How to bury a body
SEO content in recruitment. Innovation from iteration, pt 5
I’m sure we all have Google searches we’d prefer didn’t show up in our browsing history.
And while you may not think of researching how to hide a body, no doubt when you have run searches you’ve played around with keywords to get the best results.
Maybe you’ve even surfed job boards looking for a (“HR Manager” or “Head of Personnel” or “People Partner”) or some such boolean string / semantic search, knowing full well there can be ambiguity in nomenclature.
I don’t know about you, but when I see a page of search results, I’ll typically ignore the paid ads, and dodgy-looking links, then skim down to find headlines that most closely match my intent.
Take my research for this article – “what are the pillars of SEO”?
Crikey the results are confusing, with anything from 3 to 900 key pillars on which you must build your SEO, before requiring me to buy their stuff.
And ChatGPT is unavailable for comment.
Yet each has the common pillars which search engines prioritise to boost those sites’ rankings:
1/ user experience
2/ EAT – expertise, authority and trustworthiness
Interesting isn’t it that a company (Google; YMMV) that spends a huge amount of money on their internet technology and makes £billions from securing users into their ecosystem place emphasis on what is written, how it’s written and how it’s experienced by the reader.
While companies who trade on the internet build their websites around the rules set by those same search engines.
Do they do this because expertise, authority, trustworthiness and experience are nice to have, or do they do it because of the commercial benefit?
Yes, yes, there are technical elements to SEO from web page optimisation, to backlinks, to tools and processes like Ahrefs and SEMrush, to meta tags and so on.
But think about your own internet searches. Which websites do you trust and why?
I’ve no doubt these four content elements have an impact, and with good experience you’ll come back for more.
You can boost the search rankings of a website solely by writing good landing pages, informative blogs with the right content, becoming an expert others ask for content from (driving more people to your own content).
All for the consequence of shifting product.
What happens if we apply those content pillars to recruitment?
Let’s consider that people may come across you because they are interested in a <job title> which you either have now, have had or will have in future. They’ve become aware of you because of the potential of you being a viable employer at some point.
The point of applying these SEO principles is that, when you are ready to hire, and they are open to considering such a vacancy, you’ve done the leg work so that your content sets them in the right direction.
I’d start by asking these questions of any content you may have:
Does it show expertise? Do you know your stuff?
Does it show authority? Or are you hoping for a bite?
Does it build trust? Or is it promises promises with no substance?
What does the reader experience of these words?
What content you ask?
Your job adverts
Job descriptions
Career page
ATS
LinkedIn posts, comments and connection requests
Videos and webinars
Interview confirmations
Communications, written, verbal and in person
Employment contract
These latter points may be ‘in process’ yet why wouldn’t you show trustworthiness and authority, or improve their journey and experience?
Any piece of content someone you may wish to employ, or otherwise work with, comes across is an opportunity.
Of course, I’ve written about similar topics before while discussing the commercial benefit of good candidate experience, conversion rate optimisation (CRO - fundamentally linked to SEO) and last week on branding.
Yet while they are similar topics, with overlap, they are different parts of the same conversation.
Brand raises awareness, SEO helps you look in the ‘right’ place when you need something, CRO converts, while the overall experience informs your final decision and your advocacy.
If you’d like a reminder, click on my email archive.
It’s no wonder there are marketing agencies that specialise in each field, while some offer a one-stop full-service mix, all with the purpose of helping clients sell more.
From a consumer perspective, if you were aware of Nike as a reputable shoe company, love their marketing, needed a specific type of lightweight trainer, searched on google for shoes that meet these criteria, Nike crops up and the click-through leads to an informative enjoyable optimised experience?
Well, you may just end up buying cheap knockoffs at the market, and your feet won’t thank you later.
Or you may see that all these elements can come together to improve how you recruit, and the likelihood of filling your vacancies.
The next email is on the misleading nature of active and passive candidates.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Greg
p.s. While you are here, if you like the idea of improving how you recruit, lack capacity or need better candidates, and are curious how I can help, these are my services:
- commercial, operational and technical leadership recruitment (available for no more than two vacancies)
- manage part or all of your recruitment on an individually designed basis for one client
- recruitment coaching and mentoring (one place available at £200/hr + VAT)
- recruitment strategy setting
- outplacement support
Just hit reply to check if my approach is right for you.