It’s no secret that recruitment is an incredibly crowded market. With close to 30,000 recruitment agencies in the UK, it is vital that your business stands out from your competitors.
One way to do that is with a professional recruitment website that strengthens your brand positioning and sets you apart from the crowd as well as attracting candidates and clients and advertising your job boards. At the very least, in an increasingly digital world it is business critical to have an online presence. Still not sold? We lay out 5 reasons every recruitment agency needs a website.
Candidate attraction
Alongside advertising your jobs, attracting candidates is one of the biggest goals of any recruitment website. It should be a key part of both your candidate attraction and acquisition strategies.
Your website can attract candidates through great SEO, optimising your jobs for Google for Jobs, and quality content, and then by providing a first-class candidate experience from the second candidates land on it to the moment they submit an application for one of your jobs. A well designed, professional recruitment website that is easy to navigate and sells both your recruiters and your jobs will hugely strengthen your candidate attraction.
Targeting new clients
A recruitment website doesn’t purely exist to attract candidates, it should sell your business to potential clients too. In order to attract clients as well as candidates, a well designed recruitment website will make clear distinctions on the homepage between the two, indicating where the client should begin their journey through your website.
Think about utilising different colours as well as different images and ensure the buttons for each page are obvious. Also make sure that clients can easily access the employer page from wherever they are on the website by including it on the header.
Ensuring that you have blog content that will interest business leaders and hiring managers, and that demonstrates that you are knowledgeable about their industry and understand the challenges those in that particular sector are facing, is also key.
Your very own job board
A recruitment website is your opportunity to have your very own job board. No purchasing and strategising credits, no conforming to a set job board ad format. It’s often the first page a candidate will seek out when landing on your website so is crucial from a talent attraction and acquisition point of view.
An advanced job search is vital, offering filters such as category, job type, location, salary and keyword or tag to help candidates easily find any suitable jobs, saving them time and leaving a positive impression of your recruitment business. You can also build your own internal candidate database by encouraging candidates to register their CVs and/or sign up for job alerts. Optimising your jobs for Google for Jobs also means that they will be more present in Google searches. In order for Google to find your jobs and rank them in relevant searches, there are several details that must be included in your job listings, including salary, location, skills, responsibilities and qualifications.
Brand strengthening
Just as your recruiters represent your agency in the way they conduct themselves when speaking to clients and candidates, your website is a reflection of your business. It is your online identity. It must therefore read well, look the part, provide a positive user experience and answer the questions most visitors will have. In that regard, it is a vital branding tool. From obvious elements such as incorporating your logo and its colours into the design to other, subtler aspects such as the tone of your copy and the types of images you choose, your website offers a fantastic opportunity to boost your branding.
Having a platform on which to publish relevant and interesting content – articles that both candidates and clients will connect with and want to read – is a huge advantage of a recruitment website. Increased traffic to your website, new leads, greater exposure, heightened branding, an establishment of industry knowledge and authority, quality applications to your jobs – all are possible with a good blog. Regularly posting quality content will establish you as an authority in your industry and a business that can be trusted.
24/7 visitor engagement
Your website acts as your 24/7 recruitment consultant, always ready to answer questions and never closed. Your website can act as your online ambassador day and night, long past the close of business hours. It is your recruitment consultant that never sleeps. This is important, especially as most candidates won’t be job searching during office hours.
Your website is often a candidate’s first port of call, enabling them to gather information about your agency, your recruiters and your jobs before ever making contact with you. A well designed recruitment website can provide candidates and clients with a wealth of important information, sending them on a journey through its pages to discover more and encourage them to perform a CTA, whether that’s to contact you, apply for a job, register a CV, sign up for a job alert, or subscribe to a blog or newsletter.
We live in an increasingly digital world. A strong online presence that represents your recruitment business well, allows users to easily find the information they need, communicates your values and performs as a job board is essential to compete in a fast-moving and challenging market. Your recruitment website should work hard for you, increasing your candidate attraction and turning visits into applications and new clients.
