The staffing and recruitment industry is bigger than we anticipated. According to Globe Newswire, the U.S. IT staffing market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of more than 5.05% between 2021 and 2027. A significant portion of the industry is accounted for by Texas, Florida, and Virginia. 2025 will see a projected increase in the demand for software engineers of at least about 25%. Which also means that the number of software developers will rise from its present estimate to about 3.5 million, as a result of this. 

The rise in billing rates across the nation is one of the key reasons driving the expansion of the IT staffing market. Besides, we can also credit the advance to the ever rising pay of the employees, not to mention the benefits reaped by the US markets due to IT spending. Another force is aging technology – this needs constant updates, which is also considered a big booster of IT recruitment. Some would also credit the rise to the freelance and GIG economy expansion that saw a miniscule industry blow out of proportion post COVID. 

Software engineers, developers, and DevOps produced the most revenue for the market in 2021 and held a 23.73% share. There are more than 20,000 hiring firms across the country that provide career opportunities to about 15 million people each year. 

Fact: According to business.com Google receives more than 300 million searches related to jobs. 

When it comes to hiring employees, the most crucial thing a staffing agency’s marketing team can do is ensure that their organization stands out from the crowd. It goes without saying that SEO is one of the greatest established tactics for staffing agency recruiting.

The competitive landscape

Due to its vast possibilities IT staffing continues to be one of the primary segments for vendors and suppliers in the staffing industry. A strengthening US economy also sees a spike in the performance of the US IT staffing vertical. 

It could be either upgrading and improving an application tracking system or implementing a region-specific expansion strategy. Major players focusing on STEM skill sets continue to expand and profit. Specialization, thus, is a big driver too, and a main emphasis for vendors in the IT staffing market. 

The market’s relatively low entry barriers force vendors to use creative service offerings to clients by offering distinctive products and services that typically acquire an advantage over their competitors. For firms that want to stay ahead of competition in a cutthroat industry, SEO strategies are essential. 

Besides, when a company is looking to hire, it first seeks staffing agencies and then it reaches out to the obvious – Google. This proves that SERPs on Google and other search engines are big drivers of leads. Therefore, using Search Engine Optimization or SEO for a staffing agency helps acquire desirable visibility and, more importantly, inquiries. In other words, SEO raises brand awareness, augments organic traffic. This in turn results in more incoming leads. 

What are SEO services for recruitment agencies?

The SEO component goes beyond simply making technical changes to your website so that Google can read it more easily. It’s about producing excellent content that readers want and enjoy.

Google knows that not everyone is an IT developer. Observe a straightforward set of rules. This will result in a significant improvement in the website’s ranking position and SEO performance.

One of the finest tactics a recruiting firm can do is SEO since it lowers expensive pay-per-click advertising expenses and increases organic traffic. Consistent inbound leads result from this.

Elite Site Optimizer (ESO) is a flexible platform designed for search engine specialists, marketers, and company owners that want their websites to perform better in search engine results and meet their objectives.

By facilitating access to the quality people they seek online, ESO helps recruit firms.

Here are some pointers on how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help in Staff Recruitment:

• Keyword Research

It’s crucial to first comprehend the terms and phrases consumers use to find recruiters online.

You must conduct keyword research before deciding which keywords to use on your page. Start by coming up with possible keywords, examining the job postings and keywords of your rivals. Utilize keyword research tools to expand and rank your list.

As part of your SEO strategy for recruitment, think about each keyword’s search intent and how effectively it will support your company’s objectives.

Keywords should be precise and can contain firm names, geographical locations, job titles, and names of whole industries.

By including relevant local keywords in the recruiting materials, you may also benefit from local searchers. As a result, you can draw more local individuals and place them in positions that best suit their particular skill sets.

Even if undertaking proper keyword research takes time, it helps you bring higher-caliber visitors into your site.

• Include keywords all around your website

Your website should include all the chosen keywords once you’ve identified them. Include that term in your main text to start. Additionally, you may include them in the HTML components that produce the header and page title tags.

Include alt tags and meta descriptions. Utilize only relevant keywords as minimal as possible, otherwise, Google will label them “keyword stuffing.” This will harm your prospects of improving your ranks.

Read Also: 13 Common Technical SEO Issues and How to Fix Them

Disseminate high-quality content

Google places better-quality material higher in the search results. In other words, it needs to offer reliable and practical information regarding available job prospects.

The chance to employ keywords that improve your site’s exposure to search engine results arises with each new piece of content. You may utilize keyword research on subjects that attract your target market.

Additionally, you may add keywords to your article. Users can now find interesting possibilities thanks to this.

You should update your material. This may boost your search engine results and is a terrific method to get potential prospects to return to your website.

If you own a hiring company, you could think about launching a blog with the best tips for job searchers. Post career advice, interview strategies, and job-seeking guidance. This facilitates potential applicants while enhancing your web reputation.

