In tough economic times, people's worries naturally turn to keeping their jobs. It's no fun to get a pink slip on a Friday afternoon announcing that you no longer work where you thought you did. It's gotten bad enough that even employers formerly thought of as bulletproof (Google, for example) are laying off large numbers of employees. Some retail outlets like Circuit City are closing their doors outright, and others such as Kay Bee Toys and Wilson's Leather are closing huge portions of their retail operations. Even the government, an employment sector once thought of as totally secure, is contracting and laying people off. Is there any way, in such difficult economic circumstances, to make yourself immune to your employer's cost-cutting considerations? Along with keeping active in your job search and frequently checking online job listings, there is one other huge step you can take, too.
One sure way you can let your employer know how valuable you are, is to educate yourself. Put yourself in your employer's shoes- if you had two employees, both equally qualified, equally experienced, and equally salaried and benefited, wouldn't you want to retain the one with a higher level of education? Employers want workers that constantly strive to better themselves by increasing their knowledge- some employers even provide tuition reimbursement all the way up to 100% of the final cost! Higher education allows employees to learn as much about their chosen industry as possible, and that's in both the employees and the employers best interest.
It may seem like an impossibility to keep up with a full time job, stay abreast of the demands of friends and family, and attend college, simultaneously. It can be difficult, but it's not impossible- one only has to look at the large number of people attending law school at night to see that. Technology has presented us with another alternative- distance education, or home schooling, for higher education. You can earn a degree in much less time than you thought possible, and from the comfort of wherever you keep your computer! Online education provides a quality learning experience while allowing students to avoid the hassles associated with the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom such as buying textbooks, finding parking, dressing up to be presentable to peers, and adhering to a rigid schedule- all at a cost that's comparable to that of classes in traditional educational settings.
Most distance learning requires you to read an electronic textbook (often included in the price of tuition), complete assignments, and participate in discussion groups via message board or email several times per week. You will also have to collaborate on group assignments, as well, so you'll need a way to stay in touch with fellow classmates, such as Instant Messenger or an IRC chat room. The biggest advantage to distance learning is that you can do it on your own schedule- you can log in and do your daily reading, discussion and research after the kids are down and the dishes are done, for example. It's not prohibitively expensive, either, costs of home school online education are about the same (maybe a little bit higher) than costs of attending physical, brick-and-mortar classes.
It will take quite a bit of internal motivation and a strong, self-driven sense of responsibility, as well as self-discipline to succeed, as well. You're going to have to be tough on yourself- no classes to attend means no instructors to harangue you or remind you about assignments, so you're going to have to keep abreast of things all on your own. If this sounds like something you can handle, you should ask your employer about reimbursement for online education- everyone wins!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
HR Search Engine Optimization
The ultimate goal of any HR Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign is twofold.
1. Increase the number of highly qualified and targeted job seekers to your corporate career website.
2. Increase an employer’s brand, through obtaining high search engine rankings for pages that contain content related to the keyword strings that job seekers are using to search for jobs.
It seems like every day a new company is trying to get into the HR SEO business. Most of these vendors are selling the same product or service, something along the lines of “we will pull your jobs from your ATS, create a micro-site that optimizes those jobs, and then send the candidates to your ATS”.
This approach will result in optimized pages that the search engines will find; however, it’s not meeting the two stated goals of any SEO campaign. This on its own will not lead to more job seekers applying for your open positions. No job seekers will find these pages- it’s not enough just to structure a page so that Google can see it, you have to actively get back links, as well- so no brand authority will be achieved.
Here is why.
You absolutely have to have pages that are optimized for keyword phrases that job seekers are actually using in their job hunt. If no one on Google is using the phrase “electronic assembly jobs in Des Moines, Iowa” (and they aren’t) in the search engines, it doesn’t matter how much time or money you put into optimizing that page- because no one is searching that keyword phrase. No one searching means no one finding your pages means no one applying to your jobs. When was the last time you searched Google and went to Page 2 of the results? Chances are, not very often. In fact, some results show that this happens less than 10% of the time. Top 10 and Top 20 rankings are all that really matter. In fact, when optimizing for any “search string” that has 4 or more words in it, page 2 doesn’t even matter, because there are so few people searching on these phrases, (i.e. “search traffic”), that 10% of 100 searches in a month is only 10 people… That is NOT going to drive candidates to your website.
So is there anything out there that does work?
