Job Posting Advice at Careworx.co.uk

The most difficult aspect of online advertising is trying to understand what people will search for when using the internet to look for work.  Unfortunately there will never be a definitive answer to this, but we can at least utilise statistics and research from a variety of sources to find a base of best practice.  Below you will find offerings of advice gained over years of experience as recruiters and from results seen from successful advertising campaigns on our website.  We hope it helps!

Understanding job seekers and knowing yourself:
When looking to advertise online it is most important to understand yourself and your own behaviour.  The high speed internet has given rise to a new level of impatience, and with so many results to choose from for every search made, anything that falls short of exactly what we’re looking for is quickly exited for the next available result, or a whole new search.

The 3 second rule:
That’s right!  3 seconds (if you’re lucky) to tick all the mental boxes as best as possible before you begin to get someone’s attention, or quickly lose it!  In terms of job seekers those boxes are generally [What?] [Where?] [How Much?] and [Who for?]  Fail to answer at least 3 of these questions within 3 seconds and you’re quickly left behind.

Since we introduced the ‘Ask a question’ feature on our job pages the top 3 questions asked of recruiters who need to be protective over their client bases are ‘Where exactly is the job?’  ‘What is the salary?’ and ‘Which company is this with?’

Quite simply, people are dubious to hand over their personal information or register to websites so easily for fear of being pressurised or hounded in some way – which is why we make a big issue of protecting our users online unless they choose to be found.  In a nutshell, you need to make sure people have enough information to make their own decisions if you hope to gain their trust.

Note to recruiters:
There is a fine line between protecting information and preventing people from applying to your jobs.  You are much better off gaining applicants to keep your clients happy than worrying too much about your competitors who will no doubt find your clients regardless.

Job Posting Advice Break Down

JOB TITLES

For best results job titles should literally be ‘search terms’ that people might type into search engines such as Google i.e.  Care Assistant, Care Manager, GP, Doctor, Nurse etc.

Over 75% of people typically search in the order of [What I want] and [Where I want it]   Examples of this would be [Restaurant Norwich] or [Builder Essex] and the same applies for those looking to find work.  Searches can be generic i.e. [Nurse Jobs] but will mainly be localised to a town or city i.e. [Nurse Jobs Halifax].

Try to think of what people might actually search for in your sector.  The more relevant you can be and the closer you get to this, the greater the chance of your job being found.  Keep it punchy and to the point.  Use the description area of a job advert to offer more details once you have captured initial interest.

Job titles such as [Locum GPs urgently required for health screening vacancies in Central London] may be highly descriptive, but if your candidate is looking for [GP Jobs in London] then your job will be way down the list of results.

[Locum GP Jobs London] would be much more effective.  To be a little more descriptive you could try [Locum GP Jobs London – Health Screening] keeping the keyphrase and location together with tailing additional information.

Don’t be lazy!!!  If there are multiple terms for a job title then post multiple jobs.  A Care Assistant might also search for Carer Jobs, Care Worker Jobs or Support Worker Jobs.

Advertise each job title individually.  Though this may take more time, you are certain to get better results.  Stuffing a job title with as many search terms as possible simply dilutes it, plus we have added the facility to copy and edit jobs easily with 1 click.

Use Google’s keyword research tool to find more commonly used search terms, or talk to our team.

SALARIES

Considering that everyone works for money it comes as no surprise that jobs that do not contain salary information are over 85% more likely to be instantly discounted.  Very few people will apply for a job without knowing where they would stand financially, plus a salary gives your job credibility.

Don’t expect people to simply ask the question or apply anyway.  It’s much easier to just look for the next result that might have the information they seek.

Understandably not all jobs have a set salary; however you should at least add a salary range remembering that at this stage you are attracting applications.  An employer will only ever pay to a candidates’ true worth based on a wide range of factors and you can mention ‘required levels of experience’ to achieve higher salaries in the job description.

LOCATIONS

Remember that people search by [What I want] and [Where I want it] and local search is one of the most powerful tools to get found online.

Over 90% of people search for work in their closest major towns so it is highly advisable to name a town wherever possible.  Even if a job is 10 miles from a major town it is worth advertising the job in an area which is most likely to gain more hits, stating the exact location in the description [i.e. based in Tiptree near to Colchester].

Most counties are very large and again this is where you need to understand yourself.  If you see a [Social Worker Job Essex] your first question would be [Where in Essex?] and Southend is a long way from Colchester, so if you don’t at least specify a town in the description and the answer can’t be found quickly on the page, you’re just losing applications!

There are equally very few actual searches for regional terms such as North West, South East or any other regions.  If a job is regionally based it is recommended to post separate jobs for each county within the region covered.  Again, it may take a few minutes more but your success rates increase tenfold.

Posting jobs for England or the UK in a hope to grab applications from anywhere will not work!  Very few people who live in England search on that level.  Most of the searches for jobs in England, Scotland, Wales or the UK are conducted from abroad and should successfully attract foreign applicants if that’s what you seek.

Most importantly: Don’t be lazy!!!  Every job should have its own location!

If you need a Nurse in Chelmsford/Brentwood/Colchester then post 3 separate jobs.  Anything less dilutes the results.

DESCRIPTIONS

Copying and pasting a 3 page job spec because it’s easy is just not going to cut it any more.  People have a low attention span and job specifications are far too formal and daunting for people looking to find their dream employer.  Job descriptions should be warm and enticing to make people want to apply, and the more information you can provide, the better!  Remember that your aim is to ‘attract’ applications.  A finite list of duties, policies and procedures is not alluring and will fail to get any valid message across.

Make sure you make sense and have something to say.  Generic descriptions will not make you stand out or get noticed among the many.  In these difficult times of financial instability (when people are very nervous of leaving current employment) it is also advisable, where possible, to mention ‘job security’ and ‘long term’ career opportunities to ease the mind.

Lastly, if you are hastily copying text from one job to another in a bid to save time, at least check that the information is entirely correct and relevant to the post.  A misplaced location or job title in the text causes confusion, which leads to uncertainty, which means goodbye applications!

Try to naturally include and repeat your search term or job title within the text at least 2 or 3 times.  This shows search engines that your description is relevant to the subject.  

EXPIRY DATES

We don’t enforce expiry dates at Careworx and some of our jobs sit at the heights of Google for months after being posted, however we would advise updating your jobs with fresh content for search engines at least once every few months.