How To Get The Most Out of Your Indeed Job Posting
Indeed.com is one of the largest job board sites, with over 200 million unique visitors every month and growing. Indeed is a great job board to use not just because of their size, but also because they have free and paid options, as well as a high quality resume database you can reach out to. Indeed is our recommended job board for small business owners who are looking to hire – and you can read why here.
We use Indeed regularly for new postings, and we’ve consistently found and hired quality talent via their job boards. If this is your first time hiring with Indeed, click here for a free $50 ad credit to boost your job posting.
3 Ways To Post Your Job on Indeed
There are three main ways your job listing can show up on Indeed:
1. Free Job Posting
To make a job posting for free, create an account with Indeed through your company email, fill in your pertinent job information, and then post it. For more on how to post your job for free, check out the how-to section below.
2. Sponsored Job Posting
If you do a sponsored posting on Indeed, you will pay-per-click, generally somewhere between $0.25 – $1.50. Sponsored job posts appear at the top of Indeed search results. You can sponsor either a posting that is on your website or one that you have posted directly on Indeed.com.
Want $50 free in Indeed sponsorship credit for your new job posting? Click here!
3. Organic Search
If you have a Careers section on your website, and you have a job posting that is formatted correctly and designed to do well for online search engines, there is a good chance Indeed will pull in your job posting automatically and link to your Careers page (see more below in organic search section).
Let’s now look at each of the three Indeed job posting options in detail.
How To Post Your Job For Free on Indeed
Indeed allows employers to post job listings for free, which is a great option if you cannot afford to use paid advertising.
If you want to sponsor a post, which we’ll show you how to do next, click here to get $50 in free advertising. Don’t worry- this credit is stored in your account, so if you aren’t ready to use it now, that’s ok!
This is how to post a job on Indeed for free:
Step 1:
Step 2:
You will then be cued to create an Employer Account (which is free) in order to move forward.
Step 3:
You will then be cued to create a job posting, which consists of several steps that we will outline here. You’ll need to have a job title and job description all set to proceed. If you don’t have these, check out our article on how to write a job title and our article on how to write a job description.
Step 4:
Next, you will need to decide how you want to receive applications for the role you are posting. We recommend by email and routing the postings to an email address like “careers@abccompany.com” versus your work email so you don’t get bogged down.
Step 5:
Then, you have options on what kind of job it is–Full time? Part time? Contract? You can also choose to post a salary here or leave it blank and include a range in your job description. A range is often more useful in order not to cut out too many applicants. However, if you do post a salary, remember to be cognizant that this is public information now and your current staff could see it.
Step 6:
Now, you will put the job description into Indeed that goes through the introduction of your company, who you are looking for, the skills and experience required, as well as what qualifies someone for the job.
Step 7:
You can then add application questions that Indeed will try to “auto-predict” based on the job description you entered. This is a good place to get out those simple deal breaker questions, like “Do you have 5 years of experience marketing?” If a candidate answers no or does not give a qualifying answer to a key question you set, their answers come up in red to the questions, making it faster and easier to weed through applications.
Step 8:
Once you finish posting your job, you will see a version of the below screenshot. If you want to post for free, click on the “Post job without sponsoring” link:
Step 9:
Once you have clicked on that, you will need to verify your email address, and you will get confirmation that your job was posted:
Step 10 and beyond:
Once you post a role, Indeed is useful because it operates almost like a built in applicant tracking system. You can sift through candidates, set their statuses, message candidates, schedule interviews, and send templates responses (or rejections). You can see who is unread (or new to applying), and you can also see who in the Indeed resume database matches your job description and invite them to apply for $1 per email you send.
How To Get Your Indeed Job Posting/Listing Page Seen via Organic Search
It is possible to get a link from Indeed to your own website’s career openings page simply by making your webpage search engine friendly. Indeed.com is constantly on the search for jobs, using engines and prowlers to find ones to add to their site. So if you have a Careers or Jobs section on your website, there is a chance that by using our tips Indeed will pick up your job posting all on its own.
Here are some steps you can take to increase the odds that Indeed.com will find and link to your posting/feed:
Have a Clear Job Title
Make sure you have a specific job title clearly spelled out. Put it on its own line, near the top of your listing, and make sure it is in bold so it stands out in some way. If it is jumbled in with everything else, Indeed won’t link to it. Also, be as specific with your job title as possible.
If you need help, try Indeed’s Job Title Generator.
This tool is super handy because it tells you 3 things:
- How many job postings are currently out there containing the job title(s) you’re considering
- How many people are looking for that job title when looking for postings
- Compares postings per job title for different job titles.
All of this information can help you create the best job title possible for your role so that it gets picked up by the Indeed organic search.
For example, here is a screenshot of the job titles “Data Scientist” versus “DevOps.” This graph shows you how the orange line, which is DevOps, has exploded in popularity compared to Data Scientist (blue line) jobs.
Include Your Company Name
This seems like a no-brainer, but at times employers list only a contact email or application submission button and never actually include their company name because they figure it is obvious. However, Indeed is looking for listings with company names included, so just take the extra minute and add it in. Bonus: add in a quick summary on your company, like when it was founded and your mission statement.
