Bill Gates wrote an article called ‘Content is King’ on Microsoft’s website back in 1996, which began with,
“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.”
1996 was 26 years ago, and even as technology continues to progress, I think it’s safe to say that his prediction came true. Since then, plenty of bloggers have gotten rich, the term “clickbait” has entered our vernacular and traditional media outlets have moved online as their business models have needed to evolve.
When it comes to recruiting though, the goal is to drive apply clicks from highly desirable candidates and eventually extend job offers to the best fit for the role. Conceptually though, “Content is still King” when it comes to communicating with the right candidates for your organization’s needs. Instead of strengthening a balance sheet or bank account, you’re strengthening a company. Unsure where to start? Hopefully this list of key elements helps steer you in the right direction.
1. What is the ultimate motivation for building this page?
I figured this is as good of a place to start as any. Before typing your first line of copy into the page, I think it’s a good idea to sit back and consider “why” you’re building this page. Many times, this will be easy to answer. Other times, it may not come through as cleanly. Who is the intended audience for this page of content? Passive job seekers? Company alumni? Entry-level employees? Executive-level? These are all good questions to consider upfront, before you even start building it. Think about what key performance indicators (KPIs) and/or quantifiable goals you can set to determine the page’s success. If you’re having a hard time answering these questions, you may want to rethink if it’s worth the time and effort to build the page.
2. What are the desired traffic-driving channels?
To piggyback off of the first point, how are you hoping to get people to view this page? Are you planning to use this content in paid social campaigns? Share organically via social? Implementing paid search engine campaigns? Capture free SEO traffic? All of the above?
If the goal is to be used within Google Ads, you should be cognizant of how the page is written from a Quality Score perspective. Similarly, if the goal is organic search traffic, ensure that the page is optimized for SEO. Some of the following points will help with that. A Hub that dynamically pulls in pages of content is available via Radancy’s career site Content Management System (CMS), which helps candidates naturally discover the content when they’re on your career site. This page is linked off of the site’s top navigation, and can be easily filtered by customized “Topics,” relevant job categories, or by location. All of these help the end user discover the content that they’re interested in. Whatever your traffic driving strategy might be, just be sure that you have one for the content that you’re creating.
3. Structure the URL cleanly for users and search engines
A web page needs a URL to even be found, so this is the best place to start. Utilize full keywords in the URL that are relevant to the page content, separated by hyphens. Stick to four to six keywords maximum, and feel free to leave out words like “a” or “the.” Stick to the most unique, relevant keywords that describe your page. For example:
Careersite.com/en/use-descriptive-keywords-here
If your site uses random characters or session IDs instead of keywords, look for a server setting to generate search-friendly URLs, or seek out a better content management system.
4. Ensure your H1 tag is properly optimized
Once the URL is set, we’re ready to start building our page. The best place to start is with the headline of the page. First off, ensure that this is set up as an H1 within the HTML structure. You should be able to do this without coding, using a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor. Secondly, if you’re focused on driving SEO traffic, make sure that it actually describes the intent of the article.
For example, if there’s an article about an RN who loves what they do at work every day, there could be a couple of ways to approach that headline.
“Live Your Passion”
vs.
“Meet Jane, a Registered Nurse at {Company} Who Enjoys Each and Every Day at Work”
The second one better describes the content, is preferrable for SEO, and is more engaging for readers. Always aim to be eye-catching and persuasive, erring on the side of being too descriptive vs. too vague.
5. Use subheadings, bolded keywords and links effectively
Outside of the main H1 headline, break up your article subheadings (H2, H3, etc.), and use keywords within each effectively. Think of your reader first and foremost, but also think about how search engines will crawl and “understand” the page, knowing that they are much less intelligent than the human readers. This heading structure helps search engines get a sense of the content, and this header structure can carry more weight in their algorithms. If a keyword or keyword string is used in the main H1 headline, it will have more algorithmic value associated to it within these signals than if it’s used in the body copy itself.
