Google For Jobs

Writing job descriptions is an exercise in measuring humanity.

As a recruiter, you’re tasked with creating nuanced language to accurately describe a list of roles and responsibilities in a way that will appeal to the perfect candidates you want to hire, while also deterring the ones who aren’t qualified. All successful new hires must have a winning combination of hard and soft skills, and you have the challenging task of crafting job postings that capture all of them.

The truth is there is no single foolproof method for writing the best job description. It’s a task that cannot be turned into a formula or automated with a bot. And yet Google has figured out a way to break down your unique job postings into quantifiable bits of information. Moving far beyond a simple keyword search, Google for Jobs groups jobs by categories and titles and even identifies the technical and personality-based skills needed to serve the most appropriate roles to the most relevant audience.

Categorizing jobs isn’t a new endeavor, but unlike past attempts to categorize jobs into a static list, Google for Jobs uses artificial intelligence and a list of 250,000 job titles, along with 50,000 skills and a relational model that connects them. In short, Google has figured out how to use machine learning algorithms to extract, predict and map job descriptions confidently.

When Google for Jobs launched in 2017 it was touted by recruiters as a game changer and a radical improvement in how to find quality candidates. Today, it is living up to that first impression. But, the biggest challenge so far has been getting recruiters to understand that they can directly submit their jobs to the Google for Jobs platform and increase their reach.

Below are seven of my favorite Google for Jobs hacks to help recruiters get the most from Google’s relatively-new platform.

#1 – Work backwards

Take a few moments to browse Google for Jobs listings and take a look at the behind-the-scenes structured data that each job post requires. Do you clearly differentiate between part-time, contractor and temporary jobs? Is the job’s actual location clearly identified? Have you included every necessary piece of information about the job? Then, make sure your job posts are tagged correctly so Google for Jobs can accurately read them.

#2 — Create precise job titles

Google for Jobs doesn’t work all that well when job titles are cluttered with unnecessary words. Job seekers are searching for actual job titles, which means the algorithm needs clear and precise job titles to match the right jobs with the right candidates.

Focus on the job title, not the location or benefits. Avoid using attention-grabbing special characters such as “*”, and “!”. Keep skills out of the title. Don’t include phrases such as “Do you speak Spanish?” and “Apply now.” Most importantly, make sure your titles are simple and consistent with the job’s roles and responsibilities, the position’s level of seniority, and the specific experience you seek to attract.

#3 — Post jobs to your own Careers page

Some recruiters post jobs on recruiting websites and call it a day. To maximize your outreach and to ensure that your job posts are found by Google for Jobs, you need to individually post each job listing on your company’s website.

#4 — Submit your job post’s URLs to Google

Don’t passively wait for the Googlebot to crawl your careers page. Submit your URLs to Google for faster job indexing and results. Be sure that your career pages are not protected by a robot.txt file or meta tags that would prevent them from being crawled by the Googlebot. Your job pages need to be open and available in order for Google to work its magic.

#5 — Enhance your company’s profile

Google for Jobs allows you to enhance your company’s profile within the search gallery. Take advantage of this functionality by adding a company logo, a series of images that will show up as a carousel in search results, a search box that will search only your website from Google, links to your social profiles, and more. Adding quality content and images to your profile will make you stand out from other listings and make a memorable impression on job seekers.

#6 — Refine as you go

Are you discovering that specific job listings are getting better results than others? As resumes begin to fill your email’s inbox, take note of what’s working and what isn’t and make updates and refinements to your job posts as you go.

#7 — Verify that your job postings appear on Google

A last, key step is to make sure your hard work is paying off by checking Google for Jobs and making sure each of your job posts appears online for the world to see. If your job isn’t showing up automatically, think about posting the job to an online job board, which may cost a few dollars but takes away the guesswork. You can also use a tool like Jobiak that optimizes job posts for Google for Jobs by creating the necessary tags and confirming that each job post is listed successfully on Google for Jobs.

As Google for Jobs takes the recruiting world by storm, it’s important to create great job postings to make the most of what Google offers. A few tricks and tips will help you leverage Google for Jobs and take your recruiting efforts to the next level.


Authors

Venkat Janapareddy is a 20-year veteran of the recruitment industry and the founder and CEO of Jobiak, a provider of the industry’s first AI-based recruitment marketing platform specifically for Google for Jobs.Based in the Boston area, Janapareddy co-founded Gozaik in 2012, which helped HR professionals engage with employment prospects on Twitter and was acquired by Monster.com in 2014. He also previously founded IT staffing company XpertTech, which he operated for 15 years before he sold the business to a U.K.-based private equity firm in 2016.  @Jobiak_ai