Every business appreciates the importance of an attractive, authoritative website. Unfortunately, a failure to keep it up to date can undermine its effectiveness. Stale news, outdated blogs and old technology suggest a neglectful attitude. Nowhere is this more pertinent than in recruitment websites, where rapid developments in the jobs market – particularly in newer industries such as digital and fintech – demand agility and responsiveness.
Regular website audits are a must, and to remain competitive in hiring the best talent, you must ensure your recruitment pages are working hard for you. Here are just five areas where you can make a world of difference.
Identity
Branding is essential to recruitment. Today’s professionals are attracted not only to salary and benefits but by the right environment. Hiring success will rely on the quality and the accuracy of your branding. Give an honest picture of your company. What is your company culture? What are your employment policies and ethics? If possible, use case studies of employees who have thrived in your employment, preferably with videos. This gives a human face to your message.
User Interface
Explore your website as if you are a new visitor; this will help you devise new ways to navigate pages, present information and direct visitors to the relevant sections. You’ll find that events or technological advances have superseded many elements. Some information becomes obsolete, and links to external sources can disappear. Old news stories will do you no favours. Similarly, when a visitor clicks on a good link and sees a 404 Error message, they may abandon your site entirely.
Don’t neglect mobile optimisation. Over 50% of online browsing now takes place on mobile devices, so consider developing an app or making sure the site transfers well to smartphones and tablets.
It’s also important to decide which pages are essential for job-seekers. If you don’t have the time to review every page, you should focus on those central to the user’s journey. These foundational ones include ‘home’, ‘about’ and ‘contact’. The other key pages will be the homepage of your careers section and sample job pages. Then there is the valuable blog section where you can convey information, ideas and opinions in any voice you choose, offering helpful insights and further enhancing your company’s identity.
Search Engine Strategy
Techniques in search engine optimisation (SEO) are changing all the time, so your strategy needs constant attention. The search engines continually refine how their crawlers index pages, so keep yourself informed of every development, such as passage indexing and Google’s multitask unified model (MUM).
Ensure your content is explicit, authoritative, accurate and enjoyable. Make sure you include text in the question and answer form, as many users conduct internet searches in the form of questions. Keywords should be constantly researched and updated, and technical optimisation elements including internal links, anchor text and meta tags should be correctly re-aligned. Calls to action and invitations to submit CVs should be clear and easy to use.
Target Audience
Remember whom you’re addressing. The content and design should be created with candidates in mind. Speak the language of the industries you operate and the professionals you seek to attract. Present yourself as the perfect fit for hungry new talent.
Social Media Marketing
Online marketing relies on the network of connections, sharing, and communication social media provider. Attractive posts – daily if possible – with strong graphics, hashtags and backlinks to your website will generate traction. But frequency and consistency are vital. Occasional posts will drop ineffectually into the ocean of content. Regular ones will soon rise above the noise.
Take the pain away and outsource your marketing to specialists who perform website audits and other valuable marketing activities every day.
At Your Marketing Needs, our niche is recruitment marketing which means we understand the talent solutions market like no other. Every service we offer gives you a dedicated marketing manager who will work with you to achieve your business goals. Why not get in touch today to find out how we can help you thrive this year and beyond. Email us at info@yourmarketingneeds.co.uk or call 01582 292016