Similarly, be strategic with using bolded keywords, and always use descriptive anchor text when writing links to other pages. Those keywords are helpful for users to know what they’re clicking on, but can also be utilized by search engines to understand the intent of the page being linked to. Every little bit helps when you’re competing within Google or Bing’s search results. Make the most of all of these in your copywriting.
6. Ensure images are optimized
Speaking of “every bit helping,” images are one area that can be easily overlooked. Use relevant keywords in the filename, and focus on writing keyword-friendly Alternative Text. Alt Text assists with accessibility for visually impaired users, as it describes what is happening in the image. Assistive technologies can read this off to the user, giving the user a better idea of what’s happening in the image. In the past, you may have also noticed the text that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over an image online. That would be the Alt Text. Modern browsers like Chrome and Firefox have moved away from showing this.
Search engines can also use these signals when ranking page content and indexing images. Here’s one from Radancy’s own website: both of the following alt tags could work, but one is preferable. I’ll let you decide which one to go with.
Two people laughing
vs.
Two Radancy technology and product development members laughing while working on a project in a conference room
7. Write strong metadata
I’m amazed how often metadata is breezed over when creating pages, although I admittedly focus on SEO more than the average person. I urge you to spend time on the following when building out content on your career site.
Title Tag: Used by search engines to summarize what that page is about. It’s used within Google’s search algorithm. Many times used as the link within search engine results. Approximately 70 characters max.
Meta Description: Can be displayed by search engines below the clickable search results link. It’s not used within Google’s search algorithm, but keywords used in search queries are bolded. Can boost click-through rates and should be persuasively written. Approximately 155 characters max.
8. Include social media tags
Use Open Graph tags. Be sure to include the image that you want to appear when posted to social networks like Facebook. This ensures a clean look and feel when sharing out the content via social media, which can boost engagement and click-through rates. I’m sure you’ve seen a post on social media that isn’t very appealing to click on. Avoid that and put your best foot forward.
9. Shareability considerations
How easy is it to share this content with other users? Do they need to manually copy the URL and then paste it in an email or Facebook post? Or can they easily do it with a clickable icon? Give the user tools to accomplish this as easily as possible. Radancy’s CMS offers a Social Share module that makes this process seamless. This is beneficial to the visibility of the content, and can lead to external linking and social shares, both of which boost SEO performance.
10. What’s the call to action?
At Radancy, we have a saying and a goal to “Tie jobs to content, and content to jobs.” Does your page do this? As I mentioned in the beginning, your goal is to not persuade somebody to buy something online. Your goal is to connect with the desired candidate for your open positions. There should always be a desired next step for the candidate to take, instead of exiting that page after viewing the content. These next steps should consist of offering up jobs that are relevant to that page, and/or a Job Alert or Talent Community that the user can opt in to. Make sure that they have the choice to opt in, never force them to opt in to view jobs or sign up for job alerts. That’s a poor user experience, and Google has even released updates designed to penalize this type of manipulative behavior. Perhaps the call to action on the page is to have the user sign up for a hiring event or reach out to a recruiter via a form. Whatever it may be, ensure that you’re giving the job seeker what they need to complete that desired outcome. While you’re at it, make sure that you’re able to track the interaction with that call to action, so that the analytics can help drive your strategy in the future.
Hopefully this post helps you a bit in your own employer content journey. If you want to check out the full Bill Gates article, you can read it here. It’s a fascinating read in 2022, like looking at a digital time capsule of how things used to be. Also, if Radancy can help accomplish these goals mentioned above, please reach out to us here.
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- ‘Google for Jobs’ Quality Control Guidelines Part 2: What Does the Data Say? - June 24, 2022
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- Unleashing the Power of SEO with Radancy’s Talent Acquisition Cloud - April 11, 2022
- How to Find Job Seekers Who Aren’t Seeking Jobs: Part 2 - September 24, 2021
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