Are you looking for ways to attract the best talent to your company? If so, chances are you’re already up to speed on employer-branding strategies. (If not, contact us asap.) However, there’s an important factor that’s too often overlooked: website optimization.
The truth is that optimizing your website for search engine rankings is just as important as creating a unique employer-branding strategy. After all, no matter how great your job opportunity or career site might be, no one may see it if it doesn’t show up organically on the first few pages of a search engine listing. That’s why it’s essential for any company aiming to attract new talent to optimize their careers website according to the latest algorithms and updates.
In this article, Brandemix Dev Team will reveal 10 practical ways you can optimize your website for search engine rankings and start drawing in more qualified job applicants. Plus, we’ll give you tips on how to find the right keywords and phrases that best describe your employer brand.
Understanding the Basics of SEO
The first critical step in improving your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) is to understand the basics. Put simply, SEO is the practice of optimizing your website so that it ranks higher in search engine results. This comes down to doing two things – firstly, creating content that helps your target audience solve their problems and secondly, improving the technical aspects of your website so it’s easier for search engines to crawl and index it.
In practice, this means crafting compelling content with relevant keywords and phrases sprinkled throughout, making sure you’re using easy-to-read URLs where possible, loading pages quickly, optimizing images and videos and including meta tags in headers. In addition, link building (getting other websites to link back to yours), is also a great way for search engines to find you and rank you higher in results.
While not always easy or obvious, making small changes to your career website based on the basics of SEO can reap big rewards when it comes to recruiting top talent. So take the time now to get up-to-date on all things SEO and make sure you have a careers website that stands out from the crowd!
An optimized website is more than just making sure your pages are mobile friendly; it’s about creating an online presence that accurately reflects your employer brand and tells more about who you are as an employer and a company. When optimizing your careers site, think about how potential applicants will view and interact with it. You want to make sure that the design and structure of your site create a great first impression.
This includes everything from having a clear “About Us” page to having information on job openings clearly displayed.
In addition, SEO optimization should be tailored to the kind of talent you’re trying to attract. Research the keywords that are most likely to be used by your target candidates in their search queries, then incorporate them into page titles, headings, meta descriptions and content so that they can be found easily when they search for jobs with you.
Create User-Friendly URLs
Another great way to do make your career site attractive to candidates is by creating user-friendly URLs. URLs are an important part of SEO and ensure that audiences can easily find the content they’re looking for.
- Ensure that your URLs are short, simple, and descriptive.
- Include keywords in the URL that are relevant to the content it leads to.
- Make sure the URL is readable and doesn’t include any unnecessary characters or words.
- Utilize hyphens to separate words in the URL for improved readability.
- Avoid duplication and redirects, as this can cause confusion for search engines and users alike and lead to poor SEO performance.
By taking steps such as these to create optimized, user-friendly URLs, you will create a better candidate experience because now they will be able to quickly navigate directly to relevant content!
Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Platforms
Did you know that over 50% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices? That means that if your website isn’t optimized for mobile (including smartphones and tablets), you’re missing out on a lot of potential applications.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
- Ensure your site is responsive: Responsive design means that your website will automatically resize itself and adjust to fit the size of the device that’s trying to access it. This way, users will have an optimal viewing experience regardless of what type of device they’re using.
- Use images sparingly: Many people use their mobile devices to access the web, so having too many large images or videos can slow down page loading times and make it difficult for users to navigate your site.
- Improve page loading times: Page loading time is critical in terms of SEO rankings; some studies have shown that visitors typically abandon a page after waiting 3 seconds or more for it to load. To ensure fast loading speeds, compress any large files (images, videos, etc) and avoid using too much JavaScript or HTML code on any one page.
Keep Content Fresh and Updated
Making sure your website content is up-to-date and relevant is one of the best ways to keep your visibility high in the SERPs. Google prefers websites that are frequently updated with fresh content, as this indicates to them that your website is regularly maintained and provides an overall better experience for users.
Updating your website content on a regular basis can have many benefits beyond improving your search engine rankings.
At the same time you are:
- Demonstrating to potential candidates that you take employer branding seriously
- Generating more interest in potential hires, as they can see that you are actively updating the site
- Keeping visitors engaged and interested in what your company has to offer
You should also make sure that any old or outdated content is removed from your website or marked as such – this will help keep it looking tidy and well organized. Top talent will expect a professional looking website that’s regularly updated with news and events.
