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SEO for Your Job Ad

HowJob Seekers

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How Job Seekers Search

People scan search results by the title tag. All jobs posted on Monster have an automated title tag made up of:

<Job Title> Jobs <Location> Search engines also take into account how relevant the content of the page is by counting the number of times keywords and key phrases appear. There are hundreds of other page elements that go into deciding how well your job listing will rank, but these are some quick steps you can take to improve your ranking.

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Effective Job Titles

Put yourself in the shoes of the jobseeker…

What words would they search if looking for your job ad?

Keyword terms appear in bold on the search results page, increasing the chance they will be noticed and clicked on by the user. > Don‘t use: Tier 2 Policy Implementation Architecture

Strategist > Do use: Senior Policy Advisor

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Effective Job Titles- More Do’s and Don’ts

Adding a key skill to your job title will help it appeal to a more specific audience. > Don't use: Web Developer > Do use: Java Web Developer

Steer clear of job titles that are cryptic or in question form. They won't appear under the search terms you want and deter users from clicking. > Don't use: Want to work in a bank? > Do use: Bank Cashier

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Better Targeted Locations

Better Locations

While posting your job on Monster, when prompted to tell us where you job is located you'll want to provide two key bits of information in order to improve SEO. 1. The postcode (in order to sync with our Google Maps feature)

2. The nearest town or city (with county where appropriate)

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Title Tag Do’s and Don’ts

The Title Tag shown in search engines is limited to 90 characters so long location strings tend to have a negative impact.> Don't use: Reading, Berkshire, M4 corridor, Thames Valley,

South East > Do use: Reading, Berkshire

You can be more specific about the location within the actual job description, but for the purposes of SEO, you want to rely on one key location that will match the area in which you expect most candidates to be searching.

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The Opening

Paragraph

Opening Paragraph Guidelines

The first 155 characters of your job description is highly important for the success of your job posting. > Don’t: Launch into a description of your company> Do: Provide a short overview of the role, repeating the job title

once, the location once and a couple of other related key skills.

Note: It's important to ensure that this forms a coherent sentence rather than a keyword list as search engines reward well constructed opening content.

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Example Opening Paragraph

Sales Executive job based in Warrington:

“We are looking for a Sales Executive with experience in the pharmaceutical industry to join our specialist sales

team in Warrington, Cheshire."

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Repeat Key

Phrases

Key Phrases

The remainder of your job description should also contain your keywords and key phrases in a variety of ways.> Taking your job title as the most important, make sure it appears

at least 3 and no more than 6 times within your job description. > Sentences such as “The responsibilities of the Marketing

Manager…” or “As you will have proved through previous Marketing Manager roles…” are good ways of fitting key terms in without them looking forced.

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More Key Phrases

You want your key phrase (or words related to your key phrase) to make up 5-10% of the total page content. Keyword spamming is a practice heavily discouraged by search engines so trying to increase your ranking by simply listing related job titles, skills and locations is likely to see you disappear from the rankings.

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Want to learn more about Search Engine Optimization for your job ads?

http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/acquiring-job-candidates/how-can-i-make-my-job-advert-search-engine-friendly.aspx

Discuss this issue on The Employer Forum.

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