Is your website producing all the results it could (and should) for your firm?
Gone are the days when a website was merely an online brochure. Today, your staffing website is your director of first impressions. It’s a 24/7/365 sales rep. A recruiter. Your digital branch office. And an essential part of delivering a great customer experience. So, how do you get your website to do more?
Here are 7 strategies to improve your website – and DRIVE response from talent and clients.
Strategy 1: Optimize Your Home Page
A great home page clearly shows what you do, showcases your firm’s “voice,” and tells people what to do next. It also passes the 3-second rule. But, what is the 3-second rule?
In 3 seconds, does your home page:
- Completely load? (visitors are impatient, especially on mobile)
- Explain who you are and what you do?
- Differentiate you from the competition?
- Welcome employers and job seekers?
- And most importantly, clearly explain what talent and employers should do next?
If you answered no to any or all of these, your home page needs a refresh!
Strategy 2: Improve Load Speed
Run Google PageSpeed Insights for mobile and desktop to find out how your site performs on mobile and desktop. Use these tips to decrease your home page load time:
- Minimize HTML & CSS. Get rid of extra spaces in your code (they can slow your site down).
- Cache content. Use browser and server caching to minimize page reloading delays.
- Compress images. Minimize image size, so files are as small as possible without compromising image quality.
- Limit plugins. Third-party plugins slow your site down; build as much functionality as you can directly into your site.
- Optimize hosting. Choose a host that designs their servers around the type of site you have, to ensure your site runs as fast and reliably as possible.
Strategy 3: Use Intelligent Site Structure
When job seekers and employers land on your site, do you make it clear and easy for them to take the next action? Too often, staffing websites lack a clear conversion path: a set of steps a site visitor should take toward the desired end (e.g., applying for a job, filling out a form, calling to request a temporary, etc.).
When someone visits your site, they need to be able to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Without clear conversion paths, many visitors will leave – never to be heard from again. Design your site with your user experience in mind!
Maximize every opportunity to turn job seekers into applicants – and employers into clients – with these site improvements:
- User-friendly. Take user intent into account by making high-priority information and features easy to find. For example, if job seekers are your primary site visitors, make your job board prominent in your navigation and include job board search widgets throughout your site.
- Simple menu. Keep menu names short, to keep design clean. As an alternative, consider very short phrases for menu names, to make it easier for visitors to determine where they want to go (e.g., “Find Work” or “Need to Hire?”).
- One-click access. Strive for one-click access for visitors, so they can quickly navigate from wherever they are to wherever they need to go.
- Smart links. Build links to relevant, related content to drive people back to key conversion pages on your site (blog posts are ideal for creating internal links). Internal links are great for SEO; and they also keep visitors engaged on your site longer. The longer they’re there, the greater your chances of converting them!
- Easy contact. Give people an option to interact with you no matter when they visit your site – via forms, live chat, or through an automated chatbot. Make sure your company’s contact information is prominent on each page, either in the header or footer.
Strategy 4: Use a Modern Career Portal
In today’s economy, your staffing firm can’t afford to lose a single candidate. And if your firm is like most, you spend a ton on recruitment advertising to drive them to your site.
Are you doing everything you can to engage and convert potential applicants – or is your career portal leaking talent? Here are some important questions to ask yourself about your current career portal:
- Searching and filtering. Is it easy for job seekers to find jobs that are right for them – or does your search feature serve irrelevant or too few results?
- Stress-free application. Does your application encourage or deter applicants? The majority of talent loss occurs when a job seeker is directed to a lengthy application that requires sensitive information (such as a Social Security number). To make matters worse, up to 90% of job seekers will abandon a mobile application that’s too cumbersome.
- SEO and Google for Jobs. Does your site optimize every job for SEO – and specifically, are they appropriately coded so they appear on Google for Jobs? Every job should be on its own webpage with its own URL.
- Talent reengagement. Return visitors to your site are twice as likely to apply to a job. If a candidate doesn’t apply on their first visit, what does your site do to bring them back? How do you convert or stay in touch with passive candidates who aren’t quite ready to submit their resumes?
Need a better career portal? Haley Marketing’s industry-leading career portal engages and converts more talent – and keeps them coming back.
Strategy 5: Write Less…But Better!
The most beautiful, high-tech website in the world won’t convert if the copy stinks. Writing copy that’s accurate, engaging, compelling – and short – is a tall order. But it’s critical to plugging leaks. Your candidates and clients are busy. Distracted. Impatient. They want you to get to the point – quickly!
Here’s how:
- Clarify your core messaging. Core messaging defines who you are. What you do. And most importantly, why you are different and why people would want to work with your organization.
- Shorten copy on top-level pages. On primary pages, keep language as short as possible, with the goal of driving conversions. If you need in-depth content on your site, put it on subpages (where it’s ideal for SEO).
- Use subheads intentionally. People typically skim web content. Write your subheads so busy people can understand your story without having to read everything.
- Expand your CTAs. Scrutinize your site to make sure that every page has at least one (if not multiple) clear, compelling CTA, and use a variety of formats with action-oriented language.
Strategy 6: Implement Strategic SEO
Everyone wants to rank #1 on Google for “best staffing agency in [insert city].” But if you rank #1 and don’t attract the right employers and talent, the high rank means nothing to your firm’s success.
Websites with strategic SEO include the following:
- Keyword research to determine what your audience is searching for, what keywords they use and how competitive those keywords are
- On-page SEO for the core pages of the site, at minimum
- Ongoing content plan that keeps sales and recruiting funnels full (sites with SEO are not static!)
- Analyzed data to improve content creation – the goal is to create more of the types of content that appeal to your audience
- Engaging CTAs to encourage visitors to take action; the higher the average session duration, the better your site will rank!
Strategy 7: Meet ADA Compliance
Litigation against employment-related sites that are not ADA-compliant is on the rise; attorneys consider staffing and recruiting websites a prime target. There’s a lot involved with creating a truly ADA-compliant website and career portal, and it’s time to think about building one to serve individuals with disabilities – while protecting your firm. Is your website ADA-compliant? Learn more about how Haley Marketing ensures ADA compliance for staffing websites.
Need a world-class website? Work with the best in the industry.
At Haley Marketing, we’ve been developing staffing websites since 2003, and we’ve built more than 1,700 sites. We’ve also developed our own career portal software and WordPress plugins. And we track analytics on more than 1,000 staffing and recruiting websites every month.
What does all this mean?
It means we know what works…and what doesn’t in a staffing website! And we’re here to help. Take your staffing website to the next level and connect with one of our marketing educators to learn more. You can also download our Staffing Websites eBook for 37 pages of tips just like these!
