When it comes to filling open positions, your job posting has a huge role to play. It’s where potential candidates will learn about the position, what it entails, and what qualifications are needed. If you’ve had an open position for months and are seeing little to no applications coming in, you may want to start at the top of your hiring funnel and make sure your job posting is firing on all cylinders. Running a few diagnostics on the position is great, but it can also be helpful to look at the bigger picture: How large of a role does recruitment play in your company’s day-to-day functioning?
Let’s face it: The Internet is a noisy place. When people search for a new job, they do everything from Googling their industry to checking out their favorite companies on Twitter. If people don’t see your posting, they obviously aren’t going to apply. So how can you increase traffic to your job posting, thereby increasing conversions and getting more applications through the door? By focusing on recruitment consistently, not just when there’s a need, you’ll be able to increase your traffic and recruit with more efficiency.
Here are four simple hacks to increase traffic to your job posting so you can get your open position filled as soon as possible.
Think of Your Recruitment Branch as a Sub-Brand
Recruitment should be treated like a brand within a brand—obviously, recruitment efforts are part of your company’s overall messaging, but you also need to “sell” your job openings the same way you “sell” products or services. Incorporate your recruitment efforts into the overall brand of your company by including links to your “career” page on things like business cards and marketing materials. That way, when your current employees are at industry events or job fairs, they can easily pass out information on how jobseekers can learn more about your open positions.
The easier you can make it for people to learn about your careers page, the better. So create marketing materials that are directed toward that effort while looping job opening information into your wider marketing efforts, as well. You should also regularly link to your career page over e-mails and through social media. By doing this regularly throughout the year, not just when you have an open position, you’ll create a base of talented fans who are just waiting for you to have an open position available instead of always feeling like you’re hunting for qualified candidates.
Share More Often Than You Think You Need To
Oftentimes, companies worry about oversharing on social media. But you need to remember that social media isn’t like an e-mail inbox. Just because you share something doesn’t mean that most—or many—of your followers will see it. You may need to post about things like job openings 2, 3, or 10 times to get someone to finally click over to your job posting. If someone is slightly annoyed by seeing the same information in their feed, they’ll simply scroll on by—not causing any lasting damage to your brand.
Take one piece of content, like a current job posting, and create separate types of posts that all point toward it (Instagram stories, a reel, a Twitter thread, etc.), then share them a handful of times over a 3-day period. This type of concentrated effort to push followers toward a piece of content can pay off in a big way. You can also encourage employees to share about open job positions, and if you really want them to do so, incentivize them with recruitment bonuses or affiliate links.
Keep Your Posting Search-Engine-Optimization (SEO)-Friendly
You may want to call your new data analyst position “Data Detective” or your HR assistant position “Relationship Rockstar.” But if people are searching for data analyst jobs, they type in “data analyst positions.” Getting too fancy or out of the box with your position names may seem like a way to stand out, but in reality, it will lead to a lot fewer eyes on your positions. It also may alienate job applicants who aren’t familiar with your company culture or lingo. Stick to the basics; you can always wow them with your fun personality during the interview stage.
Furthermore, be as specific as you can when it comes to the task list. These are the types of things a job candidate could Google. Saying candidates need to be “a total boss at organization” is a lot different from saying they need to be “proficient at Excel,” and one is much more Google-able. Additionally, break up your page with images so it isn’t one hefty chunk of text; the more skimmable and easy to read you can make your position, the better. SEO is also boosted by keeping a site free of typos or broken links, so give your position a quick once-over to ensure it’s up to snuff.
Utilize Aggregators Well
Lastly, utilize aggregators in a way that will drive more traffic to your site. A job posting aggregator is simply a database of open positions—think Google but just for job openings. There are larger job sites, like Indeed, that you’ve probably already uploaded your position to. But don’t forget about smaller, niche sites. So do some searching to see if your industry has any specific job position aggregators. You could also try things like alumni boards, local job listings, or other smaller, more intimate job boards.
These can often get more attention; a large site like Indeed is great for blasting your position out, but it can also make your open position get lost in the crowd. Many large career sites have thousands of posts, whereas smaller ones may be better targeted and result in more actual click-throughs. If you’re planning to rely on the larger job aggregators, focus on your job position keywords. Don’t waste any space on small or inconsequential skills or tasks; you can always bring those up in the interview stage. Instead, focus on keywords that are going to attract eyes and get more applications sent in.
Claire Swinarski is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
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