More and more often people who are searching for jobs use the internet to search for potential listings. To get the word out there about your job postings and attract qualified candidates, you want the search engines to pick up your postings as well. Below are 5 tips on optimizing your blog posts for search engines to bring in the best candidates possible -

1. Title
The title of a page is one of the top indicators to a Search Engine what that page is about. Is the title of your jobs listing page say something generic like “Available Jobs”? Add more specific details about your industry and location, use titles like “Available Energy Jobs” or better yet “Available Energy Jobs in Houston” to specify what your page is about.

2. Use Text
Search engines are deaf and blind – they can’t see pictures, video, flash, or PDFs. Don’t upload PDF job descriptions, put the listing in text where search engines can read all of your words.

3. Keywords
Often people don’t use words like “Job Listing” or “Employment Opportunity” on the actual job post. Use a free tool like Google Keywords Tool to determine what keywords people in your industry search for when looking for jobs. Enter the keywords you think people use and click search to get Google’s suggestions for other keywords.

Google will give you Keyword ideas and some stats for each of those keywords. The column labeled “Competition” refers to the number of sites that use those keywords, the “Global Monthly Searches” column shows the rough number of searches per month for that keyword. Look for words that balance Competition and Volume of Searches – you want to find words that are popular, but that you can be competitive for.

Incorporate your industry name and location with popular search terms like:

• Jobs in
• Employment
• Hiring

4. Local
Be sure to include the city and state throughout the job posting. Make the first sentence of the description something like: “Employment opportunity for technical writer in Houston, Texas.” Also include a line for location i.e. “Location: Salt Lake City, Utah.”

5. Contact
Tell potential candidates how to contact you – email or phone, or a separate form on your website, whatever works for you. Tell them exactly what to send (resume, sample work, etc.)

A search for “job listings” in Google shows over 42 million results. Optimize your available job posts to rise to the top of the pack and ultimately bring in the best talent you can for your organization!