Google is good for jobsearching! Why?

For one, when recruiters do not want to pay Monster prices, they seek out alternatives and what is better than free? Translation: Create a homepage for your resumes and profile so employers can find you for free. There is really no other way to say it, everybody wants to save a buck.

For two, Google has a cool tool call “Google Ad Words” that allows customers to advertise based on the search terms a Google visitor uses. Translation: You can advertise your resume at the top of the search results! “Whoa, hold on a minute there Sparky!” you say, “Advertising on search engines is expensive isn’t it?” To which I would reply, “Not really, 5 dollars is all it takes to get started.”

How to use Google to promote your resume

Now, while you are blinking your eyes in utter amazement (or, at least with mild fascination), let me give you the highlights of this most wonderful jobseeker tool.

1) Google Ad Words is 100% self-service! No need to deal with intermediaries, simply skip the chase. You open up an account with a credit card, write an ad and then pick keywords that will trigger your advertisement.

2) Google Ad Words charges you for the results it gives you! In other words, they will not charge you for showing your ad on the screen. They charge when someone clicks on your advertisement and goes to the website you want to promote.

3) Google Ad Words wants your advertisement to succeed! The price of an ad, as well as its position on the page (top, middle, or bottom), depends on how often your advertisement is clicked on. In effect, the better the advertisement the less it will cost and (get this!) the higher it will appear on the search results page.

4) Google Ad Words really, really wants your advertisement to succeed! If your advertisement does not attract a significant number of “clicks,” then Google will send a polite email message asking that you change your ad or keywords. And check this out, they will do this early in your campaign before you spend a large part of the money budgeted to the task! (Very cool!)

Now for those whose lightbulbs have yet to come on, people use Google Ad Words to promote their businesses. Why don’t you use Google Ad Words to promote your resume! Go ahead now, perform a search on Google using your last position title. Know what you are going to see? You are going to see businesses advertised, maybe a few books on your industry, but precious few (if any) resumes. Take advantage of this! (I cannot stress that enough.)

Google Ad Words Tips

1) Keywords – Okay, so its an obvious first move, but I had to name it. Before you can sponsor keywords, you have to know which keywords work best for you. So, if someone was looking for you, “Mr.. or Ms… Business Developer” what keywords would they use? Sales? Sales Guru? Sales Genie? Gee whiz, (Yes, I said “Gee Whiz.”) if only there was a magical mystical tool to help me figure this out. Why it just so happens that there is one. (Oh, you saw that one coming a mile away.) Click this link: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Overture is a company that sells keywords as well with their results shown on MSN and Lycos, plus thousands of other websites. The aforementioned link is a tool that allows you to research the popularity of keywords, or keyword combinations, used in the last month. (Overture sells keywords too, but Google has my heart so my commentary is biased towards them. If you want a fair comparison call Overture and talk to a sales rep today.)

Let’s give Overture’s tool a shot!

Hmmm.. I put in the term “sales” and the top 10 results that were returned were: “home for sale, house for sale, for sale by owner, car sale, horse for sale, boat for sale, used car sale, business for sale, land for sale, real estate sale.” This tells me that if I wanted to sell real estate that the best terms to use are: “home for sale, house for sale, for sale by owner, land for sale and real estate sale.” But this does nothing for me as a sales guy looking for my next gig. So let me experiment.

I type in “business developer” and was surprised that this term was searched against (at most) 140 times last month and even then in conjunction with website development. Hmm… not what I want.

I type in “business” and finally was getting somewhere. The term business was searched against 350,152 times in September 2002. Oh goody, I go down the results and I see that “business to business” was searched 27,819 times in September, “business service” scored 19,601, “new business” was 8,629 and “business planning” weighed in at 6,194. I also peeked at “strategic Partner” (211), “strategic partnering” (58), “business deal” (158), “roi” 6208, “business strategy” (4635) and “business development strategy” (261). (I could go on and on with keywords, but I want this book to stay interesting.)

Now I consider my SALES resume and figure out who I am targeting. For argument’s sake, let’s say I am in Telecom and my experience was in making deals through strategic partnering. On a whim, I search “telecommunications business strategy” and see that this combo was worth 29 visits. I’m not excited about that. I try again with “telecom business” and my number jumps to 215. Getting better, but I’m still not bursting with fruit flavor. And then I think about the Easter Bunny.

2.) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, unless you are the Easter Bunny –
Consider The Easter Bunny, he shows up around Easter, hides his eggs and then splits. No one sees him again until next year. Hiding eggs and Easter appearances is all he is known for and that seems to be alright with him. But ask yourself, can you wrap your work history into one report for all people? Chances are that you cannot and if you can, you should not. Translation: Test multiple ads simultaneously.

The cool thing about Google Ad Words is that you can create as many advertisements that you want, track how many times your ad was placed before visitors (called “impressions”) and how may times that your advertisement was clicked on (called “click-throughs). All that said, I will create 3 ads assuming that I am a business development professional with experience in Telecom verticals:

Advertisement #1
TITLE: Resume: Sales Consultant
INFO: Business to Business expertise in Telecom deals.
KEYWORDS: sales, business to business, telecom

Advertisement #2
TITLE: Resume: Business Strategist
INFO: 7 years with ATT, 5 years with Sprint, stellar references.
KEYWORDS: new business, telecom, business development strategist

Advertisement #3
TITLE: Resume: Telecom Sales Guru
INFO: Cold-call enthusiast with a golden rolodex and a passion for telecom.
KEYWORDS: telecom, sales, cold calling

The beauty of this technique is that you are targeting passive employers, those who may hire “the right person” should they happen along them. Imagine a VP researching competition, or staying up with the current trends, who on a whim clicks your advertisement. Maybe they will call and maybe not, but at least in this way you are further qualifying those who see your resume and increasing your chances of being discovered.

Comments? Criticisms? Anyone?