ONE - I started my presentation talking about the basic SEO methodology around most of the job optimization/microsite products you see on the market today. Each strategy may be a little different but for the most part there are three main components involved.
This is due to the jobs being optimized and made available to search engines. (job optimization) Having this time of visibility is great for companies because they have the opportunity to drive some of the career related search traffic directly back to their website.
If we do not adapt our strategies, it’s only a matter of time when we’ll start to lose traction.
During this part of my presentation I called out two job optimization/SEO microsite vendors to help the audience better associate what I was talking about. I choose the two vendors based on industry popularity. Looking back, I should not have called out anyone specifically but because I did, I want to ensure that my message was not misinterpreted. I was in no way insinuating that either company mentioned was doing SEO incorrectly, based on my screenshot of search results above, it’s pretty clear that the SEO techniques used is having a positive effect.
My main takeaway was that search engines have made significant changes to their algorithms and that anyone in any industry who wants to have search engine visibility needs to embrace this change and start thinking about SEO in a different light.
TWO - I also talked in more detail about how search engines are using user behavior data to evaluate the quality of a website. Some of the areas looked at includes things like:
• Time spent on your site
• Number of return visitors
• Number of page views
• Bounce rate – landing on your home page but not going further
What this means to anyone investing in SEO is that, they should be reviewing the data in their analytics account and analyzing how visitors are interacting with their site and content pages. I brought up the importance of not relying solely on reports that agencies provide as often the data is consolidated.
As someone that has worked for agencies in many different industries for most of my career, I can say that providing consolidated reporting to clients is a common practice. There is so much data available that reports are often customized to tell a meaningful story. However now that search engines are placing such an importance on user interaction, it is essential that you have access to all data points available. I want to make sure this was not misinterpreted as the reporting provided by third parties is inaccurate.
THREE - The last talking point I wanted to address was my comment on source of hire data. There was a rather technical question asked by an audience member around optimizing internal site search. Site search allows users to search for content on your website, it also helps you understand visitor behavior in a whole new level. You’ll see site search used most commonly on ecommerce websites such as BestBuy.com. (below)
My response to this person was that I've not had much experience in this area as unfortunately most of the recruiting industry is not there yet; there are more important data points to tackle first. As an example many organizations still struggle with being able to accurately measure true source of hire.
To expand slightly on my response, in perfect world for each hire, you would be able to track every touch point including things like:
• What content was viewed & when
• What job boards were visited
• All social media interactions
As an example, you might be able to track that the hire came from a Google organic search and therefore SEO is likely taking the credit. However prior to the Google search, the candidate saw a Yahoo banner ad in their email, checked out your company Facebook page and had an online chat conversation with one of your recruiter’s. In this scenario is it really accurate to give SEO 100% of the credit? Not in my book.
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I hope this clears up any confusion there may have been around some of the topics I covered. SEO can be very complex, especially since things change at the speed of light or so it seems. I’m always glad to answers any questions that may come up so feel free to email me.
For those that were not able to attend but are interested in viewing the presentation, here it is below.
