Search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary when utilizing the internet for its full recruitment potential, and healthcare recruitment is no exception. The majority of potential workers in any field have come to rely on search engines and social media to find their next employment opportunity, so it’s vital to meet them there. Learning how to best apply the tricks of SEO optimization is the best way to get your healthcare recruitment out there.
Here are some of the most important tips and tricks for SEO for healthcare recruiting:
1. Research & Target Relevant Keywords
When potential candidates like talented nurses, respiratory therapists, or allied health workers look for opportunities online, search engines do their best to match them with relevant pages containing the keywords they look up. So, it’s necessary to predict what those keywords will be and to highlight them in your own recruitment. This will bolster your chances of showing up first in their searches and make them more likely to click on your page.
Try thinking of it from your target audience’s perspective. If you were looking for this specific opportunity, what would you type in the search bar to find it? What words, what wordings, how far down would you be willing to scroll? What words would catch your eye on the results page? Try to catch the current trending keywords in healthcare recruitment searches, and see what your audience experience is like via reviews and social media posts. Look at other healthcare organizations and their recruitment pages, see which ones come up first when you search for them, and compare what keywords they use and how they use them. Tools like SEMRush, Google Search Console, and ChatGPT are all helpful in this avenue.
2. Create Informative, High-Quality Content
It might go without saying, but it’s important to be sure that your content provides value for healthcare candidates. A snappy headline is one thing, but once they click on your page, you need to give them a reason to stay.
Be sure to think of and address any questions or needs your audience may have throughout their experience on your page. What are they searching for from healthcare recruiters? What information do they need about your organization? What are their possible follow-up questions? If your audience chooses to commit to your healthcare organization, then you need to keep working to retain them with worthwhile, informative content. Not only will effective, upfront information keep them engaged, but it will also enhance your credibility and trustworthiness.
3. Leverage Video & Multimedia
Different people prefer different methods of receiving information. Some are fine with just reading an article, but other visual learners would prefer having an informative and well-put video. So be sure to include videos and other multimedia to best showcase your business.
Videos, pictures, graphs, and other forms of visual media also allow you to embed content from other healthcare websites or social media. A video of nurses or other healthcare employees discussing their positive experiences with your organization. This can help bring more traffic to other sites within your company. It’s best to link the pages with the highest traffic together to maximize the potential audience flow to all your pages.
4. Nail Your On-Page SEO
A catchy, yet appropriate title. An informative, yet digestible header. These will be what catches your audience’s attention and draws them in. Be aware of what may show up first when looking for healthcare recruiters like you, and how to best grab their attention.
Here’s an on-page SEO checklist:
- Spelling, grammar, and spelling.
- Headlines and snippets that are concise yet effective.
- A legible yet visually appealing website layout.
- Apply visual content like videos and pictures.
- Identify and utilize keywords.
- Include internal links.
- Write a relevant meta description.
- Optimize your page’s loading times and responsiveness for both desktop and mobile users.
- Equip keywords wherever you can in both the body text and headings.
You want to make sure your page appears as trustworthy as it truly is, and that it can assure them that they have finally found the page they are looking for.
5. Implement Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup is an annotation system that you can apply to your website’s HTML, and can be utilized to subtly optimize your SEO. Websites will use your data markup to pull product information from your website, and they can employ it to better make your page show up in the relevant searches.
Knowing how to best write and edit HTML can also help in sectioning your information and cementing the hierarchy of relevant information. What’s relevant in the header may differ from what’s relevant in your actual body.
6. Optimize for Mobile
Not everyone is searching from a desktop or laptop. Many use phones for quick, on-hand job searches, so it’s important that your website is also optimized for a mobile layout. Site structure, design, and image size all must be efficiently managed and organized in order to provide the best mobile experience to keep those candidates on your pages.
Optimizing on mobile will also lead to better optimization for your site overall. By showcasing technical quality, it not only keeps your audience engaged but also bolsters your company’s credibility. Prioritize formatting, loading times, de-escalate as much visual clutter as you can, and employ easy-to-read text and sizing.
7. Implement Internal Linking
Linking other pages and relevant websites to your site helps keep an interconnected flow throughout your recruitment resources, which can help you find your potential audience, and vice-versa.
Be sure to link to your organization’s website and any other popular posts or media. By keeping the flow circulating throughout all your busiest pages you will be able to best vitalize your recruitment campaign and keep a consistent audience. Even if the first person who clicked on your page ended up clicking away, there’s always the possibility that the next ten will keep pushing forward with your business.
8. Optimize for Featured Snippets
When potential clients go looking for a page like yours, they often have questions. A featured snippet is an excerpt from your webpage that concisely advertises your full-body content to whoever is searching for it. Your featured snippet should not only efficiently answer their questions, but also entice them to learn further details.
Here are some ways to increase the effectiveness of your featured snippet:
- Match how other featured snippets are formatted and organized.
- Include your necessary keywords.
- Use an active voice.
- Directly and fully address your topic–and therefore what your audience most likely searched—in your snippet.
- Utilize proper grammar, spelling, and clarity.
Conclusion
The internet can be a highly competitive field when it comes to healthcare recruitment, as instead of going to potential hires, you must get them to come to you. Knowing what your audience is looking for and how to provide that is vital in getting ahead of the curve. Always look to improve the user experience, and don’t be afraid to look at what works for other healthcare providers in their recruitment campaigns as well. The internet is a fast-paced and ever-changing landscape, and so your methods for optimizing SEO should be just as fluid. Once you take the time and effort to understand how to make SEO work for you, the feedback to your recruitment campaign is certain to bloom.
