You're hired! Solving the search for talent

In the current economic climate, the number of job seekers is rising and competition between job sites is rife. Visibility is key to survival and, with 90 per cent of online job seekers looking no further than the first two pages of search results, ranking highly in search engines is critical for success. Search is a powerful talent acquisition medium that enables recruitment agencies and job boards to identify suitable candidates at the precise time that they are looking for new opportunities. However, search is a complex area that requires expert understanding. Recruiters looking to get the edge on their search campaigns and ensure that their adverts stand out in the crowded online market should ensure that they invest in a specialist search resource -- either in-house or by working with a search engine marketing specialist agency. If search marketing is carried out well, recruiters can ensure that category-level vacancies are prominently displayed in the search results e.g. "accountancy jobs London" and acquire appropriate candidates at volume. DBD Media works with a number of recruitment sector clients, such as Bauer Media, and search has proved to be a very successful growth and candidate acquisition tool at profitable ROI levels.   Natural vs paid search
Natural search, or search engine optimisation (SEO), refers to where your site appears in the main listings on search engines such as Google. Paid search (PPC) results appear either in the right hand column on the search results page or above the natural search listings. Both forms of search have their benefits as well as disadvantages. High-ranking SEO results are very visible, trusted by users and the cost to implement and maintain SEO is lower. However, results can take months to appear. Alternatively, PPC campaigns provide rapid results but costs can be higher and user trust may be lower, as it is stated on search engines that these results are paid for. To get the most out of your search campaign, SEO and PPC should be fully integrated. Those who do this will be rewarded by search engines with both high search rankings and lower PPC costs. Implementation
Before embarking on a PPC campaign or implementing SEO, careful planning is imperative. Business objectives must be taken into account and marketing activity should be maximised. An important starting point is to audit both your own website and competitor websites to make sure that content accurately reflects your own key messages, and that you are aware of the messages that your competitors are promoting. When choosing keywords it is important to remember that search is a user driven medium. Therefore, to make jobs easy to find online, keywords for both PPC and SEO must be terms that users will search. Falling into the trap of using unfamiliar job titles will alienate potential applicants and make your job tricky to find online. By using more popular search terms you will open up the job to many more online jobseekers. For example, instead of using a complex and unusual title such as 'technical operation facilitator’, the term 'IT consultant' is more commonly searched. To gain maximum online visibility, it is important that jobs appear for all variables of search terms. So, when selecting keyword phrases ensure they reflect the whole job category, including job title, job type and location. This will ensure that job seekers are able to find the most suitable jobs and you will receive more relevant applications. Furthermore, as success in PPC campaigns is measured on a cost per click or cost per CV upload basis, keywords must be regularly monitored and updated so that recruiters are not paying to market positions that are no longer available. Once you have identified the most pertinent keywords, your online content needs to be adapted to reflect this, as this will form the foundations of your natural search listings. Achieving top ranking for both paid and natural search increases the likelihood of job seekers noticing your job and clicking through. Keywords must be concentrated and should appear near the top of the website page. To show search engines the relevance of your site, around five keywords should appear in each 100 words of website copy. Maximising your investment
Finally, while implementing your search campaign it is essential to remember that your investment in search will be wasted if your website does not provide the information in an easy to understand way that visitors were looking for. A study by Logan Tod, an eCommerce optimisation and web analytics company, revealed that for two-thirds of the sites clicked through from a search, 20 per cent of visitors left having looked at only one page. For some sites this figure was a massive 47 per cent. This represents a wasted opportunity to engage visitors and convert searches into applications, as well as negating the value of search investment. In conclusion, not only must your site be relevant, it must be easy to navigate and mapped in a way that is obvious to visitors. This will ensure that all opportunities are maximised, no searches are wasted and the best candidate for the job can find you. Nigel Muir is the managing director of DBD Media.