Start Your Engines

Hiring is a race, just not the kind most companies are training for.

Everyone’s focused on the big moves: the perfect job ad, the polished interview process, the lightning-fast offer. But if your careers page isn’t even showing up in a candidate’s search, none of that matters. You’ve stalled before you’ve even started!

SHRM described it well in a recent article:

Your career site is your first impression with many candidates… your chance to get them excited about you as an employer.

At SocialTalent, we spend a lot of time thinking about what great hiring looks like – and here’s the truth: visibility is part of hiring excellence. If your job postings live on clunky, invisible pages, you’re losing candidates you never even knew were looking.

The good news? With a few smart SEO moves, your hiring engine can go from sluggish to streamlined. And in this race for talent, that’s the kind of edge that will help you win.

Why SEO Matters for Hiring

When most people hear “SEO,” they think of e-commerce or digital marketing. But job seekers are searchers too. And just like customers, they’re often starting their journey not on your careers site – but on Google.

From searches like “marketing jobs in Dublin” to “remote UX roles with growth opportunities,” candidates are typing (or speaking) their intent into search engines. If your job pages aren’t optimized to show up in those results, you’re essentially invisible.

SEO for hiring means ensuring your roles show up where candidates are already looking. It means optimizing not just for algorithms, but for real human questions like:

• “What does this company value?”
• “Is this job right for me?”
• “Can I trust this place with my next career move?”

Where Hiring Pages Often Go Wrong

Most job pages aren't built with search (or candidates for that matter!) in mind. They’re often templated, generic, and stuffed with needless jargon. Common pitfalls include:

• Vague, cutesy job titles (“rockstars,” “ninjas,” “growth hackers”) that don’t match how people search. As SocialTalent CEO, Johnny Campbell, only recently said: “BS job titles kill you when it comes to being found.”
• Thin content: a bland list of responsibilities with no context or personality.
• No meta descriptions or page titles to help search engines understand the content.
• Poor mobile experience or slow loading speeds.
• No structured data (schema) to make the job posting discoverable by Google for Jobs.

All these factors ultimately add up to a job page that’s hard to find and easy to bounce from.

The SEO Funnel: From Discovery to Conversion

Think of SEO as the top of your hiring funnel:

1. Discovery: A candidate finds your job posting through search.
2. Engagement: They land on a page that speaks to them – clear, well-structured, and aligned with what they’re looking for.
3. Conversion: They apply. Or sign up for updates. Or refer a friend. That’s SEO doing its job.

What’s important here is quality. Good SEO doesn’t just bring more traffic. It brings the right kind of traffic – qualified candidates who are already looking for what you offer.

As SEO continues to evolve, quality and clarity are the infallible foundations. Aim for these, and you’re much less likely to miss.

Tips to Optimize Your Careers Pages

Happydance are the true masters here (as their Ultimate SEO Guide proves!) but here are a few ways you can start turning your careers pages into high-performing assets:

• Use clear, searchable job titles. Think like a candidate: “Sales Development Representative,” not “Customer Growth Champion.”
• Add unique, human-centered descriptions. Go beyond bullet points. Highlight mission, impact, and day-to-day experiences.
• Structure your content. Use headings, subheadings, and schema markup to help Google (and AI assistants – more on that shortly) understand what’s on the page.
• Improve page speed and mobile experience. Most job seekers will view your posting on a phone. If it’s clunky, you’re out.
• Interlink related pages. Link to your values, inclusion efforts, benefits, and team pages. This helps both humans and bots navigate.
• Invest in backlinks. Getting authoritative sites to link to your careers content signals trust and improves search rankings.

AI, SEO, and the Future of Talent Discovery

Here’s where things get even more interesting.

We’re entering a new era of search. One powered not just by keywords, but by artificial intelligence. Tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot are rapidly changing how people discover information online – including jobs. Where candidates once searched for roles via job boards or Google, now they might say:

Find me a data analyst job at a mission-driven company that allows hybrid work.

That’s not a keyword search. That’s a conversation. And AI is getting better at responding to it.

So, what does this mean for your careers site?

• Semantic clarity matters more than ever. AI tools don’t just look for exact keywords. They analyze meaning, structure, and relevance.
  Want to see how AI can help craft job ads that are both inclusive and SEO-friendly? Here’s a practical guide on using ChatGPT to write better job ads.
• Structured data gives you visibility. Google for Jobs, for example, prioritizes postings with schema markup.
• High-quality, authoritative content is AI fuel. The more backlinks and engagement your careers content has, the more likely AI tools will surface it in responses.

In short: If your job pages aren’t machine-readable, they’re not future-ready.

This is where hiring teams have an opportunity – not just to catch up, but to get ahead. Smart organizations are already adapting their hiring content to be both human-first and AI-optimized.

Want to go deeper? Explore our complete AI for Recruiting Playbook and see what’s possible.

You can’t out-AI a messy website. No matter how advanced the tech gets, the basics still win: structure, clarity, and content that helps people find what they’re looking for.

— Ross Lauder, VP of Sales & Demand Gen, SocialTalent

Final Lap: Make SEO Your Hiring Advantage

You wouldn’t build a great product and forget to market it. So why invest in a great role and forget to make it discoverable?

Optimizing your hiring pages for search is no longer optional. It’s a competitive advantage. It puts you in front of more (and better) candidates. It aligns your hiring funnel with how people search. And it prepares your organization for the AI-powered future of talent acquisition.

At SocialTalent, we believe hiring excellence starts with visibility. From that first search to the final offer, every step should be intentional.

Now’s the time to step on the gas!

About SocialTalent

SocialTalent is the world’s leading platform for enabling hiring excellence. We upskill Talent Acquisition teams, hiring managers, candidates, and employees with expert-led training, practice, and resources for Recruiting, Interviewing, and Candidate Experience.

Trusted by global leaders such as Booking.com, Nokia, Siemens, Cisco, and Avanade, SocialTalent is the choice for companies committed to building hiring cultures. Learn more at www.socialtalent.com.