A New Way to Promote Jobs?

Twitter's new embeddable tweets could be a game changer for employer brands. mashable.com/2011/12/08/twi… #in

—
Davis Advertising (@TheDavisTeam) December 08, 2011

Good Tip

Interviewing Hiring Managers Right the First Time ere.net/2011/12/06/int… via @ERE_net #in #recruiting

—
Alex de Soto (@AlexdeSoto) December 06, 2011

LinkedIn, CareerBuilder among Top 50

CareerBuilder captured the number 43 spot on comScore’s April 2011 Top 50 (Web) Properties U.S. chart.

According to MarketingProfs, CareerBuilder is on the Top 50 chart for the first time. craigslist is number 21 and LinkedIn achieved a respectable number 31 on the chart.

Monster’s Career Ad Network (CAN) is number 39 on the separate Ad Focus Ranking chart where Google dominates at number 1.

Take a look at the numbers (MarketingProfs membership required for full article):

http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/5105/top-50-websites-careerbuilder-joins-ranking-netflix-surges

Facebook’s Send Button and Job Referrals

Sharing is better among friends.

If you’re using Facebook as part of your social recruiting strategy, try adding the “Send” button to your landing pages. People who click on the Send button will have the option of sending your URL in an inbox message to their friends.

Screen capture of Facebook's Share Buttons

Just imagine what this could do to expand your job referral network!

Get more information about the Facebook Send Button.

Are fresh jobs really better?

Are fresh jobs really better?

When using job boards, aggregators and search engines, job seekers may feel that…

1. A newer job posting offers them a better chance at landing an interview because there’s less competition.

2. A fresher job means that the company really wants to hire immediately.

3. A fresher job is more relevant because it shows up first on the search results pages.

4. An older job post means that nobody wants to work for that company.

5. They have seen and/or applied to most of the best “old” postings so they don’t want to see them again in the search results.

Of all of these “gut feelings,” the fifth one is probably the most accurate. The other four are largely misconceptions that may actually prevent the job seeker from finding the right opportunity. Let’s review 1-4:

1. “A newer job posting offers them a better chance at landing an interview because there will be less competition.”
   

   There may actually be less competition for an older job posting because recruiters have poured over the response and have not found a good candidate. A qualified job seeker applying for an older job posting may actually have a better chance.

2. “A fresher job means that the company really wants to hire immediately.”
   

   This is generally accurate, but there is no guarantee that a fresher job is actually a “hot job” where there is great pressure for the recruiter to fill that opening immediately. While it is true that many recruiters refresh their “hot” jobs so that they appear newer, some do not.

3. “A fresher job is more relevant because it shows up first on the search results pages.”
   

   While we don’t know the details of the search algorithms used by these websites, we do know that even if a job seeker does not filter their search by “date posted” or “most recent,” they are more likely to see the most recent of the relevant jobs first.
   In reality, the best jobs for a particular job seeker, based on criteria that do not appear in the job title, may be hiding among older posts. Because they are older, these gems will rank lower and may not appear in the first pages and thus more likely to be ignored by the job seeker.

4. “An older post means that nobody wants to work for that company.”
   

   An older job posting (or one that has constantly been refreshed) does not mean that the company has a bad reputation or that nobody has applied. Once again, this may mean that recruiters have not found the right candidates. Something else to consider is that companies with more postings on a site may show up higher in the search results. This does not necessarily imply that the company offers a better place to work.

What can job boards do to help?

• Explain the benefits and drawbacks on limiting a job search by “date posted” or “recently posted.” Job boards could do this by adding “tooltips” to the date posted search field and by adding a topic to their FAQ or help section explaining how “date posted” affects the search results.

• Think of “date posted” as largely irrelevant since savvy recruiters refresh jobs all of the time and the job seeker will see job requisitions that have been posted for a long time as fresh jobs.

• “Job refreshing” makes it is difficult for the job seeker to actually exclude jobs they’ve seen from the search results. What’s the point of using the advanced search to show “most recent” when some recruiters refresh their jobs to make them appear newer?

• How about adding functionality that allows the user, once logged in, to flag a job as “Not Interested.” Netflix does this successfully with its recommendations. The job seeker would not see previously viewed jobs that are of no interest, regardless of the posting’s date. Yes, this would limit the number of “views,” but I don’t believe that number of views is as important as number of completed applications.

