SEO For Recruiters:
The Definitive Guide

The Purpose Of SEO

SEO (which is short for search engine optimization) is a strategy to get your recruiting website ranked more highly in Internet searches (mostly Google but increasingly AI search tools like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity).

To search for a recruiter, people use certain keywords or phrases. When you identify those keywords and use them strategically on your pages, the ranking of your site will improve.

If you're one of these four recruiters, you'll be getting a lot of traffic to your site

What Is On-Page SEO? And How Is It Different from Off-Page SEO?

There are two complementary SEO strategies: on-page and off-page. Using both strategies will get you the best results.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is the way to optimize your site’s rankings by using the right keywords on your pages.

While using keywords in your visible content improves your on-page SEO more than any other step, you can further increase the optimization by using keywords in your title tags, internal links, and URLs.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO helps to improve your site’s rankings through backlinks.

Backlinks are links to your own site that are hosted on other sites. For example, someone might write a blog and use information from your site for reference. A backlink could be provided as a citation.

Backlinks are essentially a vote for your website that says, “This site has useful and credible information.”

Search engines find those votes valuable in determining SEO rankings.

On-Page And Off-Page SEO Are BOTH Important

To fully optimize your search engine rankings, it’s important to use both on-page and off-page SEO strategies.

Keywords Are The Name Of The Game

When someone is looking for a product or service online, they type a word or phrase into a search engine. That word or phrase is called a keyword or search term.

Keywords are the building blocks of an SEO strategy.

Core Keywords

Core keywords are those words that people will most likely search for.

For recruiting websites, core keywords include industries, practice areas and locations (more on those topics below) paired with variations of:

• recruiter
• recruiting
• recruitment

Here are some examples:

• A hiring manager looking for a new employee in the e-commerce industry might search for “e-commerce recruiter” or “e-commerce recruiting”
• An HR representative looking to find a recruiter for their search for a sales manager might search for “sales recruiter” or “sales recruitment”
• A CEO looking to find a recruiter for their CFO search in Chicago might search for “Chicago recruitment agency”

Additional Keywords

Of course, people don’t always search for a core keyword. They might use a synonym or a regional variation of a word. (For instance, the drink called “soda” by most Americans is called “pop” by Canadians.)

With your thinking cap on and a little research, it’s not difficult to come up with relevant additional keywords.

For recruitment websites, strong additional keywords are:

• executive search
• retained search
• headhunter
• search firm
• staffing (this would apply only to a staffing firm)

Now that you know what keywords are, the next step is learning how to use them strategically.

What’s A Practice Area Anyway?

Many recruiters focus on a specific industry. A practice area is an industry entity or unit. It can be broad or narrow in scope.

For example, a practice area could be the name of the industry itself, e.g., manufacturing or biotech. A practice area could also be a department within a company, e.g., sales or marketing. It might also be some other type of grouping. For example, a recruiter specializing in pharma and medical devices might use a practice area called life sciences.

When people search for a recruiter, they will typically use keywords related to the practice area. For example, they might search for “energy recruiter” (top-level category) or “oil and gas recruiter” (more specific category).

How To Create A Strong Practice Area Page

Creating content for each practice area allows you to use more keywords and improve your on-page SEO.

A strong practice area page has well-defined sections, each with keyword-rich text.

Sections to develop for each practice area page include those listed in the mockup below.

How To Create Terrific Titles For Your Practice Area Pages

For best SEO results, the titles of your practice area pages should be keyword rich.

Using a formulaic approach, like the below, makes it easy to include your target keywords:

Name of practice area + one of the core keywords + additional keywords

This formula creates page titles like:

• Healthcare Recruiting and Executive Search
• Oil and Gas Recruitment in the Energy Sector
• Medical Device Recruiters and Headhunters

How To Write Powerful Introductory Text

Now that you have your keyword-rich title, the next step is to write keyword-rich content. But “keyword-rich” does not mean overkill.

Keep this content relatively short (1-3 paragraphs or a max of about 400 words).

A sample introductory text block

Write introductory-level text about the specific practice area and work in your keywords.

Use the keywords liberally in a natural, subtle way. Don’t jam the words in to make awkward or nonsensical sentences.

Overusing or “stuffing” keywords where they don’t naturally belong can actually backfire as Google might penalize your site with lower rankings.

