Google for Jobs: How Google Revolutionizes the Job Market and You Benefit in Recruiting (essentials) 3658331127, 9783658331122

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Henner Knabenreich

Google for Jobs How Google Revolutionizes the Job Market and You Benefit in Recruiting

essentials

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Henner Knabenreich

Google for Jobs How Google Revolutionizes the Job Market and You Benefit in Recruiting

Henner Knabenreich personalmarketing2null Wiesbaden, Germany

ISSN 2197-6708 ISSN 2197-6716 (electronic) essentials ISSN 2731-3107 ISSN 2731-3115 (electronic) Springer essentials ISBN 978-3-658-33112-2 ISBN 978-3-658-33113-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9 © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 This book is a translation of the original German edition „Google for Jobs“ by Henner Knabenreich, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH in 2019. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Responsible Editor: Juliane Seyhan This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany

What You Can Find In This essential

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A compact introduction to the topic Google for Jobs The status quo of Google for Jobs in Germany Recommended actions for the correct use of Google’s new job search feature Tips and tricks for optimization

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Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 The Importance of Google for Job Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The First Stage: The Cloud Jobs API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2 An Approach to Google for Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 What is Google for Jobs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 How the Job Search Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Status Quo Google for Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 What Does Google for Jobs Cost? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 How to Use Google for Jobs for Job Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 Use Potential as an Employer: How to Get in at Google for Jobs . . . . 4.1 You Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Ensure that Your Jobs Have an Unprecedented Reach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Your Applicant Management Software Can also Help You Find Your Way to Google for Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 The Simplest Way is to Use the Job Board of Your Choice . . . . . .

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5 Submit the Jobs to Google . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Via XML Sitemap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Via Indexing API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Canonical Tags to Protect Against Duplicate Content . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 Via ATS and Job Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 Evaluation of Success with Google Analytics and Google Search Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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7 What Mistakes Companies Are Already Making Today—and How You Can Avoid Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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8 What Does Google for Jobs Mean for Job Search, Recruiting—and Job Boards? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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9 A Few Words to Conclude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1

Introduction

Job boards have long since ceased to be the only online channel through which potential applicants can find potential employers when looking for a job. Increasingly, Google is also the first choice when it comes to job search. It’s quite obvious that “googling” is ultimately the solution for everything. Google accounts for almost 100% of all mobile search queries, while on the desktop it is still almost 90%. A life without Google, it seems, is no longer possible. And so one searches via Google not only for news, prescriptions, holiday destinations, doctors and craftsmen but also for jobs. This is how it used to work: If you googled for job offers, such as “Jobs in Marketing Bielefeld”, Google would usually first present you with the so-called Google Ads (i.e. paid ads)—predominantly occupied by advertising job boards fighting for the traffic of each user—and then the organic search results in the form of link suggestions. As a rule, this is also fed by job boards, because very few companies have recognized to date what an important channel Google represents for recruiting and have optimized their jobs or career websites accordingly for search engines (SEO). And whether Google Ad or organic search results, a potential candidate would first have to click on one of the displayed links to get to a search results page within a job board (or career site, if applicable). Once there, he could then search the job results lists for a suitable position. When he had found it, he could then click on the apply button. If I write here in the past tense, there are reasons for that. Because the abovedescribed way of searching for jobs (via Google) is history since June 2017. On this date, which revolutionized the recruiting world, Google’s “Google Job Search Experience”, better known as Google for Jobs, premiered in the USA. Following its rollout in more than 120 countries, job seekers all over the world have been enjoying a job search experience and recruiters all over the world are enjoying a

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_1

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reach for employers and a “job placement accelerator” that has never been seen before in this form.

