S.E.O. for YOU (Search Engine Optimization)

When you “Google” something, how many pages of search results do you look at? One page? Two pages? Maybe, from time to time, three? 

When I Googled the line from Romeo & Juliet “What’s in a Word,” within a millisecond I received 111 million results. I looked at the first one. In her article in Searchenginewatch.com, Jessica Lee reported that whatever placed page 1, position 1 in search results got 33% of all views with position two getting 18%. Traffic declined precipitously from that point. (See charts from the search-targeted advertising company, Chitika cited in Ms. Lee’s article.) Indeed, 91.5% of all Google traffic in the US and Canada goes to whatever is found on the first page of results and 4.8% going to what’s on page 2. For obvious reasons, companies work tirelessly (and pay dearly) to get to page 1.  

How do they get to Page 1?  (Click on picture above to read the rest of the article)

One of the key methods to get to page 1, is through Search Engine Optimization or SEO: keywords. Although much more complicated, Google and the other search engines’ algorithms pick up on keywords in your search terms and match them with results that contain those keywords. The “more optimized”, the better the chance of being among the ones you click on.

What does that have to do with Job Search?

Everything! Because what works for Google works for job search.

Ever been fishing? Think about the similarities between fishing and job search. If you want to catch a fish or you want to get a job you need something to attract your target audience. In fishing, we call it bait. In job search we call it keywords.

We have established the following:

1.    The vast majority of companies use some sort of ATS searching for keywords,
2.    Some ATSs can be programmed so your submissions must satisfy the Rule of Three where their selected keywords must appear three times in your submission, and
3.       Recruiters can find as many qualified people in moments by searching the job boards or online profiles (especially LinkedIn) through the use of Boolean searches comprised of keywords.

So, keywords are important

If you want to get found for the 82-85% of the jobs that are hidden or you want to get through the Black Hole of online applications to reach the 15-18% of posted jobs you MUST uncover the keywords for your job title of choice, then load your resume and online profiles with those keywords. You need the right words in the right quantity if you want to get work.