Steps to writing more effective online job adverts

HR managers don’t always appreciate that the art of writing effective recruitment advertising copy online is different to that in the press. The two forms share the same principles of detailing the job title, necessary skills and experience, as well as what the candidate will actually do in the role, but there are several more factors that clients of Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) are advised to keep in mind.

As far as recruiting staff of a high quality through Internet advertising is concerned, structure and keywords become much more important factors than is the case with more traditional media. After all, when candidates search for jobs online, they tend to use a search engine, inputting search terms that are typically in relation to a certain job title or the skills that they possess.

For your advert to appear in the search results of your target candidates, you will therefore need to use the same search terms, or keywords, as them. Bear in mind that adverts in search results are also generally listed in order of relevance, with an advert’s relevance typically being determined by the job title’s keywords, the number of times the keywords appear in the advert text and the date the advert was posted on the site.

Your use of keywords, then, will depend on the search terms that candidates for your advertised position would actually use. Keywords in job titles are especially important, given their tendency to be ‘weighted’ – meaning that they are worth more than keywords in the main advert text. You should therefore consider a market-friendly job title for the advert, rather than necessarily the one that your company uses internally – think ‘Business Analyst’ rather than ‘Analyst Leader-New Business’.

The ‘relevance’ of your advert will also be enhanced if you clearly list all of the relevant skills that are required for the role. When you are writing the text, you should constantly consider how keywords can be incorporated into the copy. For example, rather than writing “You will be working”, you could write, “As a web developer, you will be working…”

Online recruitment adverts don’t have word limits to stop you making your copy keyword rich, but you should bear in mind that people don’t tend to read as much of an advert online as they would in print, so the wording should still be relatively succinct.

There are so many ways in which those wishing to recruit staff can write their copy to attract applications, from communicating precisely and clearly, to highlighting recent company achievements and developments – as well as, of course, the job location. The required skills and experience should be clearly outlined to minimise the number of irrelevant applications, while responses are also much more likely if a salary or salary band is stated.

The most informed HR managers will combine these tips with the resourcing solutions, including CV database searching and applicant response management, of one of the leading recruitment companies, such as Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk).