How to Maximize Organic Job Ad Traffic

Employers love organic traffic. Why? Because it’s free. Organic traffic is the result of the employer’s presence in the world – via its career site, its social media efforts, and its employees’ networks. Instead of paying directly for candidate traffic, organic traffic happens, well, organically – the results of hundreds or even thousands of interactions between the employer, its employees, and the rest of the world.

If organic traffic is so great, why doesn’t every employer leverage it? Most often it is a case of not knowing how to create and maximize this traffic. Although organic traffic is not technically paid, it requires planning and effort on the part of the employer – it doesn’t happen magically. So let’s take a look at the three key components to a successful organic recruitment marketing campaign:

1. Career site: Every employer should have a section of its company website dedicated to careers. Period. If job ads had an origin story, they would start with the employer career site. In addition to listing up to date job ads (which will be indexed by the search engines), the employer should create dynamic content about the company: what it does, where it’s going, and why it’s a great place to work. Remember, too, that if job ads are at the fine print of branding the employer, the career site is the front door: a place where candidates form opinions about the employer. A good career site also provides the employer with a target to aim all organic and paid traffic building efforts. Tools like SmartRecruiters’ Jobs Widget, WordPress plugin, or Careers Page can make the creation and operation of an employer career site simple and easy.

2. Social network presence: In essence, the employer should recreate the career site content on key social networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and niche sites specific to their industry or profession. SmartRecruiters job ad has 1-click sharing buttons to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Not only does an employer’s presence and activity on social networks provide candidates on its own, it will also provide backlinks to the career site – thus improving its visibility on search engines. It’s best to think of the two working hand in hand to make the employer visible and available to the right candidates. SmartRecruiters also provides a Careers Tab for your Facebook page to automate the listing of open jobs to your Facebook page and let job seekers know who in their network connects them to the company.

3. Employees: Most employers don’t leverage the power of their own employees (and their networks). That’s a mistake – for example, using Dunbar’s number, the average person has social contact with 150 people. So an employer with 100 employees has a potential reach of 15,000 candidate contacts (and this is before the effect of social media is factored in). The smart company sets up a formal referral program that provides an easy-to-use structure for passing along employment opportunities to the people in their employees’ personal networks. The key to a successful referral efforts is simplicity – it must be easy for employees to pass along job information, and easy for potential candidates to respond. One added benefit for the employer: personal referrals usually provide the best qualified applicants.