It’s 2014. Everyone with a business knows you need a website. And not just a run of the mill, templated, cookie cutter site either. You need a custom website solution for your business.  Especially in competitive industries like recruiting. The Internet, the world wide web, has continued to expand and evolve and become more and more ingrained in the way we live, connect, and do business. So, we have to evolve our online strategies and image to stay relevant and stay competitive. It’s no longer an option to “wing it” with your website and online marketing strategy.

● Websites & Blogs Mobile Mandatory

Before the information age, many people attributed success in business to “being in the right place at the right time”, or “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. These things can still help but no means are they the driving factor of a recruiting or staffing firm succeeding online. In this new Information Age, you have to be in ALL places at ALL times where your potential clients and candidates might be. This starts with a good website, well branded, well thought out, and built from the ground up with marketing in mind. Additionally you need to have a blog on your site that you publish fresh content too on a regular basis. This will help to drive your search engine rankings up and get you found more often. Last, and perhaps most important of all, it is CRITICAL to have a mobile responsive and mobile optimized website. The mobile revolution isn’t coming. It’s here.

Today, at least half of all Internet access takes place from mobile devices. What that means for you is that candidates are looking for jobs online, on their mobile phones, their tablets, and doing searches on them as well. So, when they come across a job posting and link back to your website what will they see? Something they have to scan, pinch, zoom, and scroll to MAYBE find what they’re looking for? Or a beautiful mobile optimized version of your website with large, easy to use and read navigation buttons, click to call, click to email, or Apply Online links, simple vertical scrolling and easily accessible contact information? It is vitally important not to miss the boat on mobile as you have less than 6 seconds to capture a visitors attention on mobile device. What do your candidates experience when they hit your site on their Iphone or Ipad? Check and see, the result might surprise you.

● Social Media, Content, SEO

Today’s SEO landscape is dramatically different in recruiting as well as pretty much every other vertical out there. SEO is driven simply by this: Create and curate high quality, original, and relevant content and share on all of your online properties, including your website, all social media profiles, and your blog. Make sure this content is high quality and of interest to your target audience. Don’t create content that would appeal to you. Create and share content that would be useful, and appeal to your target audience, whether it’s clients or candidates. Again the equation is simple, but not easy to execute well: Great Content + Social Sharing + Great Website & Properties = Good results for SEO and getting your message heard and being found online.

● Branding & Corporate Identity

With all of the topics in this article, one thing that really bears mentioning is in your online marketing, building out your web presence, consistency is key. You want to have ONE brand, ONE message, ONE Logo. You get the point. You can’t confuse candidate by having your job posting on Facebook look totally different than the ones on LinkedIn. You have to make sure that on all websites, blogs, and social channels you present a unified brand image and voice. It’s great to have different facets and elements of your brand but make sure as a whole it’s consistent.

● What’s Next?

The term I like to use is Web Presence Optimization. It is the sum of all the parts of your company’s online identity. Everything from your job postings, websites, social media pages and profiles, blogs, press releases, articles, everything. Ultimately, we want all the different web properties and elements that comprise your brand and company to work together towards achieving common goals. Building your brand, increasing your exposure, deepening and improving the quality of your candidate pool, and getting more clients. You need your web presence to be marquis. You need to stand out. Your signal needs to be heard above the noise.

About the author: Justin Angelson, Managing Partner, VP Global Business Development, stickyIT

Justin is an aspiring science fiction author, avid lover of all things technology, and an expert in leveraging current and emerging web technologies to help recruiting and staffing firms make more money online and maximize their marketing ROI.