Post a job on Google they said.
It’s a simple way to get your job postings seen by qualified candidates they said.
It’s free to post a job on Google they said.
Is it true? Yes! Is it simple? Not quite. Luckily, we’re here to help. Let’s start with the basics of how to post a job on Google.
What is Google for Jobs?
Google for Jobs is a (relatively) new product from Google that matches job seekers with relevant, high-quality job listings. Google for Jobs aggregates job posts from around the web and presents job search results in a simple box at the top of the organic search results. Google aims to leverage the power of its search platform to deliver the best job postings to applicants through limitless filtering capability. For recruiters, this is a powerful job listing engine that has the capacity to transform how job seekers find your jobs and to deliver you highly qualified applicants for your job postings.
For job seekers, Google for Jobs is an efficient way to find the specific jobs they are looking for, without being fed the superfluous and irrelevant job postings. By typing in their desired job description, job openings are delivered quickly to the job seeker:
Google boasts on its Google for Jobs landing page: “Have your job postings found by millions of job seekers who search on Google every day.” Why wouldn’t you post a job on Google? That’s obvious. But then there’s the next question: how to post on Google for Jobs?
How to Post a Job on Google
- Familiarize yourself with the Google for Jobs Posting Guidelines.
- Post your jobs on your career site and be sure that it includes Google’s required elements:
-
- Date posted
- Description
- Hiring organization
- Job location
- Job title
- Date when job post will expire
- Note that Google also recommends including the following in your post (which likely means if you include these, your posts will rank higher):
- Applicant location requirements
- The actual base salary for the job
- Type of employment – i.e. full time, part time, remote, etc.
- For each of your job postings, create an individual landing page for that job on your career site so it is easily crawled.
- Make sure that your career site content is not protected by a robots.txt file or robots meta tag to ensure it is crawl-able by the Googlebot.
- IMPORTANT: Be sure to add job posting structured data to your web page. Note that the structured data requires that you have a working knowledge of HTML and the JSON file format. You will also need a Google Index API account, and the expertise to work with the Google Index API. Lastly, you will need direct access to the underlying code on your job posting page to update the HTML with the required schema. It is recommended that you work with a developer in your company or a third party expert to implement this properly.
The question Can I post a job for free? Crops up again. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is: be sure to take into consideration the time required to coordinate with your developer and your developer’s time.
Example of Google’s required structured markup
Once Google’s structured data is implemented, test, test, test! You want to be sure that your job postings are showing up on Google.
Also, remember to keep Google informed by doing one of the following:
- For job posting URLs, Google recommends that you use the Indexing API instead of sitemaps because the Indexing API prompts Googlebot to crawl your page sooner than updating the sitemap and pinging Google. In addition to this, Google recommends that you submit a sitemap for coverage of your entire site.
- Use the Indexing API to notify Google of a new or updated URL to crawl.
- Submit a new sitemap to Google by sending a GET request to: http://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=location_of_sitemap (if you are not using the Indexing API.) More information and details about posting jobs to Google may be found here.
How to Post on Google for Jobs through Your ATS
The first key step is to find out if your ATS is integrated with Google for Jobs. A number of ATS’ have done the work to forward your job posting to Google for Jobs. Keep in mind that some ATS’ declare that they are “integrated with Google for Jobs” however this is often an add-on service, or it requires special processing to ensure that your job does show up on Google for Jobs. If your ATS is not integrated with Google for Jobs, then you will need to work with your developer team to optimize your job postings manually.
One notable ATS that has opted not to play with Google for Jobs is Indeed. Read up on how Indeed’s decision not to integrate with Google is impacting staffing and recruiting agencies.
Post a Job on Google, Get More Candidates
All talent sourcing teams agree that they want more candidates. Have you ever heard the expression: Meet your audience where they are?
73% of job Seekers start their job search on Google
There’s no shortage of interesting Google for Jobs data, but this statistic is extremely compelling for recruiters and talent acquisition leaders. If you want to get more qualified candidates, you first need them to find your job posts. Post your jobs on Google to meet your audience where there are.
