Advertisers Need To Think Like A Search Engine

What To Call Your Job? The Creative vs The Simplistic

You’re taking your job to market. Advertising it on a variety of boards, where you hope the right applicants will be looking. But if you’re spending the money for the job boards, you want to make sure it gets seen by relevant applicants. What do you call it?

Is it more effective to give your role a basic, simple title that lets people know exactly what the job is? Or should you get creative, and come up with a snappy, descriptive job title that will stand out from the long lists of similar roles?

The key is to think like a search engine. When you upload your advertisement to an online job board, it becomes data for job seekers to find. Australia’s job boards provide a variety of ways to search their ad databases, but major players like Seek and CareerOne report that the most popular method used by job seekers to navigate relevant ads is Key Word Searches. Therefore, to get the best results, advertisers need to consider the key words that will ensure their ad turns up on the right people’s search lists.

The job title needs to be a concise summary of the role, consisting of simple terms that are well known and commonly used by the appropriate applicants.

If an employer is searching for, let’s say, a Plumber, then the job title is a simple choice. All Plumbers will use the term “Plumber” to search, and your job will be found by all appropriate job seekers.

As is often the case though, many roles have more complex requirements, and the ideal applicant needs more specific experience. Let’s say we need to advertise for an Electrical Engineer, who also needs a strong background in estimating. Thinking like a search engine, the title “Electrical Engineer (Estimating)” will mean your advertisement will appear in the search results for more specialised applicants than just “Electrical Engineer”, and it’s clear to Estimators from the construction, manufacturing and surveying industries that this role isn’t appropriate for them.

Creative job titles, while typically conveying more information or attitude about the role, have a more difficult time turning up on search results. “Sales Guns”, “Sales Machines” and are sometimes advertised, but their effectiveness will be muted by not being appearing as successfully on key word searches as Sales Representatives or Sales Consultants. Using wordier titles such as “Are You A Sales Superstar in Waiting?? Work For Us!” will dilute the effectiveness of your candidates’ searches, as only one of the 10 search terms is specific to Sales, and your ad will show up in all sorts of irrelevant searches. Instead, by thinking like a search engine, you can include key words from the industry or specialty in the title, in order to attract industry-specific applicants, such as Pharmaceutical Sales Representative, or Travel Sales Consultant.

Many job boards provide a Short Description feature, which gives the opportunity to provide a brief summary of the role, including in this case, mentioning the Estimating experience required. Using this feature will allow a more streamlined search process for appropriate applicants – your ad will appear in their “Electrical Engineer” search, then the short description gives both parties the opportunity to decide if your opportunity is suitable.

Thinking like a search engine about how key words is the first step to ensuring your ad will appear in the searches of your most appropriate applicants. Once they click into your ad, the next step is getting them to apply – it’s here where getting creative and descriptive will set your ad apart.