1.1

The Importance of Google for Job Search

According to Google, over 70% of users worldwide also use the search engine to find jobs. Trend: Increasing. In a country like Germany, according to a study by Careerbuilder, over 50% of those surveyed use Google to search for jobs [1]. A further study goes into more detail: According to this study, 43.3% of those surveyed use Google to search for jobs, 49.3% to find potential employers, and 64.7% to find more information about the employer [2] —with a clear upward trend here as well. Google also leads the way in the search for apprenticeships. In Germany, Google is the most frequently used channel for apprentices: According to the study “Azubi-Recruiting Trends”, 84.3% of them use Google “very often” or “often” to search for a training place [3]. All these figures impressively underscore the fact that Google has become almost indispensable for many people in their job search. And as a result, how important it is to be represented in the top search results on Google with one’s own career website or job offers. Because only those who are present here will be noticed by potential applicants or can strengthen their profile in this way. The fact that many companies are still not found via Google despite a large number of advertised jobs can have various reasons. One reason is, for example, that all jobs are advertised among themselves on a single HTML page. Google can’t pick out individual job offers from this and display them in a search result list. It is therefore important to set up a separate HTML page for each position, which can be accessed via separate web addresses and indexed by Google. Another reason is in many cases the embedding of jobs from the applicant management system via Iframe. Not only does this look unattractive in most cases, but it also poses the problem that the information is (or, let’s say, was) virtually invisible to Google and subsequently to a potential applicant. Because if the jobs are prepared accordingly—see Chap. 4—then Google doesn’t care whether the jobs are embedded via Iframe or not. However, this does not change the fact that the whole thing not only looks ugly but also makes the user experience less pleasant, especially on the smartphone. And then there are even companies that embed their job ads as images or make their job postings available exclusively as PDF or Word documents. This makes them undetectable to Google—and, of course, to potential applicants as a result.

1.1 The Importance of Google for Job Search

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And it is precisely this findability of jobs, the greatest possible transparency of job offers published on the net: that is what applicants want. This is also the conclusion of a study by the e-recruiting software provider Softgarden [4]. In Germany alone, the sheer oversupply of job boards ensures that potential applicants quickly lose track of the situation and real market transparency is not possible. Apart from this, many job boards or job crawlers only process the job search results of other job boards, so that a large number of duplicates exist. “It would be good if there was only one platform where all job advertisements are and not umpteen different ones. This makes the search tiring,” a participant in the Softgarden study is quoted as saying. Many participants see the key to making job advertisements easier to find in the way companies market themselves as employers and their jobs. Google has a positive image as a job search engine with a large majority of respondents. They greatly appreciate the fact that they can quickly find all the information relevant to their job search there. Larry Page, one of Google’s founders, once said that the perfect search engine understands exactly what a user is looking for and delivers exactly the right results. Over the years, Google has found that the most important thing is to get the quickest possible answers to search queries. That’s why Mountain View’s data powerhouse is constantly tweaking its algorithms to provide the best possible search experience and offer its users the most relevant answers to their search queries in the most appropriate format as quickly as possible. Logically, at some point, Google would also look at the job listings. Already in September 2011, Marcus Tandler wrote in his article “Der Endgegner” how such a scenario could look like [5]. “In any case, Google can offer such a very efficient and user-friendly search—who needs online job boards anymore? Sure, they may have exclusive customers, but almost every company advertises its job vacancies on its website, which makes it easy for Google to find anyway. [...] If such a search logic is then teased out prominently on the search results page, only very few users will click on the organic search results of an online job market (why should they?)”.

It was to be six years before his vision became reality—and the jobseekers’ wishes were heard.

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Introduction

The First Stage: The Cloud Jobs API

When in November 2016 the search engine and data collection giant Google presented its “Cloud Jobs API”, probably only a few people had any idea what was coming. Both on applicants and job boards and companies. With this programming interface (API stands for “Application Programming Interface”), Google wanted nothing more and nothing less than to revolutionize job search. And, let’s be honest—no matter if you are someone looking for employees (aka Recruiter) or looking for a job—the job search as such is in great need of improvement. And I don’t mean the content and design of the job advertisements themselves, which often still seem to be borrowed from the Stone Age of job advertisement creation. I’m talking about the search for jobs in an almost unmanageable number of job boards and career websites of companies. How are the millions upon millions of job advertisements published in over 1200 job boards (nobody in Germany knows the exact number of job boards, and there is also a lot of movement in the job board market: when one job board sees the light of day, the other closes its doors), which are also often labeled with job titles that may be valid in companies, but which no applicant would ever look for, ever find potential applicants? Especially since many of these jobs are nothing more than duplicates that are advertised in some original job board (such as on a company’s career website) and then sucked up by a multitude of job crawlers. In short, finding a job is often like looking for the famous needle in a haystack. Transparency? There is no such thing. But there are plenty of job duplicates. So are job titles and job advertisements with content that makes you want to run away. As a result of this homemade problem, companies have been finding it difficult to find the right applicants (and applicants the right jobs) in many of the world’s labor markets for some time now. Google has also recognized this problem and identified the lack of so-called “matching” between job advertisements and candidate profiles as one of the problems. A lack of matching, the cause of which is essentially due to interchangeable job advertisements created in the corporate language and exaggerated requirements in the context of the tasks. Or, as it was said on Google’s website when the Cloud Talent Solution based on machine learning was introduced (Raider is now called Twix, Cloud Jobs API became the Cloud Talent Solution): “Job postings are often worded in the industry- and company-specific jargon that job seekers don’t search for". Since it is Google’s modest claim to present its users with the best search experience and results, the whole thing was of course a thorn in the side of the likable data collector from Silicon Valley. And so an entire development team

