How To Make Your Recruitment Firm’s Website Attractive To Clients

Both 2021 and 2022 were all about finding talent. Clients were crying out for talent to fill their live vacancies. Your role as a recruitment agency owner was to push your recruitment consultants to engage with as many high quality (and average) candidates as possible or if you’re a recruitment marketer you were tasked with creating candidate communities and attracting & converting candidates for the numerous live vacancies your clients had open.

Recruitment agency websites are normally pretty unique in that they have to be designed to attract and engage with three quite different groups of people with different motivations for visiting your website. This is the holy trinity of C’s - candidates, consultants and of course clients. Most recruitment agency websites will be geared towards one particular group over another. This could be down to how the market typically is and how the market was when the website was designed and deployed. In my opinion they tend to be more swayed to candidates, however I’d like you to look through each of your website pages and look at the layout, the content and the images used and see if they’re aimed more at your candidates or your clients. 

Now speaking of clients, when we say clients we will define it as everyone within an organisation who will have a decision on a preferred supplier list, signing terms of business with a recruitment agency and anyone with a say in the hiring process so this will include the HR team, the talent acquisition team, direct hiring managers, any directors such as a Finance Director or Managing Director / Department Head. 

Now each of these stakeholders will have very different expectations of your recruitment agency's website but we’ll try to cover it all here and amalgamate it into one place. 

Talent Acquisition

The talent acquisition team will hopefully have the most market knowledge but with the rapid growth of the TA sector over the past 5 years this may not be the case. If they know the market well they should know of your recruitment agency already or if you’re a brand new agency then they should at least know you or have heard of the previous recruitment agencies you’ve worked for. If the TA team knows the market, they’ll already know who they want to use for a specific role or who they want to put on a PSL so your website won’t make a huge difference to them. If they’re new to the market they’ll probably want to err on the side of caution and opt for larger recruitment agencies as it’s less of a risk for them. The TA team will probably be the pickiest and hardest group of people to satisfy. They’ll want to see a professional looking website, well written, a long list of job adverts similar to the roles they’re recruiting for, a well researched DEI policy, a team page with a long list experienced and seasoned recruiters, signs you give back to the industry / community through events or whatever it may be and an extensive testimonials page. 

Direct Hiring Managers

After the TA team the direct hiring managers should have the next highest level of market knowledge. They’ve probably worked in the industry for the past 10-15+ years, have worked at similar organisations and have some experience with a fair few recruitment agencies. They may recognize consultants on your Team or About Us page and can be swayed by consultants they’ve previously worked with and who they’ve had a good experience with. They’ll be interested in testimonials from other hiring managers who work at competitor companies and the available candidates you have who match their vacancy (which I’m sure aren’t listed on your website).

HR

The HR team will probably have the least market knowledge and will be the most thorough when reading through your website. They’ll be easily swayed by a Testimonial page filled with logos of their competitors. Show off companies you regularly work with, lead with the big names that all people will recognise. They’ll also want to see a Culture & Values page, along with any DEI initiatives. They will also certainly visit your Clients page to see how you work. A good list of industry awards is always great and helps to assure the HR team that they’ve made the correct decision selecting your agency. 

Managing Director / Finance Director 

It may be rare but not unusual for the directors of the prospective client to visit your website. For senior level hires they may want to see who the HR/TA team have recommended. They’re busy people so don’t expect more than a skim read of a few key pages, the founders, about us, etc. 

The Journey

Think about the journey clients are likely to take and ensure you guide them along a set journey to a specific call to action. For example a client is likely to land on your Home page first of all so ensure there is a clear button or link directing them to your Clients page, from there you may want to direct them to your About Us page, then Testimonials then a call to action to submit a brief or to reach out via your Contact Us page. Look at each page and think how a client would navigate around the site. Are there relevant CTAs? Are you leading them around in a circle? Does it end with a positive and specific call to action? 

Blog Content / Resources 

Make sure you have balanced blog content, appealing to both clients & candidates. Write blog posts for your clients around salary guides, market reports, how to attract candidates, how to write job adverts and role descriptions, etc. 

Your Client Page

Maybe counter intuitive in some ways but not everyone who is in a position of hiring for their organisation is going to be a client when they land on your website. You’ll of course have your existing clients who you are actively recruiting but there's a large portion of prospective clients are still in the awareness or discovery phases. Maybe rename your Client page to "Employers" page instead. I’d also recommend including a testimonials carousel on your Employer page, maybe showing the 3, 5 or 7 of your most recent testimonials. 

Testimonials & Case Studies 

Pages dedicated to client & candidate testimonials and supported by client focused case studies are a great tool to sell to prospective clients via your website. It’s not particularly subtle but people like reviews. They want evidence to support their decision. They want to feel safe in the decision they’re about to make. 

A Client Focused SEO Strategy

How will prospective new clients find your recruitment agency’s website? I imagine a fair number will come through search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. And what search terms will they use to find your agency? Some options could be “teaching recruitment agency in Bristol”, “teachers in Bristol”, “education recruitment firm Bristol”, “how to attract teachers to my school”, “how to hire teachers” and so on. These search terms are all long tail search terms - essentially any search term that is 3-4+ words long. Now once you’ve drawn up a list, start coming up with ideas for blog content and resources that will fit with these search queries. 

In general your clients will focus on your awards pages, values & culture, DEI policy, testimonials, the clients you work with, your about us page. They’ll want to see a website design that instils trust, professionalism as well as an understanding of the market.