*This article has been updated as of December 14, 2016. Like what you see? Check out my recent article on the best niche job boards? Click here. 

What is a Job Engine or Aggregator?

A job board is a single site where hundreds or even thousands job postings are published available for job seekers to search. Job aggregators, however, pull jobs from different places around the web including career sites, employer job listings and other job boards. Because there are thousands of individual job boards it is hard for a job seeker to effectively search for all job openings. Job aggregators operate similarly to search engines like Yahoo, Bing and Google pulling job postings from multiple locations. Job aggregators are important because searching for a job is time consuming and without aggregators or engines requires you to search and locate multiple job board websites for the same job title, requires or keyword combinations.

One might think that job boards are not happy about aggregators, however, that is not the case. Cross-publishing and posting jobs is a common practice among job boards and offers job boards a revenue strategy. Other job boards can profit when they send qualified referral traffic to other job boards and as well as job aggregators. This revenue stream can be substancial depending on their referral relationships and niches the job board itself specializes in.

It’s important to note that job boards have suffered as of recent years due to search engine robots penalizing sites that publish content that has also been published at different places across the web which includes job boards. This is one of the main reasons that job boards have flocked to job aggregator sites like those you see below as a qualified candidate traffic source. This is also the reason that job boards are excited about Google’s new Cloud Job API as it offers a ways for jobs from job boards and aggregators to be featured different in search results and thus, improve the likelihood that job seekers will click, select and apply for job postings from them versus traditional career sites. There has been a lot of rumors over the year’s of Google entering the job board industry and this announcement puts some of those rumors to rest at least temporarily.

Job board aggregators monetize by being paid by job boards for job referrals as well as by the employer who pays for job postings to be sponsored or featured similar to Google Adwords. Job seekers just like internet search engine users most times click on results with in the first 1-2 pages making it an extremely important for talent acquisition teams as well as staffing agencies to have their jobs features first when job candidates search for jobs.

Career experts like About.com’s Allison Doyle recommend job search aggregator sites for candidates because users can search and locate job openings fast. Current trends show these types of sites being used far more than the job boards and staffing agencies that dominated this market in the past.

Given the rise in use of this sort of job search tool, employers that don’t post their positions to these websites often see far less hits on their job postings than those that do. These types of search engines have quickly become one of the quickest and easiest ways to get the talent to your job postings.

Finding the Right Job Search Engine and Aggregator

There are countless job sites out there and in addition to job postings, a lot of these types of sites have also taken to giving candidates other tools to help them in their job search process. They may include blog posts on various job related topics, how to videos, ratings of prospective employers based on the reviews of past and present employees, networking opportunities and so on. Some of them are industry specific while others are a catch all for anything and everything. There are many out there that offer different things and thus sometimes it is hard find the one that will best suit an individual’s specific job-search needs.

• Indeed – Currently Indeed is the #1 job search site out there. In many cases, it is one of the easiest to use and it skips a lot of the fluff. You can search by location, keyword or both. It is fairly easy to tell the paid posts from the others. Unlike similar sites of the past, when available, Indeed will link you directly to the prospective employers job posting on their own site. Indeed is very mobile job seeker friendly.

• LinkUp – It claims to be one of the purest job search engines out there and in all actuality it is. It functions very similarly to Indeed but indexes job listings directly from company career sites versus other job board listings.

• LinkedIn – This site takes on more of a social media platform approach. It allows prospective candidates to network, post resumes and other content as well as search for jobs. it will pull job search content and postings, although it features it’s paid job listings first and foremost.

• StartJobs – This site makes it easy to search for jobs by city, category and university. The look and feel is fresh and easy to use. The site loads at a rapid pace.

• JustJobs – While it has the same type of job search function as many of the other sites, it also offers profile pages for employers as well as many other tools for candidates to make themselves more marketable.

• Trovit – This site searches classified ads from across the country for jobs as well as real estate, vehicles and rentals.

• Glassdoor – It has a lot of different offerings but one of the items that set Glassdoor apart is its focus on the rating of prospective employers. Past and present employees are able to share and rate their experience, benefits offered, salary and so on, in efforts of letting future candidates know what to expect from a specific role or company.

• .jobs – Run by the National Labor exchange, this site boasts “no middle man.” It also offers various resources to candidates looking for jobs.

• Jobrapido – The tagline for this site states “you can indeed find in one place all jobs posted on all careers sites in the US.” It also allows you to search other countries. Its search options are very basic but sometimes eliminating all of the complexities that other sites offer can make the process more simple and concise.

• Monster – There was a time where sites like Monster and Career Builder dominated the job search industry. They both still have their place offering assistance with resumes and advice while also still functioning as a job search engine.

• JobCase – One of the newest job aggregators that isn’t just a job board but is also a community. Members can post on the website forum and allow candidates to have access to a variety of job search resources.

• JobisJob – This aggregator is UK-focused and offers job seekers the opportunity to search postings easily. Additionally, they offer free job postings as well.

• SimpleTelecommute – A telecommute job aggregator that looks very similar in feel to Google’s own search engine.

Are you using any additional job search engines or aggregators I missed? Leave a comment below.

Like what you see? Check out my recent article on the best niche job boards? Click here.