List One Physical Location with a City and State
Indeed.com is looking for a physical location. Even if your business does not technically have one, put your business’s founding address, P.O. box, or something down else down (where do you get your business mail?). Be sure to include only one location, as Indeed does not like multiple locations. Make sure to include a city, state, and zip code.
Give Each Individual Job Its Own Web Page and Unique URL
Indeed.com will not link to pages or job feeds that have more than one job on them. They want to see a custom url that is linked with one specific job posting. So, if you have multiple job postings on your website, create separate url’s for each.
Make Sure You Have a Job Description
Include a detailed job description, including lots of keywords related to the role and industry. It’s also a good idea to repeat words from your job title whenever you can, without the description seeming stilted. The more keywords that are repeated, the more likely it is that search engines and Indeed will find your listing.
Need help writing a great job description? Try our how-to guide.
Have Some Sort of Submit Button or Application Submission Email Address
Make sure you include clear instructions for how an applicant should conclude the process, whether it is a submit application button, or a phrase like “Send resumes and applications to abccareers@abccompany.com.”
How To Sponsor Your Job on Indeed
If a free posting isn’t getting you the results you want, you can get more exposure with a sponsored job posting on Indeed. Basically, sponsored job listings are the top 2-3 and the bottom 2-3 listings on each Indeed.com job search page. In many cases, sponsored listings will outperform free job listings by 3-5 times. You can see an example of sponsored postings on this screenshot (check out the pink arrows).
Want to sponsor your Indeed job posting? Click here for $50 free in sponsorship credit!
Why is sponsoring a job potentially important? Indeed.com’s search results are based on relevancy and recency. As free listings age, they generally fall further down in search results. Sponsored postings do not, they always remain at the very top or the very bottom, which results in more applicants. You can see this from our example posting, which estimates 105 applicants with sponsorship versus 9 applicants with a free posting (see screenshot below).
Indeed.com’s sponsored ads work on a pay-per-click cost model, which means you pay a certain fee for every click you get from the sponsored ad, generally between $0.25 and $1.50 or so. You can set a monthly budget, a daily budget, and a targeted number of customers, and Indeed.com will try to meet your goals by bidding automatically for you, no longer displaying your ad when your monthly budget is reached.
If you want to do sponsored advertising for a job posting on Indeed.com, it’s simple. Rewind back to step 5 of free posting (screenshot below); you can see that I could have set a daily average budget, as well as an end date, and then I would have clicked “Continue” to further set up my campaign and pay.
Top 3 Perks of Posting Your Job on Indeed
If you still aren’t convinced about posting your job on Indeed, here are some more reasons you might want to consider it.
Perk 1: Indeed lets you message resumes for just $1 each.
Maybe you aren’t getting enough applicants to your job posting or maybe you just want to take control of finding good candidates. Indeed allows you to “source” (aka find and pick) your own candidates that match your job description pay only $1/message, making it way more affordable than LinkedIn Recruiter.
Perk 2: You will get applicants.
This may seem simple, but, for even my most complex roles in my consulting work, Indeed always delivers at least a few applicants. Since the process to post takes about 3-5 minutes total if you already have a job description ready, this is totally worth your time. It’s also important to note that, especially when compared to other job boards, the applicant quality on Indeed, in general, is better.
Perk 3: You can see the resumes of applicants on your own terms.
Don’t like logging into Indeed? Fine, then you can view the resumes of applicants via their email alerts while you are commuting home. I like how Indeed attaches the full resume of an applicant to the email alert, or you can log into Indeed and go through and organize candidates systematically- the choice is yours.
Having trouble organizing candidates? Check our our applicant tracking systems we recommend for small businesses.
Related Questions
How much does Indeed job posting cost?
While Indeed is free to post on, many employers pay to “sponsor” their job ads. This gives your job ad more visibility in search results. Pricing is pay per click, meaning you pay around $0.25 to $1.50 each time a visitor clicks on your sponsored ad (just like with Google).
Users set the maximum amount they’re willing to spend each day, and once that amount is reached, your ad is no longer sponsored. Your job ad will still appear in the organic search results, as it does when you post for free.
Where else can I post a job online?
While Indeed is one of the best places to post salaried jobs, other websites are better for wage, freelance and commission-based work. You might also want to consider a specialty website, likeDice (tech) Mediabistro (media), or Dribble (designers). We’ve covered the whole range of options in our Top 59 Free & Paid Job Posting Sites.
How much do other job boards cost?
The vast range of job boards charge anywhere from $0 to $500 or higher for a job posting. Indeed’s closest competitors, however, typically charge $200 – $500:
- Monster: $399 (1 job ad, 30 days)
- CareerBuilder: $419 (1 job ad, 30 days)
- ZipRecruiter: $249/month (up to 10 jobs ads)
- Glassdoor: $549/month (up to 5 job ads)
What is Indeed job search?
Indeed is used by both job seekers and employers. Indeed job search is the candidate-facing side of the website, in which job seekers browse open positions. First they enter a keyword and location. Then, candidates can narrow results based on salary, job type (part-time vs full-time), experience level and other factors.
Bottom Line
Indeed.com can be a great tool for finding quality employees, especially if you put some effort into making sure your job posting is as accurate and compelling as it can be. With the tips above, you should be well on your way to getting a good set of quality applicants and making the most of your Indeed job posting. Click here to get $50 in free sponsorship credit
source : http://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-indeed-job-postings/