Top Tips for SEO for Recruitment Agency Owners

Let’s be frank, when we say SEO, we really mean GEO - Google engine optimisation. In the UK, Google has an 87% share of internet search engine requests (oddly this figure is only 67% in the USA). And besides, the other lesser search engines, Bing and Yahoo, index websites in roughly the same manner.

Unless your firm expects to receive over 100,000 unique visits per month to its website, I wouldn't recommend employing any SEO firm on a monthly retainer.

More than anything, Google loves activity. Without activity, they have no reason to continually index any website which never changes. A website which has no pulse is of little interest to Google, and features low in search results. Conversely, a continually changing website, with new pages every day (jobs, blogs and news), full of detailed unique content is precisely what they are looking for. Important as they are though, simply posting your jobs is not enough in such a competitive sector. Remember, your website is competing for prominence with every job board, and job aggregator, as well as your immediate rivals.Frankly the money would be better spent purchasing traffic directly from Google Adwords, rather than try to chase the continually changing search algorithms they use.

As well as internal measures within your website content, SEO, as we know, is greatly influenced by external factors too. As much as every hyperlink from your pages connects with the wider web, (and the attentions of Google), every external link which leads back into each of your site's pages helps to increase its “network effect”. This is why every job posted on a job board should ideally link back to the specific job advert page on your site, and how each mention of a job ad on social media channels garners a little bit of extra SEO juice.

The same can be said of blog posts which are linked to from Facebook, Twitter, and especially LinkedIn groups. It should go without saying that your recruiters should link regularly from social media channels back to their profile on your website. Additionally, did you know that the world’s second busiest search engine is YouTube (owned by Google), and that links to your website in video tags, as well as in the comments below, add to your SEO score? If the employer allows, why not embed their company video on your job advert too?

As I said at the beginning, the very best SEO is visible website activity. This means both activity within your website, and external activity, which leads back to your website. To make the very best use of your recruitment website, you must ensure it is as busy as you are. This is not a task you should try to outsource, and must be part of your recruiter’s daily routines.

So to recap:
• Make sure that all advert URLs contain the key skill, location and jobs as standard.
• Use your team’s knowledge to increase blogging activity with things like industry events, topical news and general advice.
• Don’t leave it to one person to share the website content – get all recruiters to share it (as soon as it’s posted) on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter where appropriate.
• Ensure each recruiter has a profile on your website, detailing their expertise, which will attract candidates and clients.
• Comment regularly on popular industry blogs in your recruiting sector, using your company website address. Link back to relevant content on your own website to further establish your credentials within that sector.

SEO for busy recruitment websites does take a bit of attention detail, but it pays essential dividends in today’s market.

Credit: Image from Stuart Miles & KROMKRATHOG via freedigitalphotos.net