Cyrus describes it as a way to categorize and organize search results so that your business shows up first when customers search. But what exactly does this mean for recruitment and HR?
First, let’s get this out front. When job seekers start searching for jobs, nearly 3 out of 4 of them start the search on Google. Google also launched Google for Jobs in 2017 so Google now essentially requires search engine optimization if you want your jobs to show up near the top of job search results. Like Indeed – and Monster and Careerbuilder before, Google is now aggregating the data itself. That’s a huge disruption in this HR technology space.
In order for companies to get listed in Google, they must use something called structured data. This can be accomplished directly or indirectly. [To learn more about how Google for Jobs works, check out my online course and use this special code to access it.]
Adding structured data is only the first step. Google for Jobs also requires that each job be listed on your company career site as a stand-alone dedicated page. No more listing all your jobs on a single page. If you don’t use the structured data and post each job on its own page, your jobs will not show up in Google search unless you’re using third-party software.
There’s an even bigger problem that most companies and recruiters don’t understand. Indeed DOES NOT permit Google to “crawl” its database. In other words, jobs posted only on Indeed DO NOT show up in Google results. And if nearly 75% of job seekers start their search, they may never see your job post!
Other factors influence how job boards and search engines rank your jobs. One of the factors is something Google calls mobile first indexing.
Mobile First Indexing, according to Megan Boyd, is the process used by Google to crawl your site pretending that they are using a mobile phone. It’s not only important to have a website (that includes your job posts and application) “look good” on your desktop monitor but also on smartphones and tablets. If your website or your HR pages are not responsive on mobile, Google may rank your entire site lower. How your website looks on mobile and behaves on mobile now takes is the #1 priority.