How to Optimise your Job Ads for Job Portals

Jobs.co.za provides insights into how to create a keyword rich Job Ads for improved rankings on Job Portals.

If you are going to be advertising on Job Portals (or if you are already doing so) as part of your recruitment strategy, then you need to understand the significance of creating keyword rich job advertisements. Your Job Ad is the only real bait that you have available on job boards in order to hook those passive candidates who are not currently active or searchable on CV databases.

With so many candidates using the Internet to find jobs, a search-friendly, keyword rich job ad becomes your most vital recruiting tool, and while so many recruiters are competing for the best talent, you need to ensure that your job advert stands out and ranks at the top of the job seekers search results.

By optimising your jobs for higher search rankings, you are effectively ‘out-ranking' your competitors. In the traditional online world, this process is known by internet professionals as ‘Search Engine Optimisation'. This is where millions of pages (owned by millions of companies) compete on Search Engines to rank on the first page of the search engine's results for a particular search query.

Job Search engines work much like traditional search engines (such as Google, Bing or Yahoo) in that it uses algorithmic software to find, crawl and index the pages (Job Ads) on the internet (job boards) in order to better understand what the general theme or area of specialisation is for that that page (advertisement). By optimising your jobs for targeted keywords, your ads have a better chance of out-ranking your competitors for that targeted search term.

How to optimise your job ads for targeted keywords:
When compiling your job advert, try to include more specific keywords instead of broader ones. For instance, if you are looking to be found by job seekers that have PHP Development experience, be sure to use the word ‘PHP Developer' or ‘PHP Web Developer' throughout your job ad where applicable rather than simply saying that you are seeking someone with web development experience. You would be far better off to list the full keyword phrase ‘PHP Web Developer' wherever possible in addition to including the keywords in other areas such as a Job Title and under an additional separate list of Technical Skills required. The more frequently you can specify your target keywords, the more likely your job ad is to rank higher in the search results.

Most industries use very specific buzz-words, jargon and acronyms (e.g. SEO Analyst for ‘Search Engine Optimisation Analyst' or CA for ‘Chartered Accountant). If this is the case for the industry in which you recruiting for, then be sure to use variations of both the full name as well as the acronym throughout the job ad.

When listing the educational qualifications or skills required, try to be as specific as possible with regards to the area of specialisation in order to further support the rest of the body of your ad.

By repeating the keyword (naturally and where relevant), you are reinforcing the fact that you are looking for a specialist in the field while simultaneously informing the search engines that your content is the most relevant for the particular search query. To further enhance your job advert - and to make it easier for job seekers to quickly identify that your job advert is in fact the most suited to what they are looking for - make the keywords bold wherever you have used it (including the acronyms, variations and synonyms thereof).

By following these basic guidelines you will notice a significant increase in the number of views that your job ad receives, and hopefully you will receive a lot more suitably qualified, matching job seeker applications.

Author: Gillian Meier, CEO of Jobs.co.za