Since its launch in 2017, Google for Jobs has given employers and job seekers an outlet for career growth opportunities. Google for Jobs was designed to include job data from an applicant tracking system (ATS); ideally, this would’ve allowed the platform to showcase organized and reliable job listings directly from ATSs with large userbases.
Unfortunately, Google for Jobs ran into a few issues regarding ATSs accessing the platform as intended. Firstly, many ATSs didn’t have the resources to get their job post data aligned with the complex schema requirements Google required. Also, Google for Jobs became clogged with spam and fraudulent job postings, fed directly into the system by disreputable ATSs; this has made jobs posted through ATSs generally distrusted by Google and deprioritized in the rankings.
Google has since re-evaluated its job posting system and acknowledged the hangups that plagued the job-search platform. In October of 2021, the company vowed to make changes to Google for Jobs to increase the quality of job seekers’ experience. Google has decided to crack down on misleading job postings. Google for Jobs’ October 1st update has forced ATSs to reconcile their data and provide higher-quality job posts if they wish to be featured/successful on the platform.
Google Will Be Weeding Out Fraudulent Activity
Google for Jobs had become infected with the very issue they were trying to avoid. With so many scammers, spam posts, and fraudulent activity, job seekers haven’t been able to trust its services. To prevent safety issues and poor work experiences, Google will be taking a closer look at postings. They will also be removing spam posts that take up space for reliable positions. For ATSs, data reconciliation will have to become a high priority before any chance of posts making it onto Google for Jobs.
ATSs Meeting the Requirments Will Likely Rank Higher
Even if the ATS is reputable, Google won’t reward poor job descriptions or feature misleading/duplicate listings. Instead, they’ll be paying attention to well-crafted, descriptive posts; this does not mean longer posts. It refers to postings that use brevity. All descriptions need to be well written, concise, and grammatically correct. Any posts that don’t follow these guidelines will be considered spam. Alternatively, jobs posted through ATSs following Google’s guidelines will likely be ranked higher.
Google Will Reward Postings With the “Direct Apply” Feature
Part of Google’s recent announcement includes a new feature called “direct apply”; this will allow job seekers to complete the application process without being sent from website to website. Direct apply helps avoid miscommunication and redundancy of applicant information. Jobs posted through ATS can use this feature to their advantage. By meeting Google’s direct apply requirements with a well-written job posting, the position may be one of the top search results for job seekers.
To learn more about Google for Jobs’ October 2021 update, please see our article “Google for Jobs October 1st Updates – What Are the Guidelines?
