify you as a leader in the field, simply by making sure your website is one of the first people see when they want to find out more.
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Revolutionize Your Recruitment Strategy With Social Media
Filed under: Branding, Consulting, Marketing, Recruiting, Social Media
If you want to catch a fish, you have to go where the fish are. Makes sense when you’re carrying a rod and reel, but when it comes to landing the big fish in terms of talent acquisition, many business professionals aren’t in the right pond.
Statistics show that the gap between consumer and professional usage of social media is widening. Businesses aren’t keeping up with social innovations and new networking opportunities, and that’s detrimental for the job force. The good news is that job candidates want to connect; they’re broadening their networks and polishing their online resumes. All you have to do is get them to bite.
Goals for Social Media Recruiting
Social media recruiting isn’t like posting a job on Career Builder. Job candidates expect a more personal, interactive approach when they’re on Facebook. Your social recruiting strategy should accomplish two goals:
- Sourcing—Obviously, your number one goal is finding the right applicants. Social media is a great place to do that, because it’s where the largest pools of talent congregate.
- Transparency—Social media also helps job candidates get to know your company and establishes your identity as a desirable employer.
How to Attract the Right Candidates with Social Media
For most businesses, the question isn’t primarily whether they should engage in social media recruitment strategies. It’s how to create an effective strategy in the first place.
- Diversify—Establish a presence on multiple social media networks. Start with the Big Three (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and then expand from there. The goal isn’t to have accounts at as many places as possible; rather, it’s to establish and maintain a presence on those networks that will bring the most benefit to your company.
- Use Social Referrals—Your job postings aren’t just appearing to your contact base. They’re also being shared with friends of friends, a process known as social referrals. Make the most of this opportunity by remaining in close contact with the movers and shakers at key companies.
- Engage—By interacting with your target audience, you not only present yourself as a transparent company, but also gain insight into the identity and personality of potential job candidates.
- Marketing—Sell your company using the same marketing techniques you use to sell a product: brand promotion, target audience, strategy development, content creation, ad development, metrics, etc.
- Follow Up—Social media is becoming an essential tool for identifying desirable job candidates, but don’t throw out the tried and true methods. Once you’ve narrowed down your pool of candidates, follow your normal protocol for interviews and follow-ups.
With more than 60% of adults maintaining a social media presence to some extent, social media recruiting places you in contact with the largest available pool of potential talent. It’s a trend you can’t afford to ignore.
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Eight Tools to Boost Your Competitive Intelligence ROI
Competitive intelligence involves systematically gathering, analyzing, and utilizing information about other organizations in the effort to gain a competitive edge. When it comes to recruiting, competitive intelligence relies on understanding the labor market, researching industry and company trends, and gaining an in-depth knowledge of employee needs. While traditional competitive intelligence methods still carry significant weight, companies can also incorporate new tools in order to gather information as efficiently as possible while remaining cost effective.
- LinkedIn—Most professionals already use LinkedIn, but you may not be aware of the wealth of information that can be gleaned from its pages. Start by following competitor pages and discover key information about new hires, employees who have left, organizational charts, promotions and more. LinkedIn may be one of the most important tools you add to your competitive intelligence arsenal.
- The Free Library—Search by category, business name, or date to find information on what your competitors are doing. This is a great resource for discovering information about company restructuring or reorganization, often complete with names and positions.
- SocialMention—Follow your competitors and receive daily alerts when they are mentioned around the web. SocialMention helps you stay up to date on developing news as well as branding efforts and marketing campaigns.
- Google Alerts—An excellent resource for monitoring press releases, news stories, and other information about your competitors. Alerts can be customized by company, name, and endless other specific information that may be relevant to your industry. Set up an RSS feed or have the results delivered to your email.
- Facebook and Twitter—These twin pillars of the social media realm should also form the foundation for your competitive intelligence efforts. Follow not only your competitors and their employees, but also the people that they are following.
- Glassdoor—Research job openings, salaries, inside connections, employee reviews, and interviews to discover what your competitors are doing.
- Slideshare—Find out who is presenting, what they’re publishing, and much more with a few quick searches on Slideshare.
- Indeed—Search for competitor job availability, salaries, hiring trends and more.
Competitive intelligence plays a key role in discovering and attracting the right talent for your organization. Many of the tools above require minimal time investment and can deliver vital information directly to your inbox. As you become more familiar with your favorite tools, you can begin experimenting with less familiar resources in order to expand the effectiveness of your competitive intelligence efforts.
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