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Explore SolutionsDid you know, as many as 54% of Americans use the internet to look for available jobs? So, if you’re an employer wanting to fill a vacancy, there’s a good chance you’ve posted an ad on a job board.
If that sounds like you, you’ll probably go back onto said job board to try and find your posting (just like a candidate would). However, more often than not, you’ll plug in the keywords and/or location of your job, and it doesn’t come up!
This begs the question; Why is that? Well, it’s all been broken down here in this article. Dive in!
1. YOU HAVEN’T SPONSORED YOUR JOB AD
If you’ve submitted a job on a job board for free, you’re likely getting organic traffic only, which means a minimal volume of candidates is likely seeing your job posting.
Typically you need to pay to sponsor your job ad for more exposure. This ensures you appear on the first page of their search results and gets your job in front of more relevant candidates.
Quick Tip: If you do sponsor your jobs and find them on the job board as you’re looking, it is NOT recommended that you click on any of your sponsored job ads as you will be charged for those clicks!
2. YOUR SPONSORED JOB BUDGET IS TOO LOW
In most sponsored job campaigns, you can set daily or monthly budgets that will support any and all jobs within a particular campaign. If your campaign budget – whether daily or monthly -isn’t enough to support all of the included jobs, it’s possible that those jobs will stop being shown once that budget is hit, regardless of the time of day or month.
Quick Tip: Make sure your sponsored job budget is sufficient to keep your job showing through the entire day and through the full-time frame that you want the job to show (i.e. 30 days, 60 days, etc.).
3. YOUR COOKIES MIGHT BE HIDING YOUR POST
Do you frequently search for job postings across job boards? Then once you’ve found YOUR listing, you don’t bother clicking the ad.
Job aggregators often track user behavior using cookies and integrate your behavior data into the jobs you’re shown in search results. This is most beneficial for providing candidates with a personalized, relevant experience.
So, when you next visit the job board and scroll through jobs, the site might show you different results – because by not clicking on your posting you’re displaying a “lack of interest.”
As such, they bury these results and replace them with other posts you might be interested in.
Quick Tip: Clear your cookies or use Google Chrome’s Incognito Window when you’re searching for your job ad – this goes a long way in helping you find your job listing.
4. YOUR SEARCH IS TOO BROAD (OR TOO SPECIFIC)
Unfortunately, job boards receive thousands of new job listings every day. This means one-word job titles like; ‘nurse,’ ‘teacher,’ ‘doctor,’ and ‘chef’ are too broad to curate valuable results, especially if a specific location is not also included in your search.
Alternatively, you may also be searching too specifically. If you’ve used very specific words in the title and/or location field, and for some reason, the search terms you’ve used don’t actually match the job from your ATS or careers site, then your search may not show up for you either.
Quick Tip: Try narrowing down your search query by adding your specific location to better describe your open position and by using multiple words in the title search field that match what the job title is in your ATS or on your careers site. On the flip side, if you’re searching too specifically and not finding your job, trying broadening your search terms just a bit.
5. YOUR JOB ADS MAY BE TOO OLD
If you’re attempting to sponsor an older job directly from your ATS (applicant tracking system), your ATS job posting date might set off red flags for the aggregator, and the aggregator won’t show the job. For instance, if you posted the job originally in your ATS 140 days ago, it’s likely that job may not show up on the job board for very long or at all.
Quick Tip: Keep your jobs “fresh” by not letting jobs sit for too long in your ATS. Typically any job posted more than 90 days ago is one you should consider reposting with a new req ID and new posting date. You may even want to think about creating a job refresh plan to keep your job posting dates in your ATS ‘fresh’ in the eyes of job boards.
6. YOU HAVE SPECIAL CHARACTERS WITHIN YOUR JOB TITLE
Special characters can make it difficult for candidates to easily identify your open positions. When searching for a job, candidates don’t usually include dashes, hyphens, or any special characters – they typically just type words and locations.
