Hire Strategies Blog

I am man - I am Google. I am woman - I am Social.

Search hasn't changed but social has changed the game as far as advertising is concerned. But what do we men know anyway?

The urban myth of careersite and job search engine optimisation (SEO)

Optimise your jobs and all will be well. Yet another fields of dreams but this time, it is a lot less likely they will come. There are simple facts that debunk the job SEO sales pitch and plenty of evidence to back this one up!

First off, it IS important to get your jobs indexed by search engines as they will in certain scenarios get found on page one of Google et al. 

• Jobs - job boards and aggregators will win.
• Sector jobs e.g. engineering jobs - same again, you won't win.
• Something more specific otherwise known as long tail e.g. Graduate Trainee Merchandising Programme (a Bing search for a change).

So as you can see from the above, it is worth making sure your jobs are optimised but please don't be fooled into thinking that you will be on page one for every search.

You also need to think about your longer term strategy and build landing pages that are optimised for the long term as a job is here today gone tomorrow whereas your hiring needs in certain areas are ongoing. Two examples.

• Group food sourcing is an industry specific term so easier to win on this one. Not the prettiest page in the world but it works!
• Accuracy checking technicians do who knows what but if you are one, Boots make it really easy to find a job at Boots.

The approach to landing pages is to make then quite niche so you get quality rather than quantity which means that even smaller organisations have a chance of doing well.

Take a look at your career site stats and see the exact keyword phrases being used although in most cases it will not reveal too much as you won't get that much generic traffic. So the back-up option is to spend a little bit of money on Google Adwords. Not just to drive clicks (although they will be good quality) but to get an idea of the kind of search queries that get used in your niche and then think about building landing pages with those keyword phrases in mind. This is why a well optimised site, with optimised jobs start to really work in your favour but you have to work at it as it takes a bit of time. Alternatively, just carry on using job boards and getting the same results that you get today. If that works and it is proving to be cost effective then why change? If of course it is not working.....

I hope that all makes sense but if not let me know.

Who is responsible for tracking? Media channel or media buyer?

Why is it that there are still so many challenges in finding out where your great new hires came from?

There are more tracking tools than you can shake a stick at yet recruiters still struggle to measure the success of their hiring channels. The ATS can’t do it. The job board can’t do it. Even Google Analytics or Atlas Tracking tags cannot do it alone. It’s absolute madness. So who’s responsibility is it then?

The FIRM Prezi: SEO made easy (or not)

Career site SEO on Prezi

What recruiters can learn from retailers like Tesco and Amazon.

Big mega stores like a Tesco Extra has to be open 24 hours to maximise revenues. Just because they are there does not mean they will get every pound you spend!

Career site SEO: How Google changes will affect your jobs and career site

Google ultimately want to help users get to the right information in as few clicks as possible. Unfortunately, corporate recruiters do not help Google achieve this and are penalised in many ways. So are you going to change or carry on wasting money and losing out on the best candidates?

Google Adwords versus Job Boards

Very few recruiters use Google Adwords and most of those that do, do so badly. A typical corporate recruiter Adwords campaign will be managed by their Ad Agency who in turn don't really know how to maximise Adwords or in fact, make money in providing it as a service. So apart from getting a specialist to manage Adwords campaigns for you (something Hire Strategies do!) you have to learn how to do it yourself which tends to mean you won't bother.

Strategic social media content: Protecting your employer brand

The majority of corporate recruiters are not yet using social media as a strategic recruitment channel partly due to lack of knowledge but in a lot of cases, due to fear.But the real fear should be fear of what happens if you do nothing as nothing leaves you vulnerable to whatever anyone wants to say about you; good or bad.

So burying your head is not really an option but what should you be doing and why?

One night stand, short term affair or full on marriage?

Recruiters tend to dip their toe in the water and flirt with the latest sexy tools although in some cases they shy away because it all looks a bit too hot to handle. Everyone seems to be in bed with the job boards but then they are just a bunch of media tarts really.

Google is a bit of a geeky looking type that's hotter than hell if you spend some time getting under their skin but most think Facebook and Twitter look sexier but just flirt with them and never take it any further. Fickle lot these recruiters. But one night stands rarely live up to expectations and short term affairs are just a bit too risky which is why most just go back to hum drum job board land. Some recruiters do of course get their kicks from their job board and are happy to stay where they are but some are not yet they just won't take the plunge and try something more than just a dip in the water.

If you are going to flirt with SEO, Adwords, blogs, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook or any of the others can I suggest you go into this with long term in mind. Campaigns are fine as a one-off if you can get by with these but building a talent pool, or a community, or a Linkedin Group, or SEO, or Google Adwords need more than one night. Enough said.

Google Search: Lessons from an eleven year old

My 11 year old daughter was pestering me recently to search NOW for a stylus keyring pen she needed.  After 5 minutes of persistence (from her) I accepted my fate and went onto Google and searched as instructed:

"stylus keyring pen"

I then proceeded as usual to the search results links and started looking for said item.

"What are you doing" enquired the impatient 11 year old.

"Searching" said me.

"No" she shouted.  "Go onto images".

So, onto the images tab I went and lo and behold THERE was the item she needed.  Determined to prove her wrong I went back to my own search technique and after about 5 different websites that didn't have the correct item I went back to images and 2 clicks later was on Amazon and buying the pen.  Simple as that.

I was amazed at how this much younger generation search!