Your thoughts?

Which Job Boards Do Best in Google Search?

625 Unique Job Queries Were Evaluated

Download the PDF

Davis Advertising Inc.’s
2011 SEO Survey of Job-Posting Sites

How job-posting sites and job aggregators perform on Google’s search engine results pages.

Author: Chris Taylor, VP of Davis Advertising Inc.

Overview

More job seekers begin their job search on Google than with any other resource. Worldwide, Google handles over 101 million jobs-related searches each month. In the United States, Google handles over 45 million jobs-related searches each month.

Top Job Search Terms Used in Google Searches

Our study evaluated 625 unique jobs-related queries via Google (see Appendix) that combined 25 distinct occupations with 25 distinct locations. We recorded the Web domains for the top 25 search results for each query for a total of 15,625 search results. Our results included 2,000+ distinct Web domains.

Summary of Findings

1. The clear leaders in Google search results were Indeed andSimplyHired. These two sites were the top results in over 60% of all searches we performed.
2. In reviewing traffic sources for 100,000+ unique job board visitors, we found significant evidence that, when it comes to jobs-related searches, being the first result on Google generates approximately 5 to 8 times more clickthroughs/visits.
3. Careerbuilder, Monster and craigslist have seen significant declines in their year-over-year Google search rankings.
4. Less than 2% of all search results were from employer websites.
5. Only 0.02% of all search results had .jobs as their top-level domain.

Summary Chart of Job Board/Aggregator Performance

The importance of being #1

Multiple studies have shown that the top Google search result generally receives twice as many clickthroughs as the second listing and almost three times as many clickthroughs as the third result. For jobs-related searches, the importance of being the first Google search result may be even more pronounced. In reviewing traffic sources for 100,000+ unique job board visitors, we have found significant evidence that, when it comes to jobs-related searches, being the first result on Google generates approximately 5 to 8 times more clickthroughs/visits. The reason for this may be that job-aggregation sites (e.g., Indeed andSimplyHired) are so comprehensive that job seekers don’t see the value in visiting additional job-posting sites.

While the importance of a #1 Google listing is an obvious advantage, we note the following:

• The relationship between CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed and SimplyHired is both competitive and collaborative. CareerBuilder and Monster list their jobs with Indeed and SimplyHired (which strengthens the job-aggregation sites). But CareerBuilder and Monster also receive considerable traffic from the job-aggregation sites.
• CareerBuilder and Monster have higher brand recognition than Indeed or SimplyHired. This higher brand recognition means that job seekers, who do not begin their search with Google, are probably more likely to start their search with CareerBuilder or Monster than with job-aggregation sites.
• Google has higher brand recognition than CareerBuilder or Monster. By consistently ranking at the top of Googlesearch results, Indeed and SimplyHired are rapidly developing brand awareness in their own right.

2nd Annual Job Board SEO Survey 2011 Chart

Changes in survey results since 2010

According to our survey, Careerbuilder, Monster and craigslist have seen significant declines in their year-over-yearGoogle search rankings. Since the search strings we employed in our study are the same as were used in 2010, we attribute these declines to the following:

• Job-aggregation sites (e.g., Indeed and SimplyHired) have many times the number of job listings as doCareerBuilder, Monster and craigslist. Having more job listings allows Indeed and SimplyHired to create fresher content that is more relevant. Providing fresh, relevant content is one of the keys to effective search engine optimization.
• A second component of search engine optimization relates to PageRank, which Google uses to measure the number/authority of websites that link to a given website. According to Google, Indeed (11,800) has more than three times as many links as CareerBuilder (3,030), Monster (2,340) or SimplyHired (1,930). craigslist has 3,410 links.

SEO Survey Changes 2011 vs 2011

Top 20 general purpose job boards

While being #1 for jobs-related searches has significant advantages, appearing in the first five results or appearing on the first page (10 results) of a Google search is obviously a significant benefit as well.

It is important to note that job boards and job-aggregation sites do not rely solely on jobs-related searches to drive traffic to their sites:

• CareerBuilder and Monster have extensive marketing campaigns to drive candidate response.
• Indeed and SimplyHired have extensive networks that include leading Web publishers, blogs and association sites.
• BusinessWeek.com, CNN.com and WashingtonPost.com (powered by SimplyHired) use their news content to attract visitors.
• Salary.com (powered by Indeed) and PayScale.com (powered by SimplyHired) attract visitors by providing salary information.