For instance, you might have a job title of “Dental-Hygienist” in your ATS and posted out to job boards, but when a prospect searches this job title, they will likely just search “Dental Hygienist” and their search results may not include your job title due to the use of the hyphen. These small errors can make it just a tad bit harder for qualified candidates to see and apply to your job. And therefore, it can also make it harder for you to find your job while searching.
Quick Tip: Keep your job titles simple and understandable. Use keywords that can easily be identified in search engines, that way it comes across clearly to those seeking employment. Stay away from wordy job titles – the easier it is to read, the higher chance you have of filling the job quickly and efficiently.
7. YOU SEARCHED FOR YOUR JOB A LITTLE TOO SOON
There are thousands of jobs being published daily by job aggregators. Getting your position out at the right time helps to boost your views and applicant rate. However, this process can take time. Depending on the methods and aggregator used, your job could be posted within an hour or two, or within 24 hours, or sometimes even longer.
Quick Tip: Provide the job board with an ample amount of time to process your request. A day after you post, revisit the site – your posting will hopefully be present and visible for candidates by then.
8. YOU SEARCHED FOR YOUR JOB A LITTLE TOO LATE
Job sites want to provide their users with relevant results. Therefore, they often set limits on how long a job can remain ‘live’ on their platform.
If you’re searching for your job posting and can’t find it, it is possible your ad has outlived the time the post can remain published.
Typically, job sites allow companies to advertise their vacancy for one of the following amounts of time:
- 30 days
- 60 days
- 90 days
So, check on the job aggregators‘ terms and conditions and see how long you’re entitled to have your job listed on their platform. Then you can modify your expectations accordingly.
Quick Tip: If you want your job to show for more or less time than a standard job posting (30, 60, or 90 days), consider programmatic job advertising where you can control when your job is posted and exactly for how long.
9. YOUR POSTED JOB TITLE IS TOO BROAD
Does your job title reflect the appropriate field you’re trying to target? Many times, job titles can be categorized as too vague or too broad, and this can result in it getting lost amongst the millions of other positions being advertised daily. It can be tricky to ensure that your job gets in front of the right job seekers.
Maybe you’re a healthcare employer looking to hire an office assistant with medical field experience. If you post a job with the title “Office Assistant,” and if your job description doesn’t say anything about medical or healthcare, your job could get buried in a slew of other office assistant jobs, if it gets ranked at all. And if you’re searching for this job and you use “Medical Office Assistant,” there’s a good chance your job title may be too broad to populate for you.
Quick Tip: Be specific in your job titles without making it too long. Also, ensure that your job description includes relevant keywords to help job boards understand when to serve your job to the most relevant candidates searching.
10. YOUR JOB IS ALREADY POSTED
If there are multiple versions of one job posted, whether posted by people within the same organization, by a staffing agency they’re working with, or by another job board, job aggregators might flag these jobs as duplicates.
When this happens, the job board will remove the duplicates and only allow for one version of the job to appear in search results. This is called deduping, and it’s typically done in order to maintain a good candidate experience.
Quick Tip: Make sure you’re not having multiple team members and/or your staffing agencies or RPOs post the same jobs multiple times. If the job board dedups your jobs, it could be a waste of money or could get you flagged as spam on that job board.
ALWAYS REMEMBER…
With thousands of jobs getting posted daily, there are always factors that could cause your posting to show up pages later in the results. Don’t overlook the small factors that may be the reason for these occurrences, they could be easily resolved and save your posting.
Consider things such as aggregator restrictions, your posting time frame, or changing your search parameters. Or, you might just be searching for your job in the wrong location or with irrelevant keywords. Remember that competition for top talent is high, and there will always be similar or job listings to your own.
Posting jobs individually to job boards and finding your jobs online can be a difficult, competitive, and time-consuming process. If you’re still unable to find your jobs after working through this list, there may be deeper deficiencies in your recruitment marketing strategy that you won’t be able to identify without job and source-level analytics. Additionally, you may want to consider a programmatic job advertising solution to have more control over your recruitment budgets.
What have you tried? Would you add any other tips? Let us know below.
