Google for jobs has been around for a good while now and has become a go-to for job seekers looking for an easy, connected way to browse and apply to jobs directly without navigating through multiple job boards. 

Google for Jobs was launched to build better connections between job seekers and employers by optimising the search experience. Back in 2017, we looked at the initial impact Google for jobs would have on recruitment. Since then, we’ve continued to keep up to date in order to give our clients the best support for optimising job ads and websites in line with SEO best practices.

• What is Google for Jobs?
• How to post on Google for Jobs.
• Google for Jobs best practice.
• Optimising job titles and job descriptions.

What is Google for jobs?

Google for jobs is an easy solution for agencies and employers, allowing you to get your jobs integrated with google and appear in search results for relevant job seekers.

With 69% of job seekers starting with a Google search, optimisation of job ads has become essential for remaining competitive and gaining the best talent. For agencies and employers, this opens up the opportunity to rank organically for your jobs away from the competitive environment of job boards. 

Google for Jobs has proved to be a game-changer within the industry, with 52% of millennial job hunters using Google for jobs functionality to apply for a role rather than, or before clicking through to the job site.

Watch our video for a quick glimpse of Google for Jobs guidelines. 

How to post on Google for jobs.

Appearing in Google for Jobs search can take some time and requires careful consideration of the guidelines to optimise for the Google algorithm. Below are our best practice tips to get your job ranking for the relevant people.

Google for jobs best practice.

Before optimising the jobs in Google, knowing the requirements is essential to get the jobs to appear within the Google for Jobs interface. 

These requirements are:

• Make your web pages indexable.
• Include job posting structured data in your job listings.
• Update and use sitemaps to inform Google about changes to your postings

Once all of these points have been catered for, the jobs can be indexed and returned within the Google for Jobs interface. For jobs to also appear, certain information needs to be present. For agencies, this is your responsibility to ensure that all the following information is included in the job description. 

Required properties for jobs to appear:

• Date Posted
• Job Description
• Hiring Organisation
• Job Location
• Job Title
• Valid Through / Expiry Date

Recommended properties:

• Base Salary
• Employment Type

Optimising Job titles and job descriptions.

There are clear Do and Don’ts for titles and descriptions. The job titles should be easy to understand and straight to the point. Avoid using any fluffy marketing based job titles, as these won’t have the desired SEO value. For example, Digital Evangelist, Data Wrangler, SEO Rock Star, etc.

Job Titles.

Do:

• Be concise and descriptive. e.g. “Head of Sales & Marketing.”
• When you find a job title that works, make sure it’s clear on your listings page. Use it in the <title> tag in your HTML, and place it clearly in the top header of your page.
• Avoid:
• Using acronyms. A job title with just an acronym will likely perform well just for acronym related queries. For example, choose ‘Vice President’ instead of ‘VP’.
• Avoid references to the job location and salary in the title, such as: ‘Senior Java / Messaging Developer, London £100K’. This strategy might let you rank well for specific queries (i.e. ‘Java developer jobs 100k in London’) but score you low for broader queries.

Job Descriptions.

The bulk of the job information can and should be presented within the Job Description. That way, you can provide more context to the search engine when the job is being crawled and indexed.

Do:

• Add concise bullet points as they make the content easier to scan.
• Add the location (e.g. “North London”) straight to the copy, as this will improve the job post visibility if the users are looking for job and location queries, such as “JavaScript developer North London.”
• Find alternate ways to emphasise the job title throughout your job description. For example, instead of repeating keywords like “accountant,” try “bookkeeper,” “CPA,” “certified public accountant”, or “comptroller.”
• Create a simple, engaging piece of content.
• The copy should be easy to scan and have the following structure:
  • Brief company intro
  • Role description
  • Key responsibilities
  • Skills and experience
  • Nice to have / desirable skills (optional)
  • Working hours, salary and benefits
  • Company information

Avoid:

• Using special characters, exclamations marks and capitalisation.
• Posting any job ad with less than 150/200 words. For competitive industries, increase this figure to 400/500 words.

Share your Job Postings.

Search engines share the most popular content. With this in mind, it’s always a good idea to have your HR team, and employees share your job listings on social media. This will generate immediate traffic to your job posts and show search engines like Google that your listings are of interest to people searching for the job description keywords they include.

Get your website SEO ready for Google Jobs Optimisation. For more tips on job advert optimisation or to discover our approach to SEO in recruitment, speak to an expert today.