Top 20 Job Boards by SEO Performance

What we didn’t find

Niche sites – This study was not designed to evaluate niche sites. However, we do note that 67% of all top five Google search results came from sites powered by Indeed, SimplyHired, CareerBuilder and Monster. This means that all other websites (general job boards and aggregation sites, niche sites, employer sites, etc.) competed for the remaining 33% of Googletop five search results.

.jobs (dot jobs) domains – Of the 15,625 search results, only 31 search results (0.02%) had .jobs as their top level domain. There are two considerations that help explain the poor performance of the .jobs sites:

• Until recently, .jobs sites could not aggregate content (job listings) from multiple employers. Without aggregated content, .jobs sites could not compete with the vast amounts of fresh, relevant content provided by job boards and job-aggregation sites.
• .jobs sites have very few sites that link to them. The lack of inbound links limits .jobs sites from achieving a competitiveGoogle PageRank.

Job postings from employer sites – Less than 2% of all search results were from employer websites. The reason for this is similar to the problems that impact .jobs domains: low PageRank and little fresh content. Many employer sites also face two additional hurdles:

• A large number of employers have their job listings hosted/served via their ATS/HRIS vendor’s domain. For many employers, this is not a significant consideration. However, if your organization’s website has a high PageRank(particularly if you are a .edu or .org site), you may want to consider hosting job openings within your domain.
• Many employer sites inadvertently bar Google from indexing their job listings. A simple rule of thumb is that if you can’t bookmark a Web page (job listing), then Google can’t index it.

Survey notes

1. All Google searches conducted in our survey included the word jobs. While the word jobs is the word most commonly associated with job searches, there are other jobs-related terms such as employment (6 million U.S. searches per month) and careers (5 million U.S. searches per month) that were not measured in this survey.
2. Google uses the location of the Internet provider to order results. Google searches used in this study were conducted from our offices in Bala Cynwyd, PA using Verizon as our Internet provider.
3. Google constantly updates the algorithms used to order search results. These changes can have a significant impact on search results.

Search Terms Used in Study

2011 SEO Survey of Job-Posting Sites

625 Unique Job Queries Were Evaluated

Download the PDF

Davis Advertising Inc.’s
2011 SEO Survey of Job-Posting Sites

How job-posting sites and job aggregators perform on Google’s search engine results pages.

Author: Chris Taylor, VP of Davis Advertising Inc.

Overview

More job seekers begin their job search on Google than with any other resource. Worldwide, Google handles over 101 million jobs-related searches each month. In the United States, Google handles over 45 million jobs-related searches each month.

Top Job Search Terms Used in Google Searches

Our study evaluated 625 unique jobs-related queries via Google (see Appendix) that combined 25 distinct occupations with 25 distinct locations. We recorded the Web domains for the top 25 search results for each query for a total of 15,625 search results. Our results included 2,000+ distinct Web domains.

Summary of Findings

1. The clear leaders in Google search results were Indeed and SimplyHired. These two sites were the top results in over 60% of all searches we performed.
2. In reviewing traffic sources for 100,000+ unique job board visitors, we found significant evidence that, when it comes to jobs-related searches, being the first result on Google generates approximately 5 to 8 times more clickthroughs/visits.
3. Careerbuilder, Monster and craigslist have seen significant declines in their year-over-year Google search rankings.
4. Less than 2% of all search results were from employer websites.
5. Only 0.02% of all search results had .jobs as their top-level domain.

Summary Chart of Job Board/Aggregator Performance

The importance of being #1

Multiple studies have shown that the top Google search result generally receives twice as many clickthroughs as the second listing and almost three times as many clickthroughs as the third result. For jobs-related searches, the importance of being the first Google search result may be even more pronounced. In reviewing traffic sources for 100,000+ unique job board visitors, we have found significant evidence that, when it comes to jobs-related searches, being the first result on Google generates approximately 5 to 8 times more clickthroughs/visits. The reason for this may be that job-aggregation sites (e.g., Indeed and SimplyHired) are so comprehensive that job seekers don’t see the value in visiting additional job-posting sites.

