Tip 1. Ignore the idiots that bang on about the rights and wrongs of silly job titles. If there are candidates who self-identify as a Rockstar instead of as Developers, then that is what they will search for. Your advert might be the only one they find if you don’t bow to the snobbery of some copywriter types. So make an advert with a job title Rockstar and another one with a more traditional title Developer and test your audience’s reaction. Google for Jobs might not have a clue that Rockstar is a Developer, but Google SERPS does. The best marketing is one which tests, not just assumes or bows to the loudest voice. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 2: Part 1 of “Google for Jobs (GFJ) and Google SERPS are not the same thing and do not follow the same exact rules on what is right and what is wrong with a job page”.  For example, Google SERPS knows exactly what “Estate Agent Cambridge” means, and it will match your page to the people who make such a search. GFJ, on the other hand, says can you not put locations with your job titles as it confuses GFJ software.  There is even a suggestion there will be a penalty by GFJ if you do add more than the job title, though I think this is bollocks, as all the early adoption partners of GFJ send them jobs the way SEPRS likes it, and they are not getting penalties I can see.  Quite the opposite, in fact, hence the EU is investigating GFJ for anti-competitive practices, and I sent them some research on this very subject. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 3: If your vendor, or a vendor you are considering, told you Google for Jobs (GFJ) is SEO, then they are frankly a moron. GFJ is a job aggregation service, that has, for now, a manipulated position in Google SERPS results for where access to its services can be found. I say ‘for now’ because the EU are looking at a complaint about this manipulation.  So GJF is not SEO, and the same as with indeed and other job aggregation services, GFJ uses your data to get job seekers but does not pass them directly to you in most cases. Rather, you have to have the bunfight on their platform to get your jobs ranked first inside the job aggregator’s algorithm or pay to get positioning. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 4: Part 2 of “Google for Jobs (GF) and Google SERPS are not the same thing and do not follow the exact same rules”. If you want to rank well with Google SERPS, then archiving your job pages when they are filled works well as an SEO strategy and has done so since 2004, when I first started optimising job pages. But Google for Jobs (GFJ) again are none too happy about this practice; they prefer you get rid of those pages entirely. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 5: Personal branding of your job page and multiple ways to connect with you, rather than to just blindly send a CV and hope, are best. There are even tools now where job seekers can click a button and leave a voicemail while reading your job advert.  So you know the drill: if your candidate is as rare as rocking horse teeth then they won’t be jumping through rings of fire to do the recruiter’s application bidding for them. Use the KISS principle of ‘keep it simple, stupid’, then the candidates will fly through your application process. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 6: Part 3 of “Google for Jobs (GF) and Google SERPS are not the same thing and do not follow the exact same rules”. Location filtering on SERPS is not as accurate as location filtering on Google for Jobs (GFJ).  So if your Estate Agent’s job is in Cambridge then SERPS is going to need more help than GFJ will. Because while SERPS can offer up results based on your location (IP lookup), GFJ actually has hard-coded filter locations by street name, town/city. county, postcode, country, etc., and matches all that data to your computer’s  IP location, or if on mobile, your nearest cell mast. So when GFJ asks you for your jobs postcode, be a good egg and given then the fxxxxxx postcode, because it will mean the difference between the Estate Agent standing in Hills Road, Cambridge on their lunch hour finding your job in Hills Road, Cambridge at another Estate Agents on GFJ, rather than jobs up to 60 miles away because nobody trusted GFJ with postcode data!!!! If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 7: In 2019, there were 5.9 million businesses in the UK, 200,000 more than in 2018. Businesses by size? Over 99% of businesses are Small or Medium Sized businesses employing 0-249 people.  5.6 million (96%) of businesses were micro-businesses – employing 0-9 people. Micro-businesses accounted for 33% of employment and 22% of turnover.  There were only 8,000 large businesses in the UK (employing over 250 people), but these businesses accounted for 40% of employment and 48% of turnover. People said Google for Jobs and Indeed, etc., would end recruiters, but the trouble is that the bulk of recruiters’ revenues are generated in the 8000 firms, not the 5.6 million firms, because HR at those firms could not organise a piss-up in a brewery, even with Oliver Reed and George Best as their tour guides, when it comes to career sites and job adverts.  As my mate Mitch Sullivan says, most of them still write their job adverts as if the employer is doing the job seeker a favour by employing them. Which recruiters might also be doing, but not if they have been in a Mitch and Jackie sandwich for the day in one of the courses they run up and down the country. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 8: Avoiding Google Adwords as a viable recruitment marketing option is akin to being the transport inventor who had made the cycle with the square wheels and is too busy to talk to the sales rep whose company just invented round wheels. Get PPC working for you and leapfrog even Google for Jobs in SERPS. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 9: Think like a job seeker, not like a recruiter, when it comes to recruitment marketing. Many recruiters I meet think like “I place social workers, and so people will search for social work jobs”. Then they see the list of results of people they will have to compete against to get ranked and think fxxx that for a game of soldiers. There are some recruiters who joined the special forces and think like “social work jobs Derby”, but they get picked up by the search parties and soon get overrun by the white noise from others in the organisation. Meanwhile, social workers think like “social work jobs in child protection near me” or “social work jobs in child protection near Derby”, and the special forces talk to Siri and Alex, etc., and say “Alex/Siri, find me a social work job in child protection near me”. They think like this as they registered with the two or three job board sites that come up, got no work and so thought outside the box, as it matters more to them that they can pay their rent/mortgage. The trend has always been there, but it exploded in 2007 due to Google algorithm changes and has been growing ever since. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Tip 10: Recruitment market differently for desktop than you do for mobile phones. If you don’t know why, go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass GO and do not pick up $200 monopoly dollars. But as it is Friday and I have an abundance of “Get out of Recruitment Marketing Jail Free Cards”, the answer is because people have started to use different language to search for jobs when they talk to their mobile, and for that you need a dedicated strategy/dedicated mobile pages. If in doubt, test; recruitment marketing is about testing, so try a few things and keep what is useful and disregard what is not.

Got any questions or need any more advice on how your recruitment website can help? 

Then connect with me here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/recruitmentwebsitedesign/

 

Darren Revell

Director

Please note I am Dyslexic, and in my form, I am blind to grammar, and sometimes I get my fors and fours, etc. backwards.  I am not stupid – in fact, my IQ and EQ are both quite high.  Please keep that in mind when you read my posts.  Thanks.