Use Your Own Website for Local Job Listings

Posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Finding the right employees that fit well with your business can be tough. We all know that. And advertising to fill staff openings can be hit and miss. There are local print classifieds, and an array of online job lisitng services with varying price ranges and varying results.

Dilution is NOT the Solution to Internet Pollution

Many job listing web sites are quite regional in the market share so one site, like craigslist.org, has great penetration in the west while something else may be more trafficked in the east, perhaps Kijiji.com. And then there are the big boys like Workopolis and Monster which are often better for professional jobs.

Then there is the issue of what kind of people tend to visit certain types of job sites. Some job sites get a lot of views from the computer geek crowd so would be great to list a tech job on. But that won’t help a local trades or retail business too well.

Each locality will have a wide range of local web sites that offer job listings too. From local hubs and portals to spam wannabes.

So before you spend your money willy nilly on the first job listing website you can think of why not list it on your own business website?

Job Hunters Search Too

A number of my clients receive the odd inquiry about employment here and there through their websites. These are sites without a job opportunities page. Those with an employment page do get more such inquiries. So include a job opportunities page on your site.

Some job hunters are doing the typical local search “city - business type” like customers are doing. Job hunters making the same search are researching what companies are out there and firing off emails.

If your site is attracting these types of job seekers then you are likely attracting good talent. They are motivated, pro-active, and very targeted to your needs.

But I Need Staff Now!

When you’re are in dire need of staff you can do more to punch up that job page and get more people to find it. Try some of these;

Optimize it for Search - Make sure the page is well optimized for keywords someone might be using to find that particular job in your city. Examples would be “houston plumbing jobs”, “toronto bookkeeping jobs”, etc.

Run a Pay Per Click Campaign - Drive targeted traffic with Google Adwords. Bid on the keywords related to the position you need filled. At the local level there is often not much PPC competition so bid prices should be low.

Use your Job listings page as an attempt at link bait. - Be a little cheeky with your job listing and bloggers may link to it. Like this one for landscaping jobs.

Link to it from other job listings sites you may be using. - The online listing service may only provide limited space to advertise your job opening. Link to your employment page from within that listing so potential applicants can get more information.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.