Add More Keywords With Case Studies

A case study gives you another chance to add in relevant keyword-rich content.

The case study should present information about a recruiting challenge that you successfully resolved. It can be structured with the following sections:

• The Challenge
• The Solution
• The Outcome

A sample case study

As with the introductory text, keep this content relatively short (1-3 paragraphs, to a max of 400 words).

While keywords should be used liberally in this section as well, they shouldn’t be crammed in, but worked in subtly.

List Typical Roles In the Practice Area To Boost SEO

You can also improve your SEO rankings by including a section that lists the roles or jobs typically filled by that practice area.

For instance, a life sciences recruiter with a Healthcare Recruiting and Executive Search practice area page might list roles like these:

Remember to use synonyms to increase your keyword usage and optimize your search engine results.

For example, a physician might also be also called a doctor, a surgeon, a specialist, or an MD.

Peppering Testimonials With Keywords

On the surface, testimonials are a terrific way to enhance your credibility.

But they are also one more way to work more keywords into your practice area pages.

Credible testimonials are written by clients who’ve used your services. If a provided testimonial is not keyword-rich, consider adding a title where keywords can be worked in.

Now that you have the tools to build terrific search-optimized practice area pages, let’s move on.

How Do We Define “Location”?

It’s intuitive to think of your location as the place where YOU are located — namely, where your office is.

But location pages should be about the cities that you are hoping to recruit in.

This gives you a leg up in terms of SEO when someone searches for a location-specific recruiter.

Each of those pages can be sprinkled liberally with keywords to boost your search engine rankings.

How to Create a Strong Location Page

A strong location page has a keyword rich title and well-defined sections that:

• Describe the actual location/city/geographic area
• Talk about the role of your recruiters at that location
• Link to your practice area pages

All content on each location page should be well-written with liberal — but natural — use of keywords.

How to Create a Terrific Title For Each Location Page

Make the titles of your location pages rich with keywords.

It’s easy to do that when you use this formula:

Location + Practice Area + Recruiting/Recruiter/Recruitment Agency + Additional Keywords

Sample results include:

• Aberdeen Renewable Energy Recruiters and Executive Search
• Chicago Pharmaceutical Recruitment Agency and Executive Search
• Brisbane Manufacturing Recruitment for Corporate and Executive Roles

This formula can be used to create titles for all your location pages.

How to Write Relevant, Keyword-Rich Content for Location Pages

Although you’ll want to use recruitment-specific keywords on these pages, it’s important to also include content about the actual location.

Starting with general economic content that summarizes how your target practice areas are performing at the location is a terrific way to work in keyword-rich text.

For example:

You should also add a section that discusses the work that your recruiters do at each location. Again, this is a chance to load up your content with keywords.

What If You Don’t Have A Physical Office At A Location?

What if your recruitment team doesn’t have a physical presence at the location you are featuring? Remember that a lot of the work that recruiting professionals do isn’t limited by geopolitical boundaries.

Think about what kind of work your recruiting team does at its physical office location. They likely:

• Work to identify top talent
• Screen and interview candidates
• Market recruitment opportunities
• Stay on top of recruitment trends and legalities

All this work can be done remotely, reaching clients and candidates in each location you want to recruit in.

Take this opportunity to optimize your content for search engines and market yourself as a recruiter available to work in all the locations you specify.

As far as the actual content, use keywords liberally, but do so in a natural, organic way. Make sure the content flows well and is highly readable.

Linking Practice Area Pages And Location Pages

Providing links between your practice area pages and your location pages is an organic and intuitive way to further boost your SEO. The linked text provides additional keywords for each page.

Links to your location pages work well in the footer of your practice area pages.

On your location pages, links to your practice area pages can make terrific sidebar content.

Alternatively, you can also include them in the body of your location page

Once you’ve added in these links, your location pages should be complete, with plenty of relevant keyword-rich content.

An ideal homepage has all of the sections shown below.

How To Craft An Optimal Headline

The headline on your homepage should make clear that the lead is in the right place. It should also be keyword rich.

When crafting your headline, use core keywords plus additional keywords.

Some examples of a terrific headlines include:

• High Impact Recruiting and Executive Search For Today’s Energy Industry
• Expert Technical, Manufacturing and Engineering Recruitment Agency
• We’re Taking Technical Recruitment In A New Direction

TIP: You might find it easier to craft a compelling headline first, and then work your keywords in. It can be more difficult to start with the keywords and turn them into a headline.

