Will job boards suffer

Microsoft have recently announced that they will be pushing comparison sites down the search results in order to improve the positions for branded sites.  Hopefully Google will follow suit and that they will also be able to do the same for what I call SPAM sites; otherwise known as link sites.

So how could this affect some of the job boards and aggregator sites like Totaljobs and Indeed?

There is nothing more annoying than searching for something, only to link to a site that just has a list of possible sites that often have nothing to do with what you want but suggest one of their links will take you where you want to go.  These sites want you on and then off their site ASAP making money every time someone clicks on a link.

There are of course the big job boards that 'hog' all the space as well as job aggregator sites making it harder for job seekers to get direct to the job.  Don't get me wrong, if someone does not care about the specific employer and just wants a job then a job board is fine.  But if someone is looking for a job with a specific employer, and all they get is job boards without that employers jobs, it can be pretty frustrating.

So maybe Google, Yahoo, Microsoft et al will change the rules to have the corporate career site rank more highly.  And if this happens, SEO becomes even more effective.  And if they don't, SEO becomes even more critical!  Whatever happens, employers need to make more effort with SEO to generate more direct applicants and reduce their reliance on job boards.