While the importance of a #1 Google listing is an obvious advantage, we note the following:

• The relationship between CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed and SimplyHired is both competitive and collaborative. CareerBuilder and Monster list their jobs with Indeed and SimplyHired (which strengthens the job-aggregation sites). But CareerBuilder and Monster also receive considerable traffic from the job-aggregation sites.
• CareerBuilder and Monster have higher brand recognition than Indeed or SimplyHired. This higher brand recognition means that job seekers, who do not begin their search with Google, are probably more likely to start their search with CareerBuilder or Monster than with job-aggregation sites.
• Google has higher brand recognition than CareerBuilder or Monster. By consistently ranking at the top of Google search results, Indeed and SimplyHired are rapidly developing brand awareness in their own right.

2nd Annual Job Board SEO Survey 2011 Chart

Changes in survey results since 2010

According to our survey, Careerbuilder, Monster and craigslist have seen significant declines in their year-over-year Google search rankings. Since the search strings we employed in our study are the same as were used in 2010, we attribute these declines to the following:

• Job-aggregation sites (e.g., Indeed and SimplyHired) have many times the number of job listings as do CareerBuilder, Monster and craigslist. Having more job listings allows Indeed and SimplyHired to create fresher content that is more relevant. Providing fresh, relevant content is one of the keys to effective search engine optimization.
• A second component of search engine optimization relates to PageRank, which Google uses to measure the number/authority of websites that link to a given website. According to Google, Indeed (11,800) has more than three times as many links as CareerBuilder (3,030), Monster (2,340) or SimplyHired (1,930). craigslist has 3,410 links.

SEO Survey Changes 2011 vs 2011

Top 20 general purpose job boards

While being #1 for jobs-related searches has significant advantages, appearing in the first five results or appearing on the first page (10 results) of a Google search is obviously a significant benefit as well.

It is important to note that job boards and job-aggregation sites do not rely solely on jobs-related searches to drive traffic to their sites:

• CareerBuilder and Monster have extensive marketing campaigns to drive candidate response.
• Indeed and SimplyHired have extensive networks that include leading Web publishers, blogs and association sites.
• BusinessWeek.com, CNN.com and WashingtonPost.com (powered by SimplyHired) use their news content to attract visitors.
• Salary.com (powered by Indeed) and PayScale.com (powered by SimplyHired) attract visitors by providing salary information.

Top 20 Job Boards by SEO Performance

What we didn’t find

Niche sites – This study was not designed to evaluate niche sites. However, we do note that 67% of all top five Google search results came from sites powered by Indeed, SimplyHired, CareerBuilder and Monster. This means that all other websites (general job boards and aggregation sites, niche sites, employer sites, etc.) competed for the remaining 33% of Google top five search results.

.jobs (dot jobs) domains – Of the 15,625 search results, only 31 search results (0.02%) had .jobs as their top level domain. There are two considerations that help explain the poor performance of the .jobs sites:

• Until recently, .jobs sites could not aggregate content (job listings) from multiple employers. Without aggregated content, .jobs sites could not compete with the vast amounts of fresh, relevant content provided by job boards and job-aggregation sites.
• .jobs sites have very few sites that link to them. The lack of inbound links limits .jobs sites from achieving a competitive Google PageRank.

Job postings from employer sites – Less than 2% of all search results were from employer websites. The reason for this is similar to the problems that impact .jobs domains: low PageRank and little fresh content. Many employer sites also face two additional hurdles:

• A large number of employers have their job listings hosted/served via their ATS/HRIS vendor’s domain. For many employers, this is not a significant consideration. However, if your organization’s website has a high PageRank (particularly if you are a .edu or .org site), you may want to consider hosting job openings within your domain.
• Many employer sites inadvertently bar Google from indexing their job listings. A simple rule of thumb is that if you can’t bookmark a Web page (job listing), then Google can’t index it.

Survey notes

1. All Google searches conducted in our survey included the word jobs. While the word jobs is the word most commonly associated with job searches, there are other jobs-related terms such as employment (6 million U.S. searches per month) and careers (5 million U.S. searches per month) that were not measured in this survey.
2. Google uses the location of the Internet provider to order results. Google searches used in this study were conducted from our offices in Bala Cynwyd, PA using Verizon as our Internet provider.
3. Google constantly updates the algorithms used to order search results. These changes can have a significant impact on search results.

Search Terms Used in Study

Contact the author

If you would like to comment on this article, please feel free to contact the author of this study:

Chris Taylor, Vice President, Davis Advertising Inc.
By IM/E-mail: ctaylor@davisadv.com
By Text/Cell: 267-808-1881
Office: 610-227-0400

What’s in the “other” source of hire bucket?