How to Create An Effective Subheadline

Some web gurus suggest that the optimal length for a headline is 6 to 12 words.

Six to twelve words is not a lot of text.

A subheadline is an impactful way to add more content to clarify your focus and to add more keywords to boost your SEO.

When you craft your subheadline, use your practice area keywords.

Some examples of terrific subheadlines are:

• As leaders in healthcare recruitment, our goal is simple: we want to help you find the best person for the job.
• We are Canada’s top-rated recruitment agency for the oil and gas sector.
• With locations around the globe, our recruiters are uniquely positioned to locate top engineering talent.

And, again, you may find it easier to just brainstorm your ideal subheadline without any consideration of keywords to start. You can always work the keywords in later.

Write Descriptive Yet Convincing Intro Text

After the headline, this text is often the first section that a visitor sees when they land on your homepage. It must serve two purposes:

1. Convince the visitor that the rest of your site is exploring. When writing text for this purpose, you need to persuade the visitor rather than focusing entirely on informing them.
2. Include relevant SEO keywords. While the first purpose is more important and should therefore be given priority, you should still do your best to include relevant SEO keywords where possible.

Ideal intro text from a recruiter website homepage

Don’t Skip The Practice Areas

Linking your practice areas on your homepage can optimize your search engine rankings and provide clarity to your visitors about your services and focus.

As we’ve seen on the location pages, your practice areas contain important keywords.

Don’t overlook the importance of linking your practice areas on your homepage.

Don’t Forget About The Location Pages

As with the practice areas, linking your location pages on your homepage can define your focus for your visitors and help with SEO rankings

A tidy and easy way to list these links is in the page footer.

A headline, a subheadline, and links to your practice areas and locations will provide a solid backbone for your homepage but of course, remember that it will also include other non-SEO related content.

Why Job Postings Don’t Need Additional Keywords

Google for Jobs exists for job postings. It’s an enhanced search feature that pulls in listings from job boards and career sites.

Screenshot of a Google Jobs page

Most jobs postings will naturally have all the keywords that you need to rank in Google for Jobs so I wouldn’t recommend spending any real amount of time specifically adding them in.

More importantly though, job postings need to have their data structured in a way that allows Google for Jobs to index them.

Structuring the data using Google for Jobs schema requires a fair bit of technical knowledge. It’s best to consult a developer.

TIP: If you want to check out the schema yourself, you can find it here.

Job Posting Content

Since you don’t need to worry about adding keywords, just focus on creating a clear and well-defined job posting.

Any job posting should include these sections:

Your job postings should be able to follow this structure without any extra work.

When I think about blog posts that are typically featured on recruiting agency sites, I think of short 500 word fluffy artciles on topics like “How To Ace an Interview”. These posts rarely have anything useful to say, primarily because they are too short to contain any actionable advice. Furthermore, they are too broad to help with your SEO since they aren’t focused on a practice area.

Conversely, when I think about the blog posts that should be featured on a recruiting agency site, I think about long-form (1000+ word) posts that cover topics directly related to your agency’s practice area with actionable advice. For example, if you are a digital marketing recruiter, you might write deep dives into hyper-niche topics such as “How to Attract Gen Z Talent to Your Digital Marketing Team” or “Digital Marketing Career Guide: A Beginner’s Roadmap to Success“. These posts are not only more useful but they also help you develop topical authority.

What is topical authority and why do you want it?

Topical authority is your website’s perceived expertise and credibility in a specific subject area, as recognized by both search engines and users. Rather than being good at everything, it means being the go-to expert in particular topics. In your case, you want to be the go-to expert for your recruiting in your practice areas. Blog posts help you develop topical authority if they are part of a content cluster.

What is a content cluster?

This section is, by far, the most dense in this guide since it is a bit complicated. Take your time reading it and you should be able to get the idea.

Content clusters are strategic groups of interconnected content organized around a central topic or “pillar page.” For recruiting firms, a content cluster involves a core service page that connects to related content in a way that demonstrates expertise and authority.

Let’s use a Digital Marketing recruiter service page as an example. Your core service page would be your main Digital Marketing Recruitment Services page that showcases your expertise in placing digital marketing talent. This core content would cover your recruitment approach, the types of roles you fill, and your understanding of the digital marketing landscape.

