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April 16, 2019

Google for Jobs | The LevelUp Guide

Aik Deveneijns
Aik Deveneijns Founder/CEO

During the Emerce Recruitment event on April 4th 2019 in Amsterdam, Richard Collins talked about Google’s search engine for jobs. Google for Jobs is already active in the US and is currently taking its first steps in The Netherlands and France. We can expect this service to come to Europe very soon. In this article, we’ll tell you the most important things you need to know about Google for Jobs.

How it all started…

After their annual assessment, Manpower announced that 46% of U.S. employers are now facing talent shortages, finding it difficult to match their job descriptions with the right candidate.

In response to this constant challenge, Google is launching Google for Jobs, an initiative based on the already existing Google Cloud Jobs API. It all started when the guys from Google asked themselves the following question:  “How can we create a 10x increase in the number of people hired?”

In response to this, they started to optimize the visitors’ experience in order to increase conversion but then realized they needed something else.

Most job postings out there have ambiguous titles that are hard to understand or relate to by the job seeker. Therefore, Google Cloud jobs API is the first vertical pre-trained machine learning model from Google, acting as a translator for job titles and making it easier for job seekers to find exactly what they are looking for.

In a nutshell, the API aggregates clusters of similar jobs (art, fashion & design or business development manager, director, government BD manager) and most importantly, it understands the specific job title, but also synonyms (biz dev, bus. Dev etc), similar roles (brand manager, relations manager), occupation, job category and necessary skills (business development, communications/interpersonal skills etc).

This product was already launched in November last year and can be used by companies to increase their conversion rate. More info can be found on Google’s official page.

On the job seeker’s side google for jobs comes to ease the process of finding the perfect opportunity.

What is Google for Jobs?

Google for Jobs is an initiative focused on helping both job seekers and employers through collaboration with the job matching industry, letting users explore relevant jobs pulled in from a number of sources, within a single Google search.

The previous journey of an applicant shown in the chart below showcases how they would need to go back and forth to the main page or to open multiple tabs in order to prospect the available job postings out there. Another major issue (time waster) is that there are always duplicated results that couldn’t be filtered out.

Google for jobs process

By making use of the Google Cloud for Jobs API, there are no duplicates in the results list and the job information is all centralised, allowing prospective candidates to get more information before heading to a specific site to apply.  Google is trying to offer as much information as possible within this search engine, linking back to the original vacancy only with one button.

How does it work?

From the back-end side, Google for Jobs removes all unnecessary data in a vacancy and then normalizes the title making it easy to classify. This makes it an easier search by the job seeker, while also labelling it with a confidence score.

From a front-end side, it promises to be very intuitive. As a job seeker, you first type the job you’re looking for. You can then filter the results based on: Category, Title, City, Date posted, Type, Company Type, Employer and even Distance from your current location (as commuting distance has become an increasingly important factor in job choices).

To create a comprehensive list, Google first has to remove all of the duplicate listings that employers post to all of these job sites. Then, its machine learning-trained algorithms sift through and categorize them. These job sites often already use at least some job-specific markup to help search engines understand that something is a job posting.

Users can compare job details, refine their search and find out about companies. Here, Google for Jobs applies SEO logic to job postings, meaning that there is only one source per job. If multiple job postings link to the same source, the scoring is based upon improving a few key variables:

  • More metadata (including sectors & disciplines)
  • Less external redirects (integrated ATS and native application process)
  • Strong domain name SEO rank

There are simple ways to improve a site & job postings’ SEO rank

  • Register with Google Search Console
  • Correctly configured robots.txt file
  • Analytics linked to site
  • Responsive web design
  • No duplication across sitemap content
  • Fast page load time
  • Use noindex/nofollow to prevent certain pages from being indexed
  • AMP enables site’s content pages
  • Maximize inbound links
  • Have a clear content strategy

Where is Google heading with this?

Currently, the service is only launched in the US, but we could expect it to be coming to Europe around the end of this year. Here’s what we at LevelUp Ventures think you should expect from this.

In the short term

  • Deeper and more direct integration with Google Hire (their ATS)
  • Might they add an ‘apply’ button and do away with the need for external vacancies all together?
  • More ranking and transparency on employers
  • Elimination of duplicate posts
  • Elimination of organic-search-dominating platforms like Indeed

And in the long term, a real ‘guns blazing’ approach to job marketing is needed for success. Think growth hacking and cultivating a strong employer brand:

  • Strong content strategy
  • Email marketing campaigns
  • Aggregation partner tactics
  • Editorial integration using intelligent widgets and APIs

Google is very clear about the fact that it doesn’t want to directly compete with Monster, CareerBuilder and similar sites. It currently has no plans to let employers posts jobs directly to its jobs search engine for example.

Why should you care about this?

Because it’s going to come to Europe soon and it’s going to revolutionize the way both recruiters and job seekers approach the job market.

Because as every early adopter, you would get a head start. You will be able to attract the right candidates faster, the ones that are really interested in working for your company and your job posting.

Share this with your team and let us know what your concerns or general thoughts are.

Read the full publication here: Google For Jobs – LevelUp Ventures – 2019

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