A Comprehensive SEO Guide For Recruiters On How to Get Your Recruitment Website Ranking On The First Page Of Google

Seeing your recruitment agency website rank on the first page of Google is a dream for many recruitment agencies, and a strong recruitment agency SEO strategy can make that dream a reality. It’s crucial for increasing visibility, attracting more candidates and clients, and ultimately, growing your business. By sitting in the top few places for a selection of relevant search terms you’ll literally have clients calling you with live roles and placeable candidates reaching out to you. Your recruitment website can be an outstanding lead generation tool! 

I’m going to try my best to not sound like all those spammy emails you receive from random Gmail accounts that promise to get you onto the first page of Google. First of all I’m not an SEO expert or consultant, I’m a recruitment software developer and website designer. I work with two amazing SEO consultants who have headed up major SEO agencies in London and regularly speak at professional SEO events. Also full disclosure my website doesn’t rank in the top few pages for major short tail keywords. However it does do brilliantly for long tail keywords, normally ranking in the top few spots but I’m still working on its short tail visibility.  

However I can speak with some authority on this as my old recruitment agency, Media Square Recruitment used to consistently rank in the top two spots for all relevant search terms, some of our pages were Google definitions and our blog posts often outranked well-known consumer websites such as Time Out & GQ for obscure search terms such as "Best Bars in Liverpool Street" and "Best Men's Laptops Bags". 

Before we dive into this I’m going to assume all of your pages, including your jobs & blogs posts are listed on Google and if they aren’t then fix it.

To achieve a high-ranking position, you’ll need to focus on SEO strategies tailored specifically for recruitment websites. Having said this, your goal shouldn't just be to rank well, but to provide a truly valuable experience for both clients and candidates visiting your website. This comprehensive guide will walk you through essential steps to optimise your website for Google's search engine (and other search engines), ensuring it stands out in the competitive recruitment sector.

What Is Recruitment SEO?

Recruitment SEO involves optimising your website to improve its visibility in search engine results with the objective of attracting the relevant job seekers, as well as clients and recruitment talent in respect of recruitment agencies. The strategy involves keyword research, keyword optimisation, creating backlinks, increasing domain authority and quality content creation to improve rankings and drive targeted traffic.

Monitor Your SEO Performance

How do you know your search ranking is improving unless you monitor it? If you haven’t connected your recruitment website to tools such as Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console then do so as these will be a huge help. Monitor metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rate to understand how users are interacting with your site. Regularly check your rankings for targeted keywords and adjust your strategy based on what's working or not.

First of all take a base reading of the current level of traffic and where it’s sitting in the search ranking for a selection of relevant search terms. It's worthwhile running a Google Lighthouse report on your website to see if it suggests any quick wins.

Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

This can be time consuming and a little monotonous but way less boring than trawling through LinkedIn, Reddit and so on for relevant candidates. The foundation of good recruitment SEO is understanding what your audience is searching for.  Think about variations and long-tail keywords (more specific, less competitive phrases). Focus on one keyword or a set of variations per page to avoid confusing search engines. Pull up a Google Doc and start jotting down search terms. For example if you’re a media recruitment firm then a selection could be…

“media recruitment firms”

“media recruitment agencies in London”

“jobs in TV in Manchester”

“how to get a job in radio”

Focus on keywords specific to your industry such as “media”, “radio”, “TV”, “digital”, “advertising agency”, “marketing agency”, “media buying agency”, “content marketing”, “advertising sales”, etc. 

Also think about slight variations. Google says only 15% of searches are searches being carried out for the first time but these are down to slight variations in search terms… 

“media recruitment firm”

“media recruitment firm in London”

“media recruitment agency”

“media specific recruitment firm”

“media industry recruitment company”

And as you can see with the examples we’ve given you also try to account for location based searches. If you’re a media recruitment agency based in Soho, London and the majority of your clients & candidates are based in London then try to incorporate “London' and "Soho"' into your website copy. 

I’d highly recommend using free tools like Google Keyword Planner but also if you can, invest in paid tools such as SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords, including job titles, industry-specific terms, and location-based searches. These tools will also tell you how many times each month these terms are used in search engines. Focus on long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive, making it easier for you to rank higher.

And try to focus on one keyword or set of keyword variations per page - you’ll just confuse Google otherwise and your content will end up on page 10 for 10 different search terms. For example focus on “how to get a job in TV”, “getting my first job in TV”, “entry level jobs in TV”, etc. 

Optimise for On-Page SEO

A well-structured website helps search engines understand and rank your content better. Ensure your website has a clear hierarchy, with a logical flow from the homepage to category pages and individual listings or articles. For example make sure all of your blog posts sit in the sub page route of “blogs” or you could ensure sections such as “team” and “join us” are housed under the “about us” section. Also make sure you use short, descriptive URLs that include your target keywords - this is especially important for blog posts and job adverts.

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Craft unique, keyword-rich titles and descriptions for each page, using compelling language that entices clicks. Your heading should draw the reader in and should ideally fit the search intent of the keyword you rank for. Google will often use the meta description you provide but in many cases it can generate its own description of your content based on parts of the text.

Use Header Tags (H1, H2, H3)

Structure your content clearly and include your keyword in your heading.Your main heading is your H1 and your subheadings are your H2, H3, and so on. Mark all subheadings with an H2 tag as this helps Google to identify what the page is about.

