7 tips for optimizing your job ad on Google for Jobs
Are your job ads already on Google for Jobs? Congratulations, you have already overcome the first hurdle.
But this is just the beginning. As with optimization for normal Google searches, there are many things to consider to ensure that your job ad is found in the best possible way and can be found in the top positions in the rankings. Optimize your job ad with the following tips.
If your job ads are not yet listed, place your first job ad now.
1. no experiments with the job title
The job title is the entry point to your job ad. Anyone who already knows a little about Google optimization knows how important the main headline is for content. The situation is similar with job ads on Google for Jobs. The title of a job advertisement is the most important criterion for the search.
It is advisable to title the jobs using industry jargon. Imagine what a potential applicant would be looking for. It is therefore perfectly legitimate to call the job "MFA dental practice", even if not everyone knows what an MFA is. But be sure that the group of people for whom the ad is relevant knows what it is about. A few other important factors should also be taken into account when formulating the job title. For example, the length of the title and how to deal with the neutral gender designation. It makes more sense not to include gender neutr ality directly in the job title, as Google will not take this into account when ranking your ad. Of course, it is extremely important to refer to the equality of all genders in the job advertisement, but this should be done at the beginning of the description. For example, you could add the abbreviation m/f/d when the job title is mentioned again to emphasize gender neutrality.
Here are some examples of what you should avoid in your job advertisement titles:
1. WANTED! MFA (m/f/d) in a great and family-friendly dental practice
2. MFA for a dental practice in Wedel near Hamburg
3. MFA for a dental practice with a salary of 50.000€.
The ideal wording for this job would simply be short and sweet: MFA dental practice. This only serves to ensure that your job can be found easily by Google and thus appears to many applicants. All other information can then be presented in detail in the description.
Traditional job portals such as Xing or Stepstone often try to score points through creativity and thus stand out from the competition. If you own a café and need help at the counter, describe the position as "barista" rather than "coffee lover".
With Google for Jobs, however, the ranking mechanisms work differently than with indeed and Co. where you can usually buy the positioning of the jobs. With Google, you (still) have to work for it through good content. It is therefore advisable to use the specific job title in the job title so that the ad can be easily found by Google.
✓ The title should be 35-50 characters long
✓ Do not include gender neutrality in the title
✓ You can find more tips on how to optimally formulate your job title in our tool
2. think regionally
You may have already noticed that Google prefers jobs in your area. For example, if you search for "project management job" on Google, you will primarily be shown jobs in your area. Google therefore recognizes where job seekers start their search from. Potential applicants from Hamburg are therefore shown different jobs than jobseekers from Munich.
It is therefore essential to enter the location in a job advertisement. If you have not entered a location in your job advertisement, your job will probably not be shown to anyone.
In general, the more precisely you specify the location, the better. Ideally, you should enter the complete address.
However, if the job is also available from a home office, you can of course specify this instead of a specific location.
3. one location per job advertisement
As described above, regional consideration is very important. If your company has vacancies at several locations, you should also advertise these separately. For example, if you are looking for an "SEO expert" in Berlin and Düsseldorf, then it is advisable to post the job ad once with the location "Berlin" and once with the location "Düsseldorf" - even if all other content is identical.
4th salary: Transparency pays off
When Google for Jobs was introduced, there was a small outcry in the HR world, as Google demanded more transparency regarding salaries and has built this into Google's new job portal. There it is possible to indicate directly how much salary can be expected for the advertised position. What is completely normal in other countries is more of a taboo subject in United Kingdom. Nevertheless, it can pay off to be transparent about salaries.
If you include the salary when placing a job advertisement on Google, it will be displayed directly in the list view and in the detailed view of a job. This is interesting for applicants and is also rewarded by the Google algorithm.
5. formatting the job description
After the previous tips have primarily focused on Google SEO optimization with the aim of improving the ranking, it is now a matter of making the job advertisement interesting for the candidates.
Admittedly, the options for designing job advertis ements are rather limited with Google for Jobs. This is primarily intended to enable the comparability of job offers by standardizing the presentation of all job offers. The only formatting options available are
Paragraphs
Enumerations
With some providers, the job advertisements for Google for Jobs are generated and posted automatically. As a result, the jobs are often not formatted correctly or contain text modules that do not actually belong in the job advertisement.
You should therefore use the few resources available to you to make your job advertisement readable and clear for interested parties.
6. all important information belongs in the job description
Google's job portal already shows job seekers a lot of information without them having to leave the job board. There is the option of clicking on the "Apply to: ..." button to be redirected to the original website, in reality this only happens once a candidate has decided to apply for the job and not to view further information about the job.
It is therefore very important to include all relevant information in the job description. These are
Brief information about the company
Description of the tasks
Requirements for the applicant
Benefits
Contact person with e-mail address and telephone number
7. integration of the logo
The only way to include an image in Google for Jobs is in the form of the logo. This is displayed both in the list view and in the detailed view.
The optimal format of the logo is square. Although logos are also displayed in other formats, this wastes valuable space as the logo is simply reduced in size until it fits into the square space provided.
Since the logos on Google's job board are only displayed very small anyway (56 pixels x 56 pixels in the list view and 40 pixels x 40 pixels in the detailed view), you should make the most of the precious space with an optimized logo. For very fine and detailed logos, it is advisable to use a simplified form of the logo. For example, the logo that is also used as a favicon on the website can be used here.
If no logo is stored, a placeholder is automatically generated, which is made up of a random background color and the first letter of the company.
Conclusion: Optimizing job offers for Google for Jobs
There is a lot to consider when optimizing a job offer for Google for Jobs, as you have to make optimizations for the Google algorithm as well as for job seekers. We have prepared a template for the optimal job advertisement.
What all approaches to optimization have in common, however, is that you need full control over the job ads on Google for Jobs in order to be able to make any optimizations at all.
This is exactly what SEO for Jobs offers with its intuitive user interface. Try it out now and gain full control over your postings on Google for Jobs.