The first step you have to take is to do research on keywords- in other words, researching a list of potential keyword search strings and using your research to develop a litany of “keyword phrases” your target audience is likely to use to search for jobs. It’s only after you’ve done this research that you can begin working on designing a “landing page” for your jobs, specifically constructed to rank highly on Google and other search engines for the keyword strings your target audience is using. It’s important enough to stress again- the key to SEO is knowing what keyword phrases your jobseekers are using to look for jobs in the search engines. Only after you know that information can you start designing pages around targeted, highly relevant keyword strings. After your page has been optimized, typically, an SEO vendor will help to “submit” and promote the page with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.
It’s not a difficult process.
THAT’S NOT ENOUGH THOUGH! Taking the above steps will probably get you into Google’s index- but not on page 1 of the search engine results. If it’s a competitive phrase, you probably won’t be on page 2, 3 or 4, either. The last part of the SEO process is the most critical, hardest, most difficult and expensive process. Without the proper marketing of your career site and landing pages, your pages are the same as everyone else’s. In order to be an “authority” (and therefore, in the top of the search engines) you need to have other, quality websites link to your pages.
In summary, there are 3 critical steps in SEO:
1. Conducting keyword research to figure out how to build your brand and drive traffic.
2. Design and create a web page optimized for those keywords.
3. Implementing a landing page marketing strategy to build credibility and authority to these new web pages.
Any SEO strategy that does not make use of all 3 of these aspects is destined to fail, and that failure will be measured by the distinct lack of new job seekers to your SEO micro site or career site.
1. Increase the number of highly qualified and targeted job seekers to your corporate career website.
2. Increase an employer’s brand, through obtaining high search engine rankings for pages that contain content related to the keyword strings that job seekers are using to search for jobs.
It seems like every day a new company is trying to get into the HR SEO business. Most of these vendors are selling the same product or service, something along the lines of “we will pull your jobs from your ATS, create a micro-site that optimizes those jobs, and then send the candidates to your ATS”.
This approach will result in optimized pages that the search engines will find; however, it’s not meeting the two stated goals of any SEO campaign. This on its own will not lead to more job seekers applying for your open positions. No job seekers will find these pages- it’s not enough just to structure a page so that Google can see it, you have to actively get back links, as well- so no brand authority will be achieved.
Here is why.
You absolutely have to have pages that are optimized for keyword phrases that job seekers are actually using in their job hunt. If no one on Google is using the phrase “electronic assembly jobs in Des Moines, Iowa” (and they aren’t) in the search engines, it doesn’t matter how much time or money you put into optimizing that page- because no one is searching that keyword phrase. No one searching means no one finding your pages means no one applying to your jobs. When was the last time you searched Google and went to Page 2 of the results? Chances are, not very often. In fact, some results show that this happens less than 10% of the time. Top 10 and Top 20 rankings are all that really matter. In fact, when optimizing for any “search string” that has 4 or more words in it, page 2 doesn’t even matter, because there are so few people searching on these phrases, (i.e. “search traffic”), that 10% of 100 searches in a month is only 10 people… That is NOT going to drive candidates to your website.
So is there anything out there that does work?
The first step you have to take is to do research on keywords- in other words, researching a list of potential keyword search strings and using your research to develop a litany of “keyword phrases” your target audience is likely to use to search for jobs. It’s only after you’ve done this research that you can begin working on designing a “landing page” for your jobs, specifically constructed to rank highly on Google and other search engines for the keyword strings your target audience is using. It’s important enough to stress again- the key to SEO is knowing what keyword phrases your jobseekers are using to look for jobs in the search engines. Only after you know that information can you start designing pages around targeted, highly relevant keyword strings. After your page has been optimized, typically, an SEO vendor will help to “submit” and promote the page with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.
It’s not a difficult process.
THAT’S NOT ENOUGH THOUGH! Taking the above steps will probably get you into Google’s index- but not on page 1 of the search engine results. If it’s a competitive phrase, you probably won’t be on page 2, 3 or 4, either. The last part of the SEO process is the most critical, hardest, most difficult and expensive process. Without the proper marketing of your career site and landing pages, your pages are the same as everyone else’s. In order to be an “authority” (and therefore, in the top of the search engines) you need to have other, quality websites link to your pages.
In summary, there are 3 critical steps in SEO:
1. Conducting keyword research to figure out how to build your brand and drive traffic.
2. Design and create a web page optimized for those keywords.
3. Implementing a landing page marketing strategy to build credibility and authority to these new web pages.
Any SEO strategy that does not make use of all 3 of these aspects is destined to fail, and that failure will be measured by the distinct lack of new job seekers to your SEO micro site or career site.
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