What some people are calling “Indeedmageddon” is nearly at hand. After almost 15 years, Indeed will no longer allow staffing agencies to post and Indeed job posting for free on the job board. Starting January 7 2018, recruitment companies will have to pay if they want their jobs to be included in Indeed’s organic search results.
The Impact of Indeed’s Changes
The new policy on how an Indeed job posting workings affects pretty much every kind of agency — Indeed says it will affect “recruiting firms, placement firms, or headhunters who search for, recruit, and place job seekers into roles at other companies,” as well as staffing agencies.
Our analysis of Indeed job postings indicates that as many as 13,000 staffing and recruiting agencies will be impacted by this change.
In a blog post, Indeed claims it’s making the change to improve the quality of jobs the site offers and says it will enhance job-seekers’ search experiences.
However, we’re skeptical. We think that there’s a much simpler explanation: Indeed wants more revenue and believes that’s the best way to do it.
Also, unlike many other job boards, Indeed has opted not to “play with” Google for Jobs. This means that jobs listed on Indeed aren’t indexed on Google’s job site. Indeed seems to believe Google for Jobs is its competition and hopes that blocking it will improve Indeed’s finances. However, Google for Jobs is a force multiplier, as other job boards have found.
So what will agencies do who have used Indeed for so many years? They’ll have to scramble to make up for all that lost traffic.
Some will likely pay to play. They’ll bite the bullet and advertise on Indeed.
The smart ones will benchmark their results, and use metrics like their total spend, cost per apply and quality of candidates to decide how to spend their money. They’ll also be careful not to enter into long-term agreements with Indeed, so that they can adjust their ad spend as they go along, getting the most bang for the buck.
Others will turn to other job boards, job aggregators and social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook. And still, others will optimize their career sites and ATS.
Turbocharging Google for Jobs
Most of all, though, the bulk of the lost Indeed job postings may end up on Google for Jobs, as agencies get smart and use Google’s service to increase traffic.
The Indeed move may well be a key tipping point for Google for Jobs. As more jobs get added to Google that may not have been there before, it increases the reasons for seekers to stay within Google and never leave to go to other boards.
The upshot? Google for Jobs will become one-stop shopping for those looking for jobs. Because of that, agencies will focus their recruiting efforts there. Indeed will have shot itself in the foot.
Smart talent acquisition leaders will no doubt turn to Google for Jobs for a cost-efficient way to be seen by top candidates.
Next Steps for Staffing Agencies
Important: Tune into the Jobiak LinkedIn account next week where we’ll be sharing exciting news for staffing agencies who are impacted by Indeed’s latest changes. You can also contact us for more information along with some solutions to the change in how an Indeed job posting would work.
