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Earlier this month Google quietly changed how they display and showcase jobs within their search engine leaving many to wonder if Google is entering the job board space.

Episode 89: How Google Search Algorithm Is Changing Job Boards & Recruiting with Chris Russell (@chrisrussell)

Subtles changes are happening right now in how Google indexes some job postings. Workology Podcast guest, Chris Russell walks us through what that means for employers and if some Google is entering the job posting space.

Chris was the first to discover (article link posted in resources section below) the change in how Google is now displaying job postings in their search results as seen below. Chris tells us that Google seems to be experimenting with how they display jobs in search results. Job “snippets” are now being featured at some but not all of the top of the search results pages.

Chris says this change tells us that Google is signaling that job boards are important in terms of providing search results that are easier for job seekers to navigate. Job boards will see a better click through rate overall with a lower click through rate and a lower bounce rate because of the text that is included as part of the snippet. At present, the snippet is only happening with job board postings and not employer career sites and job listings. Chris tells us the reason that employer jobs might not be featured among the snippets is because ATS aren’t optimized to be SEO friendly. This might be an important reason for you to continue to advertise on job boards and don’t quit cold turkey like Zappos.

How Employers Can Optimize Their Career Sites for SEO

I asked Chris how employers can make their job postings more SEO optimized and search engine friendly. He says:

• Use an ATS that is keyword friendly urls, ATS feed or XML or RSS feeds

• Create more original content for your sites

• Start asking for more links to your content, postings and pages

SEO optimization is not this simple, but the above bullets are a start for employers looking to improve search results for their employer-specific job postings making it easier for qualified candidates to find jobs and apply.

Is Google Entering the Job Board Space?

This snippet isn’t the first time Google has entered the job board space. Google’s first product was launched in 2004 and was called Google Base. It was a version of classifieds which included jobs. It never really took off. It was poorly executed and wasn’t marketed very well.

Chris tells me that if Google enters the job board space and/or updates the snippets for all job postings, Indeed would be the biggest loser because they own SEO optimization when it comes to job postings and their search results.

But no, Chris doesn’t believe that Google is entering the job board space. Google is finding ways to index job listings better for professionals and job seekers who are increasingly relying on search engines to search for jobs across job boards, aggregators and employer websites instead of a single job board.

Job board or employer alike, the best way to elevate your job postings is with SEO optimization. It’s critical to anything indexed on the web, but unfortunately, it’s not something we, as recruiters and talent acquisition leaders really consider to elevate and reach more candidates with SEO. Chris advises employers to bubble up your jobs wherever possible but that career sites don’t make optimization easy because they push the job data back so far. He suggests you use your job feed to make it easier. Display that feed on the front page of your career site so you don’t have to click so many times to be able to see them.

Connect with Chris Russell on LinkedIn.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

• What’s Changing with Google Jobs?

• 13 Job Board Aggregators

• 31 Niche Job Boards for Recruiters

• Google Adds Job Snippets to Search Results ~ Chris’s article

• Don’t Be Surprised When You Hear Internet Behemoth Back in Job Board Space

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*A special thank you to my production team at Total Picture Radio.