New jobs are added to Indeed every day – 9.8 jobs per second, to be exact. If you post jobs to Indeed, understanding the Indeed posting guidelines is key to keeping your job at the top of Indeed’s organic search results.
Indeed wants to provide jobseekers with the best possible experience, which is why the Indeed posting guidelines discourage employers from frequently reposting the same job, changing the job title to “trick” Indeed’s algorithm, or trying to post jobs to Indeed from multiple sources.
Indeed has a Search Quality team that is dedicated to ensuring all jobs adhere to the Indeed posting guidelines. Employers who try to cheat the system will have their job posting – or all their company’s job postings – ranked lower. Having multiple jobs flagged that are in violation of the Indeed posting guidelines can lead to your business being banned from Indeed permanently.
To post your job on Indeed, you can either post directly from their website, or use an applicant tracking system to send your jobs to be indexed and posted. HigherMe has a partnership with Indeed, so we automatically send thousands of jobs to Indeed every month. Here, we outline our top five tips for following the Indeed posting guidelines and finding the right fit for your jobs faster.
Top 5 Indeed posting guidelines for restaurants
1. Post to Indeed from a single source
Job duplication is a common issue that can cause challenges for employers, especially franchise owners who have a corporate careers site, a franchise location website, and an applicant tracking system all sending jobs to Indeed. Having the same job being sent to Indeed from multiple sources will get you flagged, as Indeed will only accept one source.
To adhere with the Indeed posting guidelines, have all of your jobs sent from one place – preferably your applicant tracking system – and make sure to contact Indeed’s team to inform them where you’d like their system to “look” for your jobs.
2. Repost your jobs to Indeed, but not too often
Reposting your job means a jobseeker is likely to see your job come up multiple times during their job search. While this may sound good to employers who work in an industry with high turnover, for applicants, seeing the same job over and over hinders their search. Indeed's algorithm wants jobseekers to have an optimal job hunting experience, so as a result, Indeed will flag frequent reposting.
If you have an “evergreen” job posting for a role you’re always hiring, Indeed will let you repost as long as it’s not too frequently – it’s best to repost every 60 days or so. If you use an applicant tracking system, your jobs will be reposted automatically, so you never have to worry about violating the Indeed posting guidelines and their algorithm.
You can also help train the algorithm that your jobs are relevant: if you search Indeed to find your postings, it's a good idea to click on them. If you don't click on your posting, that signals to the algorithm that your posting isn't relevant to the search terms you just used.
3. Keep your Indeed job title clean
Having fun job titles like “Ice Cream Expert” or “Sandwich Artist” are acceptable on Indeed, but keep in mind that it won’t help people find your job. And job titles such as "Any/ All Positions" are less likely to show up in search results. When posting jobs it’s important to think like an applicant, who are on Indeed looking for jobs like “Server”, “Barista”, or “Cook” with those exact search terms.
Job posts that have Don’t include “clickbait” to try to catch jobseeker’s attention, such as terms like “signing bonus” or “free meal every shift”, job perks like staff discounts, company mini-descriptions, or emoji. As specified in the Indeed posting guidelines: job titles should be listed as they would appear on a business card.
4. Have a clear and detailed job description
Your Indeed job description should be clear, truthful, and original so that it’s helpful for jobseekers and keeps your job within the Indeed posting guidelines.
Include a list of the roles and responsibilities for the role you’re hiring for that’s written by you (and not copied from somewhere you found online). Also include any requirements for the job such as a specific degree, language skills, or previous experience. Jobs posted on Indeed should have the hourly or salaried wage posted, as specified in the Indeed posting guidelines.
Only post the job for the location where you’re hiring – don’t “location blast” and post one job in multiple locations in hopes of attracting more applicants. Indeed will see you trying to ‘game the system’ and will degrade your job postings, making them less likely to be found.
Be sure to include keywords that match what's being searched on Indeed. Keywords such as “hiring immediately” and “teen” are popular.
Job seekers frequently search for specific brands. A clever way to get ranked for your competitors’ searches is to include something like: “Prior experience at X, Y, or Z an asset” in the body of your job description.
Finally, don’t discriminate in your job description against age, race, gender, or sexual orientation or use any content that would be considered offensive.
5. Sponsor jobs that are challenging to hire
Optimizing your job posts by following the Indeed posting guidelines can help you get the most from your non-sponsored, or organic, posts on Indeed. However, the restaurant labor market is tight and everyone from full service to QSR are competing for top talent.
To help get more applicants, you can pay to sponsor your jobs on Indeed. Sponsoring your job on Indeed helps it remain higher in search results and are often the first posts people see. They appear prominently at the top and bottom of the page, and get up to 5X more clicks.
After creating your job post on Indeed, you have the option to sponsor it and set your ideal daily budget. You can manually change your budget anytime or stop sponsoring a particular job post from your Indeed account. To sponsor posts on other job boards such as Craigslist, you’ll need to log in to each account separately.
To manage all your sponsored posts in one place, use an applicant tracking system (ATS). ATS providers who are partners of Indeed, Craigslist, Google, Facebook and more stay up-to-date with the policies of each job board or website so you don’t have to worry about violating any rules or guidelines. HigherMe’s ATS can also repost jobs automatically and show you a sourcing report so you understand where your best applicants are coming from and where to spend your hiring budget.
Sources:
1. https://indeed.force.com/emplo...
2. http://blog.indeed.com/2015/03...
3. http://blog.indeed.ca/2018/12/...
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This post was last updated on April 9, 2021
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