Why is recruitment SEO still so important:
- There are roughly 13 million people using the internet to look for a new job.
According to TMP
- Over 70% of people are using Google and other search engines to look for jobs.
According to the NORAs
- Over 50% of all job search queries will be skill-set or industry based and contain a location.
According to Google UK
It goes without saying that the more relevant candidates approaching you directly the more likely you are to make placements. This is the main reason I believe SEO is still crucial to making recruitment agencies successful. Despite this I have heard a number of people questioning the importance of recruitment search engine marketing. The main reason for this is that recruitment social media has come along – because SEO is no longer the ONLY thing that matters...
Recruitment social media has exploded over the past few years. Rightfully so as it is pretty awesome. Nothing else allows you to engage so freely with passive and active candidates, prospective and existing clients and prospective and current staff.
So why are people saying that recruitment SEO is dead and recruitment social media has taken over? In the same way as when Google got big every man and their dog claimed to be a “Google Guru.” The world is now full of “social media experts.” They have deflected the importance of other marketing channels onto social because it is easier to sell. It is harder to peddle something like SEO as so few can claim to have mastered it.
So is social replacing search? The answer is simple. No. It is only an additional weapon in a recruiter's arsenal.
At the moment if you focus purely on social media you are missing out on the large volumes of candidates looking for you and your jobs directly from search engines. As the stats above show over 70% of job seekers will start their journey with a Google search. People you are engaging with on social media will be a combination of active and passive clients and candidates, whereas, people looking for you via a search engine are active job seekers or employers looking to either give you their CV or send you a job role right now.
These are the types of people who you can make money from in the short term and will continue to make money from in the future.
Even in extremely niche markets there are still candidates looking for jobs via search engines. If you would like to see case studies and examples please get in touch. No matter what vertical market or skill set you recruit for this is still the case.
SEO has been proven to be one of the best sources of unique candidates for recruitment companies. Alongside job boards SEO is probably the best channel to get active candidates and CVs. SEO can also prove to be one of the cheapest forms of good quality CV acquisition. It is hard to gain new clients through job boards, but much easier via search engines.
Through targeted SEO you can help to filter the types of people coming to your website and as a result relieve the time spent on sifting out inappropriat applicants. This makes recruiters' lives substantially easier when they know the CVs they are looking at are relevant.
For these reasons I believe that recruitment SEO is not dead.
If you would like to know more about Recruitment SEO, social media marketing or any other types of recruitment marketing please get in touch.
