The following post was written by Digital Strategist Steven Apostolidis.
After graduating from college I decided to take some time off to visit my family in Greece. One of my favorite memories from my trip was planting trees with my father at my Grandmother’s house. The reason this moment stuck with me was not because of the back breaking manual labor, but because of a comment one of my uncles said to my father. While digging through the pavement that passes for dirt in Greece, my father asked my uncle, “Do you know a better way to dig holes?” My uncle’s response still makes me smile to this day. He simply stared him down and said, “Yeah, go sit in the shade and wait.”
Often times this is the approach that companies want to take with their SEO strategy. As a Digital Strategist, I’m often asked for tips, tricks, and of course – best practices. When it comes to SEO, like trees, all a sound strategy needs is a chance to take root. Once planted, the trees will require minimal attention and will begin to flourish and grow on their own.
One of the first companies I had the pleasure of working with, during my transition into the Digital Strategist role, was Gold’s Gym. Those who have had the opportunity to speak with me know I often refer to their .JOBS sites as examples; for leveraging additional features as well as their implementation strategy. Granted I helped create their strategy, so I’m a little bias in this case. However, even if I put my bias aside, Gold’s Gym serves as a prime example of what’s possible when you truly incorporate the .JOBS platform into your online recruitment strategy. Within just a few short months their .JOBS sites have already been able to capture over 125,000 visits with an average conversion rate of 40%.
To truly get the most out of your .JOBS solution, my biggest piece of advice is to utilize a solid linking strategy and allow your SEO platform to take root. Whether you utilize the .JOBS platform as your career site, front face of your ATS or simply create a link in your footer, the relationship formed between your corporate site and your .JOBS domain will create instant credibility on the search engines.
Even the best SEO platform will starve without traffic and a little bit of traffic early on will catapult your initiative months ahead of its time. As my power lifting coach always used to say, “Prior proper planning prevents poor performance.”
Steven Apostolidis is a Digital Solution Consultant at DirectEmployers Association.