Optimise Images

Google will also use the on page images to determine what the page is about and where to rank it in its listings. Try to use images throughout your page and use descriptive file names and alt text that includes relevant keywords. For example, instead of saving an image as "two-people-talking-at desk.,jpg", you could call it "hiring-manager-interviewing-applicant-at-desk.jpg".

Technical SEO

This is going to be the backbone of your website and probably what I do best. All of the sites we ship to our recruitment agency clients have a near (if not) perfect technical SEO according to Google Lighthouse.

Semantic HTML

Is the proper use HTML tags (e.g., header, paragraph, footer, etc. tags) to organise your website pages' content. Some developer can get lazy and mark everything as a "div", which makes it harder for Google to crawl your website.

Fast Loading Speed

Optimise your images and minimize website code to ensure your website loads quickly. I still see web developers and recruitment marketers uploading JPEG and PNG images to their website. These image formats were great 10 years ago and still have their uses in print and some digital situations but you should be using the WebP image format for all of your website images. Also a lot of drag and drop website builders tend to use a lot of obsolete code, which can really slow down your site.

XML Sitemap

Make sure all your pages are included in your sitemap.xml file. You can access your sitemap by navigating to domain/sitemap.xml so mine would be "abstractionlabs.co.uk/sitemap.xml".

Robots.txt

Your Robots.txt file tells search engines which pages they can access, crawl and index and which pages they can't. Ensure your robots.txt file is correctly configured to allow search engines to crawl your site. You can see if your Robot.txt is valid via Google Lighthouse and various other free online tools.

Mobile friendly

Use a clean, responsive design that works well on both desktop and mobile devices. Google prioritises mobile-friendly websites. You can check to see if your website is mobile friendly by using the Google Developer Tools. 

Create High Quality Content

This is probably the most important point I will make in this whole blog post. Content (& backlinks) is king in SEO - to be more precise content & backlinks are king and queen in SEO. For a recruitment website, this means providing valuable information for both job seekers, employers and potential rec con talent. Create a blog section to share industry insights, CV tips, interview advice, and company culture highlights. Once you’ve written each new blog post, use your targeted keywords naturally within your content to improve your search rankings. And don’t over saturate it with keywords, this will cripple the readability. One big point I’d like to make is to avoid plagiarism and copy and pasting AI generated content as Google penalises duplicate content.

Video Content

Creating a YouTube channel for your recruitment agency and posting video content to it on a weekly basis is a great way to improve your chances of cropping up in search engine results. Sounds simple right? Wrong! Although this is a great avenue you really need to make sure you have the resources to do this properly otherwise it’s just going to look unprofessional and potentially damage your agency. Work with an established recruitment marketing agency in this space or if you’re going alone then make sure you have a recruitment marketer with all the necessary kit, professional webcam, lighting, microphone, editing software, etc. 

Optimise Your Job Ads

The more high quality pages you have listed on Google the more chance you have for being listed in the first few pages. Make sure your job pages contain “structured data”, which means Google can list your job posts on Google for Jobs. 

Build Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are hyperlinks from other websites to yours, signalling to Google that your recruitment site is a valuable resource. The more links you have directed at your recruitment website the more authority Google gives your website and the more likely it is to push it up the search rankings. 

Focus on building quality backlinks through guest blogging, partnerships, and directory listings. Ensure the sites linking to yours are reputable and relevant to your industry to maximise the positive impact on your rankings.

You can check the authority of a website using Moz’s cool tool or Ahrefs's free tool. 

Improve User Experience (UX)

Google is very hot on UX and it uses user interaction signals to help determine rankings. Recruitment websites that provide a great user experience will tend to rank higher. Ensure your website is fast, easy to navigate, and provides valuable content. 

Utilise Local SEO

Even if your recruitment agency doesn’t focus on specific regions, local SEO is still incredibly crucial. Optimise your website for local search terms, you may consider including your address and phone number on every page (preferably in the footer), and claim your Google My Business listing. Ask clients & candidates to leave reviews for your business on your Google Business Profile. Try to get mentions in local magazines & newspapers (of course the digital versions). 

PPC Advertising

One relatively easy but expensive way to make sure your website is always listed at the top of search results is to pay for Google and Bing advertising. You can set this all up yourself but you’ll need to watch a fair few YouTube tutorials so it’s at least halfway optimised. You’ll need to spend around £300 per month on each search engine to see any meaningful results and it’s money that can quite easily be wasted if it’s not set up properly. 

Stay Updated On SEO Best Practices

This might be asking a lot considering you may be running the business side of your recruitment agency, billing and managing a team, however if you’re a recruitment marketer then part of your role should be keeping abreast of the latest developments and best practices in the field of SEO. Stay informed about the latest SEO trends and best practices by following industry blogs, participating in forums, and attending webinars or conferences.

Be Patient And Persistent

SEO is a long-term strategy and it can take months (literally 6-12 months) to see significant improvements in your rankings. By implementing what we’ve discussed here you should start seeing gradual increments within just a couple of weeks but be patient and persistent in your efforts. Continuously optimise your website, produce high-quality content, and build backlinks to maintain and improve your SEO rankings over time. You should start seeing some early successes with long tail keywords in the first few weeks but ranking well for short tail keywords will take months and sustained effort. 

If you’d like to see how we can help improve your SEO strategy then just get in touch with us.