5 Things You Need to Think About in a Recruitment Website Design

27/11/2016 by Development, Drupal, Recruitment, Social Media, Web Design

5 Things You Need to Think About in a Recruitment Website Design

The Internet is now easily the destination of choice for both jobseekers and hiring managers. Why? Unlike other traditional methods of looking for work, the internet offers convenience, speed, depth as well as extensive industry and geographical coverage.  However it would be a mistake to assume that simply having an online presence will attract quality candidates to your organisation. The most successful websites are those that are built for recruitment – designed to invite, engage, encourage, respond and most importantly foster commitment. There are ways to achieve this; here are our top tips on how.

SEO

Your recruitment website should be search engine friendly. Don’t be fooled into subsequently littering your site copy with keywords and phrases. The references should be natural and embedded within the flow of the content, subtle and meaningful as opposed to obvious and awkward. The likes of Google need to be able to index your job pages, but this shouldn’t be at the expense of rich, well written content. Be wary of opting for animation heavy pages as this can deter the search engines from accessing key areas of your pages.

BRAND LOYALTY

Search engines can help with getting first time users to your site, but you have to give them a reason to stick around and make return visits. Jobseekers are more likely to come back if they like what they see/are reading. Be clear, open and honest about your message, clients should be able to determine easily what is on offer for them. Make sure that content is updated regularly; this could be in the form of a regular blog, editorials, employee case studies, task/activity related videos or images. The advantage is that all of these translate well to social media too. Brand commitment is also fostered by ease of access so ensure your recruitment web design is mobile friendly – have you thought about an app?

SOCIAL MEDIA

A well-designed recruitment website will offer seamless compatibility with social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn. Use them to enhance visitor experience on your site but equally they can be exploited to add traffic. Options such as ‘sign in with your Twitter, Facebook account’ and ‘Share this job via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook’ are must have functionality. Use the same applications to bring in visitors to your recruitment site by posting featured vacancies, articles, and links to the latest blog or content update.

EASE OF NAVIGATION

Remember the purpose of your site! Do not get caught up in fancy design and functionality, if visitors can’t find what they are looking for or do what they need to be able to, they will give up and leave. The emphasis should be on being able to search and apply for jobs, thus site navigation and layout should be geared towards this. Think about the online retail experience – everything is one click away, finding a job should be exactly the same. Offer advanced search functionality that takes into account sectors and locations.

TESTING

Step into your candidates and client shoes regularly by testing out your online recruitment process end to end. Too many sites lose valuable potential employees because their application forms or related documents failed to launch or work smoothly. Browsers get updated regularly as do servers, both of which can impact on your site. Go the extra mile and insert guidance/helpful hints throughout the application process, especially if there are multiple pages to work through.