Drive free traffic to your job posts

Keep it under 150 words

In order to keep your job post under 150 words, use bullet points, and focus on just the key tasks and responsibilities. Remember that when it comes to SEO for job posts, being concise is just as important as being clear. 

If you’re looking for a developer in Paris, for example, title your job post as “Software developer, Paris.” If you have your job title and location in your headline or early in your post, the higher it’s likely to rank when candidates are searching on both job boards and search engines. 

Share your job post widely with links

The more a job post is shared on social media like LinkedIn, the higher it will rank. One simple fix? Add a quick share function.

Job posts that contain links to reputable, external sites such as your company homepage or a LinkedIn blog are also ranked higher by search engines.

Encourage employees to share any open roles on LinkedIn; it has a high domain authority — the potential of a website to rank higher in search engines — which means that shares there are ranked higher by search engines.

Include meta description and title tags

Whenever you post a new job online, always include a title tag and meta description since it gives you the opportunity to increase the number of keywords associated with each job post. It can be included with the text of your job post.

The title tag — the HTML element that specifies the title of a web page — is displayed on all search engines as a clickable headline. It can help candidates understand what your role is before even clicking the link (but remember to be concise).

The meta description — the caption underneath the title — gives you space to summarise the job post. Meta descriptions can be up to 160 characters long, but aim for something between 50-150 characters, as some search engines shorten text after 155 characters.

Brainstorm other terms that might be used

Improve the SEO of your job post by brainstorming, researching, and crowdsourcing keywords associated with your open role. Say your job title is "marketing associate." If the successful candidate is going to work with Instagram in the role, then call it out in your job post and description.

Keep in mind that search engines are smart and will punish job posts that overuse keywords. The key is to write with an approachable, and clear, tone.

Think mobile and video first

With mobile use on the rise, search engines now use location services to identify where candidates are located to serve them the most relevant results when searching for ‘jobs near me.’ This is why including the location of your role in the job post title can have a positive impact on SEO.

Video improves the mobile experience, as it saves the jobseeker from scrolling through lots of text, search engines reward mobile sites that use them. In addition to boosting a job post’s SEO ranking, video job description ads can increase engagement. Some job posts have seen a 500% increase in clicks and a 50% rise in applications.

In just five simple steps, you’ll have an optimized job description to increase organic traffic to your job post. It’s an easy way to reach a larger, and perhaps better, talent pool so you can find your perfect hire sooner.