10 reasons your recruitment website sucks

Nobody thinks their recruitment website sucks. And yet here we are in a digital recruitment landscape marred by ugly, clunky sites that are difficult to look at – let alone navigate.

We all know how fickle the recruitment industry is. And we all know that trust is infinitely harder to build than it is to lose. So, if your website offers a poor online experience, the plain truth is that you’ll immediately lose both trust and candidates.

Here’s 10 tell-tale warning signs that your recruitment site sucks.

  1. Your job ads are sloppy

A job ad littered with grammatical mistakes doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. This should go without saying, but if your advert is low quality, your applicants will be too. Show some panache and personality, but above all, show professionalism.

 

  1. You’re riddled with stock images

You know that cheesy picture of a suited and booted office worker flashing a perfect, soppy smile and giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up? Yeah… get rid. It’s embarrassing, and it dates your site.

  1. You don’t categorise jobs

Candidates should be able to find any jobs of interest instantly. If you don’t create specific categories for specific market sectors, your site’s usability takes an immediate nose-dive – making ‘hunt’ the operative word in ‘job hunt’.

  1. You’re not mobile optimised

Uploading a CV from a mobile phone is super tricky. Could you let users upload directly from a cloud storage site, instead? This is a mobile-first world, and if you don’t cater to it your candidates will click elsewhere.

  1. You don’t have geo-targeted pages

Take a leaf out of Kirstie Allsopp’s book and think about location, location, location. Geo-targeted pages make it easier for candidates to find roles in their region, as well as creating landing pages for geo-targeted keywords. (Like “marketing jobs Birmingham”, for example.)

  1. You’re low on functionality

Can a candidate sign up for email alerts? Can they add a job to a short-list, share it on social media or email it to a friend? Quick, simple features like this can solve core functionality problems, and generate candidate loyalty in turn.

  1. You don’t blog

A candidate isn’t just hitting a recruitment site for jobs. They’re also looking for advice, tips, tricks and expert opinions – all of which can be found in an up to date blog. If you don’t have one, you don’t add that extra level of value.

  1. You’ve neglected your SEO

If you don’t have properly optimised web pages, you won’t show up in a candidate’s Google searches. In which case, you might as well be sharing your vacancies via the ancient medium of smoke signals. Get those keywords, page titles and meta data right.

  1. You’re not social

You want candidates with personality. Well, newsflash: candidates want to work with an agency that has personality, too. Why not show yours by displaying streams from your social channels live onsite?

 

  1. You’re not easy to reach

Can candidates get in touch quickly? They’ll have questions about vacancies, and they’ll need quick access to your contact details to ask them. If you want site visitors to engage, be accessible.

So, there you have it. How did your recruitment site fare? And would you add any more warning signs to this list? Let us know!