 You may engage with them and raise your ranking in search results by producing high-quality content.

• Frequently updated website

Regularly updating your website provides visitors with a reason to return while also demonstrating to search engines that your website is “new.” It’s beneficial to frequently add new job listings to your website. But you may also have to get inventive with your blog entries, articles, and other content. When it comes to their SEO for recruiters, several firms use this strategy. You may also have to frequently check your website’s performance to ensure that everything is working fine. 

• Establish Links

Links from other websites are taken into account by search engines like Google as evidence of reliability and authority of your website. The higher the rating rises, the more reliable your website.

Getting links to your website is more said than done when it comes to SEO for recruiting companies. By producing high-quality material, other websites will inevitably connect to it. 

Ensure you reach out to news organizations, blogs, and other media that is pertinent to your content and outline the benefits of sharing it with their readership.

You can produce content for your website, blog, or social media channels if you have a sound content strategy in place.

• Include location-based keywords in your keywords

Job searchers frequently seek employment prospects in a particular industry. Use the names of the places where there are job opportunities as your keywords.

If you’re a recruiter, you have to think about developing material relevant to a certain area. You may, for instance, publish a blog entry about the eastern United States’ tech sector or provide advice to job searchers in a certain area. Post job openings on social media: You may use social media to promote your brand, publish job openings, and improve website traffic.

Next time you learn anything useful about employment, post it on your company’s social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

To increase their recruitment firm’s online presence, individual recruiters might also post career guidance on social media platforms.

Common SEO errors that staffing companies must avoid 

There is no doubt that SEO for recruitment agencies carries weightage since recruiting by itself is all about making the right connections. Any talent acquisition agency from temp agencies to executive search firms must adopt the SEO way. 

As mentioned before, SEO is much more than just a set of methodologies applied to get to the top of Google’s search engine. 

Although SEO comes with preset pathways, it is rather easy for mistakes to penetrate the arena. Even spelling errors can prove expensive for companies.

Statistics published by a global online services company revealed that US firms with spelling and grammar errors on their website are likely to lose twice as many potential customers. Landing pages with poor spelling and grammar experienced 85% higher bounce rates in comparison to those that were well written. Besides, over time, Google will penalize a site for people leaving it rapidly. 

Here are other mistakes that staffing agencies must be aware of and avoid making them.

Unable to understand search intent

The success of a staffing agency in 2022 depends on being aware of ‘search intent’. Determine users’ objectives through empathy. Do they really intend to purchase or compare goods or are they trying to obtain additional information about a product or service? When recruitment SEO truly comprehends purpose, practical solutions and responses boost ranking. 

Lack of long-tail keyword optimization

It’s still crucial that recruitment agencies optimize keywords with high search volumes. But these shouldn’t be the only focus. There are several other significant keywords such as modifiers, rephrased searches, plurals, inquiries and relevant search keywords should also be optimized. 

Content duplication 

Especially with companies selling so many comparable products with the same descriptions, duplicate content becomes an issue. It can be fixed with the help of 301 redirects from duplicate to the original pages. You can also use the  rel=canonical attribute or the content=”noindex,follow” meta robots tag on each of the pages that you do not want indexed. 

The ideal answer would depend on your objectives. 

Plagiarism

Search engines typically prefer fresh, original, non-plagiarized content. Google may even penalize your site in the SERPs or Search Engine Results Pages because of its preference for high-quality content. Plagiarism hurts the value of your website and lowers your ranking. In fact, you can never climb higher on the SERPs. Instead, you can be castigated for using duplicate content. Besides, as a company you are also at a risk of losing reputation. 

Not updating the “Google Business” Listings

If you recently claimed your Google My Business listing then check if the specifics are still accurate. The details supplied on your website should correspond to the information in your advertisements. If things don’t add up, rankings can suffer.

Lack of session duration monitoring

How long do people stay on your website to read your content? Session time is a crucial component of SEO recruitment and one of the 200 ranking variables used by Google. It measures the length of time visitors spend on your website before leaving to view the search engine results page. Google assigns trust when visitors stay longer.

Broken Links

If your website contains broken links, then it’s a signal to Google that it either needs to be better optimized or updated. The search engine finds it more challenging to crawl and index your website due to disconnected links. Besides, Google does not direct users to websites with broken links in its search results. A bad user experience is also brought on by broken links. If a user hits a link and gets an error, they are most likely to leave. This can impact on your bounce rate, which, in turn, affects ranking.

Conclusion:

It is imperative for staffing agencies to garner leads and conversions to facilitate ongoing employer and employee relationships. Conventional methods of marketing and sales are untargeted and expensive. In contrast, SEO increases website authority, brand awareness, and search ranking, while easily synergizing itself across other marketing strategies. A recruiting firm may increase the website’s SEO and draw more leads and candidates by doing these easy actions. Use an effective Seo platform like Elite Site Optimizer to unlock your website’s full potential. This will help you create a plan that best suits your business needs.