Around this core page, you’d create cluster content that addresses both client and candidate needs. This cluster content could include pieces with topics such as “How to Hire a Performance Marketing Director,” “Building Digital Marketing Teams,” “Digital Marketing Salary Guide,” or “Marketing Technology Stack Requirements.” Each cluster piece links back to your main service page and to other relevant content, creating a web of interconnected expertise.

This interconnected content structure signals to Google that your recruitment firm has deep expertise in digital marketing talent acquisition. When Google’s algorithms detect multiple, interlinked pages covering different aspects of digital marketing recruitment – from team building to compensation data – they recognize your website as an authoritative source in this specific vertical. This topical authority typically leads to higher rankings across all related search terms, not just for your main service page but for the entire cluster of digital marketing recruitment content. It’s more valuable to Google than having disconnected pages because it demonstrates comprehensive subject matter expertise rather than surface-level knowledge of multiple recruiting specialties.

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your website to improve its search engine rankings. This mainly includes building backlinks from other reputable sites, increasing brand mentions, and generating social media engagement. Essentially, it’s about boosting your website’s authority and popularity to help it rank higher on Google.

Why does off-page SEO matter?

Having a well-optimized website is crucial, but it’s no longer enough on its own. Why? Because your competitors are also optimizing their sites with strong on-page SEO.

This is where off-page SEO becomes your differentiator. Google uses it to determine how your website ranks against other well-optimized sites in your industry. Think of it as a popularity contest – when more reputable websites link to yours, Google sees this as a vote of confidence. The more high-quality links pointing to your site, the better your chances of securing a top spot on the first page of search results.

How to acquire links using Connectively and Featured

“Who would want to link to my recruiting website?”

It’s a natural question, and at first glance, there might not seem to be an obvious answer.

Enter Connectively and Featured. These services connect you with journalists and bloggers who are seeking expert quotes for their articles. In exchange for your expertise, they provide a backlink to your site – a win-win situation.

Sample questions for recruiters from Featured

While this approach sounds straightforward, standing out requires strategy. You’re competing with many others for these opportunities, so follow these two critical steps:

• Respond quickly: Submit your quotes as soon as possible. Journalists often stop reviewing responses after they have enough material.
• Be original and engaging: In the age of ChatGPT, journalists are flooded with generic, AI-generated responses. Take a few minutes to craft a unique, perhaps unconventional perspective. A creative answer that draws from your real recruiting experience will stand out.

Following these guidelines significantly increases your chances of getting published and earning valuable backlinks.

How to acquire links using the copycat method

The copycat method is straightforward: identify and replicate your competitors’ valuable backlinks.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

• Sign up for the Ahrefs Starter plan ($29/month)
• Open an incognito/private browsing window and perform a search for a term that is appropriate for your business. For example, if you own a construction recruiting agency, you could search for “construction recruiter”.
• Add all of the recruiter websites that you see to a spreadsheet. Skip any recruiter websites such as LinkedIn and record main domains only (use domain.com, not domain.com/pageURL.
• While logged into Ahrefs, go to their Site Explorer page and enter a website from your spreadsheet into the search field and then click Backlinks on the left sidebar
• Choose the following settings: Dofollow / One link per domain / DR > From: 20
• Sort by DR
• Review the list, looking for opportunities where you can reach out to the site and get your site listed. Focus on finding business/recruiting directories but be on the lookout for other interesting opportunities such as “Top X Recruiters” posts. Skip one-off blog quotes or interviews as they are impossible to replicate.

Ahref's Backlinks report after filters have been applied

Off-page SEO might seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. By combining services like Connectively and Featured with strategic competitor analysis, you can build a strong backlink profile that helps your recruiting website stand out in search results.

Remember, success comes down to consistency and quality. Whether you’re providing expert quotes or reaching out to directories, focus on adding genuine value. This approach not only helps with SEO but also establishes your firm as an authority in the recruiting space.

Start small – perhaps with one platform or competitor analysis – and expand your efforts as you get comfortable with the process. The links you build today will continue working for your business long into the future.

What’s Your Next SEO Move?

I hope our SEO Guide for Recruiters was helpful to you.

I’d welcome your thoughts about it.

Which tips are you most keen to try?

Let me know by leaving a comment below.