Content Drives Web Traffic. So Why Not Use It On Your Company Career Site?

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Those in the marketing industry know that content is king. It drives traffic, makes your website sticky and increases brand recognition, loyalty and sales. With the recruiting function looking more and more like marketing everyday, it’s no wonder that what works for the marketing pros very well could work for our industry too. Content makes sense in marketing, and there’s no doubt that it can also help us drive candidates to our career site, engage them and increase the likelihood that they’ll ultimately decide to apply for a position.

Why not your career site?

Many in the talent acquisition industry know how important a career site is, but still, many are missing the mark on content. At the center of your candidate engagement efforts is your company career site, but what you may not realize is that it’s more than a place to share open positions and use employment branding. It is those things, but it can also be so much more. You have the power to make it a place where candidates want to spend time and revisit. Rather than simply sending candidates there, candidates could actually find it on their own as they scour the Internet for resources and answers to their questions. Your career site is already the center of your recruiting universe, but content can elevate it and make it a dynamic, ever-changing entity that candidates don’t just visit once.

If you’re considering the time commitment that a content strategy will require, let me tell you that it’s worth the effort. As Scoop.It! reported, the company B2B Content Engine conducted a study to evaluate the relationship between content curation and website traffic and found that consistent content curation provided tremendously increased website traffic, but most importantly, it also increased generation conversion by 12 percent. In this competitive job market, who wouldn’t enjoy being pursued by 12 percent more interested, qualified job seekers?

The how to

In recruiting, lead generation happens when candidates sign up for your job alerts or email newsletter, apply for a job, attend a career webinar, or become a member of your talent community. You can make all this happen by simply providing content that people need.

Your content strategy for increasing traffic and leads should cover three important areas. First of all, it should be content that candidates want and need. If you know what candidates are searching for, you can make sure you’re on the other end of that search. This means providing resources that you may think don’t directly serve your interests (but of course they really do!) such as a job search guide, resume tips and interview tricks.

Secondly, your content should be timely and consistent. The most effective way to continually drive traffic is to continually produce content. Ideally, you’d have two to three blog posts a week, a new job-seeker resource monthly, and supplemental resources such as videos, webinars and podcasts bi-weekly.

Finally, your content should be sticky and convert your readers or viewers. It should leave them wanting to know more, like venturing over to your job search page after consuming the content. Always include some type of call to action, though you should consider doing so in a natural way rather than a forced request to view open positions.

Content is a powerful force, so make the most of it and increase the impact your career sit has on candidates and in within the talent pool.

TalentCircles is the most comprehensive candidate engagement platform on the market. Take a product tour or request a live demo today. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.