I always look forward to reading the latest source of hires surveys and have great admiration for those who try to compile this data, but I’ve often wondered what people surveyed include in the “other source” category.

In the trusted CareerXRoads 2009 Source of External Hires report, the “All Other” category comprised 10.1% of hires. (See ERE article.)

In most of these surveys, “other” is a catchall category for things we can’t quite remember or classify. Quite often, recruitment tactics, media and audiences are mixed in the source of hires categories adding to the confusion. For example, college, print and recruiting firms are all categories used in sources of hires surveys.

Nowadays, if we don’t have hard numbers for a source’s effectiveness we tend to discount a recruitment tactic or method as a source of hire.

Hard numbers usually come from two data collection techniques: Web tracking codes and applicant self reporting. Needless to say, we can trust numbers from tracking codes a bit more than we can numbers from candidate self-reporting.

Gerry Crispin and Don Firth reported in 2006 that almost 45% of candidates applying for a job at AllRetailJobs selected “other” when asked “how did you hear about this job.”

In reality, people are influenced by many sources when seeking employment. Word-of-mouth (not necessarily a referral), news stories, direct mail, billboards, etc. all play a role.

Some of the hardest to fill openings, especially in the high-comp category, tend to be filled by “recruiting firms” using tactics often lumped in the “other source” category.

Direct marketing (both e-mail and direct mail), search engine marketing, cold calling and social media sourcing are golden techniques that sometimes end up in the “other source” category due to poor tracking and measurement or because these are used less often than other tactics. (CareerXRoads does include a “direct sourcing” category which catches some of these.)

So I’ve come to the conclusion that some of the most effective ways to reach and recruit talent are ignored because they can’t easily be tracked. There are some gold nuggets in the “other source” bucket.

Direct mail is one tactic that excels at reaching “passive”  candidates but may be difficult to measure even with special landing pages, PURLs (personalized URLs) or with QRCodes.

Are there other effective recruitment tactics that you lump in the “other” sources of hires category? I’m curious to know.

 

TalentMap.jobs Update is Live

I encourage all health care recruiters and clinical managers to check out the latest version of TalentMap.jobs.

If you recruit, hire or manage health care talent, you’ll be able to improve your recruitment strategies once you discover the real numbers of individuals in your local healthcare talent pool.

With this TalentMap.jobs update you can now search for health care talent in a whole state or in the entire U.S. And as before, you can narrow down your talent search by ZIP Code and a radius so you’ll be able to answer questions like: “How many Physical Therapists are there in Wasilla?”

Google Map + Recruitment Options

Your search results are displayed on a Google Map™ right in your favorite desktop browser. Along with your results, we’ll give you information and cost quotes on some of the most effective recruitment options available from Davis such as direct mail, e-mail marketing, social media and search marketing.

Finding out how many people practice in a specific healthcare specialty by ZIP Code and mapping them on a Google Map™ has never been this easy.

And did I mention the searches are free?

Mobile Version Coming Soon

We know that many recruiters are avid users of the mobile Web, especially when it comes to e-mail, social media and on-the-go Web searches, so we have been busy working on the mobile version of the site. We think you’ll like what you’ll soon see.

We’re also launching a blog by TalentMap.jobs guru Chris Taylor who will keep you informed on the latest updates and recruitment strategies. Stay tuned!

Location, location, location.

With Facebook’s announcement of Places, the use of location-based social networks is likely to grow dramatically in the coming months. With a little imagination we can see how this would impact recruitment.

Think of how “checking in” to a workplace venue to let your friends know that you’re around may influence prospective candidates. Electronic resumes can link to a history of workplace check-in locations for recruiters to review. Companies can push job opportunities and sign-on bonuses to the mobile devices of nearby contacts. Job seekers can quickly scan a specific location for relevant job postings. The possibilities are endless.

It’s only a matter of time.

We’ll soon see the application of these location-based services to recruitment. Do you have any cool ideas you’d like to share about how location-based networks will change recruitment?

If you’d like to try some of these services, I recommend you check out foursquare, Gowalla or Yelp. All have plans to use Facebook’s APIs in some way.

And yes, there are many privacy concerns. You can read an interesting paper here about this issue.