The job market is a constantly changing environment which changes quickly as positions are advertised and filled. This led to many companies and social media sites establishing themselves as goto places for both employers and employees. Sites such as Monster and Indeed have become big players in the field with millions of job descriptions in their databases.
Social media sites like LinkedIn, which are based on professional development and relational contacts, have also grown to become large players who also have millions of job descriptions in their databases.
Recently a new player has entered the scene which has the potential to bankrupt all these businesses. Google. Google is the largest player in the internet space and is always pushing the boundaries. In the past they have not been included in the job search space because of the slow rate at which they index pages throughout the internet.
The speed of indexing a page is not a real concern when it comes to company websites as these are not meant to be short term pages but can and do exist for years without substantial changes.
Job descriptions are different. Usually once a company has resorted to advertising for employees they have exhausted all other avenues of new applicants. Therefore they are short on time and need help quickly. Not something Google has done well in the past but currently they have instigated a method of improving the indexing of such webpages.
They have done this in two ways:
- Developed a specific job description schema to use
- Provided a fast track indexing system
Googles Schema for Job Descriptions
A schema is an organizational system which can hold a specific type of information. Databases have schemas to describe what information goes where and how it is organized. An online schema is used to separate information into particular groups. There are recipe schemas, product review schemas and a host of others. Recently Google has added another schema to the collection, the Job Description.
It is designed to help Google’s system to identify that this page is a job description page and it should be treated differently than other pages. These types of pages are indexed much faster once they are discovered as they should only exist for a short period of time (Until the job is filled). The structure of their schema can be found here.
The above schema makes it easy for the Google bots to properly categorize your job description page correctly. They find it easier to index such pages if you give them a little help as they have a limited amount of time to find, index and rank a webpage. When it is only valid for a few weeks or months time becomes an important factor.
Why write for google bots
Google is still the dominant search engine and browser used to access the internet and the vast amount of information available on it and they are continually trying to maintain their market share by developing new programs to serve their customers. One of these is their new Google Jobs service. This service is similar to Google Scholar which provides research papers except they provide job descriptions.
By writing your job description with Google in mind the page will be easier for Google to find, index and rank. This will shorten the time it takes for the page to appear and provide benefit to the company who is looking for additional personnel.
Like any other resource online a job description is still just another webpage which Google has to find, index and rank. They have the additional problem of determining what type of webpage it is so if you write for Google this will greatly improve your results. The page will be indexed faster, ranked higher and provide a better chance for your company to attract valuable applicants.
How to get Google to index a job description page quickly
Google in the past has relied on its ability to find new web pages through its spider bots which crawl the web continually hopping from link to link to discover new resources. It has also developed a method of reindexing websites which are visited regularly and develop new content often but due to the rate new pages are being added to the internet for small companies this can take weeks or months to be crawled, indexed and ranked.
To speed this process up Google has developed a new API which allows companies submit URLs which contain time sensitive information such as job descriptions. To do this you need to follow the three step recommendations from Google found here.
The three steps are:
- Complete the prerequisites
- Send requests for pages you want indexed
- Ensure you don’t pass your request quota
If you want to increase your exposure by including other search engines try using Rank Math which provides indexing services for Google and Bing. It is easy to set up and if you are looking to improve your search results for open positions it is a great option.
What is the recommended job posting structure?
There are two considerations most companies consider when writing a job description:
- Will it rank high enough to get exposure
- Will it attract the right candidates
This can lead to very convoluted job descriptions which do not benefit the company in any way. When writing a job description use the Google schema in the head of the article with a high level description of the job position in it. Once that is complete forget about trying to impress Google and write the job description for the applicant you want to attract.
Google or any other search engine is used because it provides useful relevant information for the search query it is given. If you try to write for the search engines rather than the consumer of the information (the job applicant) the page will be visited and quickly bounced away from, indicating to the search engine the user did not get what they wanted. This will lead to a lower ranking for the current page as well as other pages associated with the company.
The following recommendations should be followed to keep the interest of the applicants you are searching for.
- Provide some high level information about your company
- Describe what the applicant’s role will be in the company
- Provide a list of required qualifications, skills or experience
- Provide a list of additional things which would benefit the applicant
- Inform the applicant of any employee benefit programs you have (RRSPs, health benefits etc.)
- Inform the applicant how to apply (email, LinkedIn, onsite form etc)
When writing the job description keep it simple. Use normal language which those in your industry will understand. Don’t be creative in the job title as it makes it hard for the applicant to decipher and can turn some off from applying. Keep your company description free from creative writing. Describe what your company does in plain language or if it is a large company describe what the department the applicant will be working in does.
Vague descriptions and fanciful writing indicates either you are ashamed of what the company does or you are trying to make it sound better than it really is. Something a new employee will find out shortly after starting, leading to higher employee turnover.