Establish Site Architecture and Internal Links
When it comes to optimizing your careers website for SEO, one of the most important steps you can take is to establish a clear site architecture. This involves creating a hierarchy for your content and using internal linking throughout your website.
Having an organized site structure not only helps make it easier for search engine crawlers to index your content, but also allows users to easily navigate from page to page. So make sure that you focus on establishing a logical flow from page to page on your website, and that internal links are added throughout relevant pages.
To ensure you’re getting the most out of your internal links, focus on:
- Using descriptive anchor text (the clickable text in a link)
- Making sure the link points to the most relevant piece of content
- Not overcrowding pages with too many links
- Making sure each anchor links only once per page
Build Links to Boost SEO Rankings
Building links is an essential part of SEO for employer branding. Quality backlinks are like a vote of confidence—the more authoritative websites that link back to your website, the more Google will recognize your site as having quality content.
When building links, it’s important to focus on quality over quantity—just having a thousand low-quality links won’t boost SEO rankings the same way that a three high-quality links would. To get the most out of your link building efforts, you should:
- Focus on obtaining backlinks from other websites in your industry, as this will help with reputation and trustworthiness
- Prioritize secured sites with HTTPS over non-secured sites with HTTP
- Create compelling content that other websites want to link to
- Invest in link building services, such as outreach campaigns and guest blogging
- Leverage existing relationships to get backlinks from partners and vendors
- Monitor your link profile by checking for broken or spammy links and disavow them
- Take advantage of manual review opportunities
Target Audiences With Keywords
Another way to optimize your careers website for better rankings is to use keywords that are specific to the audiences you want to attract. Not only can you use keywords that are directly related to jobs, such as “Software Developer,” but you should also consider adding location-specific terms like “Toronto Software Developer.” Doing this ensures that when someone is searching for something related to your job opening, your website will be one of the first in the search results.
In addition to targeting specific audiences with keywords, you should also be mindful of how often these words appear throughout your website. Your keywords should appear naturally in titles, headings and descriptions throughout pages, and they should also be used in image alt tags so they’re seen by search engine crawlers.
Having a well-optimized website containing detailed job postings with relevant keywords will help ensure that when potential candidates are searching for job openings, your website will be visible at the top of their organic search results.
Leverage Social Media for Employer Branding Purposes
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool for marketing and recruiting, and it’s also great for building your employer brand. Here are a few tips for leveraging social media for employer branding purposes:
- Use visuals to showcase your company culture: Visuals are an effective way to show potential job candidates what it’s like to work at your company. Share photos and videos of employee activities, events, or even just the office space on your social profiles.
- Engage with potential job candidates: Be active on social media and engage with potential job candidates. Respond to posts, answer questions, and comment on relevant conversations. This will help build a strong connection between your brand and talent prospects.
- Promote positive feedback: Showcase any positive feedback you receive from employees or customers on social media by sharing quotes or reviews. This will help create a positive impression of your company among job seekers who may be considering applying.
By leveraging the power of social media, you can reach a broader pool of talent and make sure your employer brand resonates with job seekers in the digital age.
Analyze Your Data for Insight and Enhancements
Data analysis has become an increasingly important tool for website optimization and employer branding. By taking the time to analyze your website data, you can gain insights about user behavior, customer journey, and content performance. Regularly analyzing your website data can help you identify areas that need improvement, create strategies to maximize the impact of your employer branding efforts, and understand how visitors engage with your on-site content.
But what data should you be looking at? Here are some of the most important metrics to consider when analyzing your website:
- Bounce rate – This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after only viewing one page. A high bounce rate typically indicates a problem with usability or relevance.
- Traffic sources – Knowing where people are coming from (search engine vs. social media vs. referral links) helps you determine where to focus your efforts for maximum impact.
- Time on site – How much time are people spending on each page? Analyzing this metric can help you adjust and fine-tune content to keep users engaged longer.
By keeping an eye on these key metrics, you’ll be able to make sure that your website is as optimized as possible for employer branding success.
Continue to Keep Up With Trends and Make Adjustments
It’s important to stay up to date with the latest trends in SEO, as this will help keep your website optimized, and thus more attractive to potential candidates.
With the right approach, you can ensure that your careers website stands out, drawing in qualified candidates who will be the perfect fit for your company. Start making changes now to position your brand effectively and ensure that you recruit the best talent. And of course, you’re not in it alone. We are here to help.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