1.2 The First Stage: The Cloud Jobs API

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at Google is occupied with nothing else but working on a solution that significantly improves job search as we know it and mutates into a real gamechanger in recruiting. Of course, this is not completely altruistic, because apart from the fact that they want to make sure that companies and applicants find each other faster and more suitable, they are also eager to collect a lot more data. All of this, of course, is for the benefit of the user, who in the future will be able to see jobs even if he is not actively searching, but because of his search and other behavior (for example, an increase in search queries on burn-out, depression, the meaning of life or “what to do about incompetent managers”) sends a clear signal that a change of job soon is more than appropriate. The fact that an average of over 300,000 job titles can be found on the job board indeed.de on an ordinary day [6] speaks for itself. More job titles than there are professions—an applicant must first understand that, for example, a “referent reservation special AVB/K” is nothing more than an actuary. A “field execution specialist” does not go to war, but sales. Or that a “wildlife control operator” is nothing more than a forest ranger. To avoid such a mismatch, Google is now fully committed to AI and machine learning. Thanks to Google’s Recruiting Stone of Wisdom, a very intuitive job search can now be offered that deciphers the bustle of HR departments and also shows the user results that he wouldn’t have searched for because (a) he would either not have dreamed that a personnel manager would also be advertised as a resource manager or that HR in HR is not human resources but actually a towel-roll (Handtuch-Rolle in German) and (b) he was not even aware that companies use so many different synonyms. How is a call center agent supposed to find a job as a “call center agent” if such jobs are only advertised as “service center employees”, for example, because the call center industry has such a bad reputation? How is a web developer supposed to know that he should also look for a “front-end guru” to get suitable jobs displayed? Thanks to Google’s clever algorithmic enhancements, all this is now possible. Google’s Cloud Talent Solution “learns” and understands the context of job titles, profession and job requirements, and how it corresponds to job content, location, and experience. The following examples give a small impression of what Google’s Cloud Talent Solution can do: “Job enrichment” function: The job is automatically enriched with relevant information, such as an address, type of employment, or benefits. Focus on professional experience: Only posts corresponding to professional experience will be issued. Spelling: Google automatically detects and corrects spelling errors, even if the search terms are technical jargon, job titles, or acronyms. This ensures that

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Introduction

all relevant jobs are output. Google understands, for example, that when I type “clrk”, I actually mean a “clerk”. Recognition of abbreviations or company jargon: Google recognizes what the abbreviation stands for. For example, that Biz. Dev. does not stand for the R’n’B combo Bell Biz Devoe, but for Business Development, HR is not about “Handtuchrolle”, but human resources or relations, and PA means a personal assistant—and not Philadelphia. Google will then display jobs that match these abbreviations. Search term: Google recognizes when a search query allows multiple interpretations and variations that match the search term and display only the matching results. For example, when searching for “printer”, Google understands that it is a job as a printer, not the corresponding device, which may appear somewhere in the task description. Search depending on the way to work: Google allows you to search for jobs within a maximum radius of 2 km from your location (home), including the displayed route by car, on foot, or by bicycle (this is particularly relevant when searching via smartphone). Recognition of job titles: Google also recognizes synonyms for job titles, such as that an MTA is a medical technical assistant or someone looking for a nurse will also see results for healthcare professionals and nurses. For example, a search for “DevOps” will also spit out results for Software Engineer or System Administrator (or vice versa), a search for Web Developer will also spit out results for Frontend Developer, Software Developer or Frontend Developer. You can find out what else Google’s Talent Solution can do on the website https://cloud.google.com/solutions/talent-solution/. All these examples show that the company that claims to have the best search results and experience does not stop at job search and can offer a quality of results that were not possible before. By the way, any company can benefit from the Cloud Talent Solution if it wants to. Google is happy to make it available (with up to 10,000 queries per month, the whole thing is even free of charge). All in all, it was therefore only logical and consistent that Google proudly presented “Google for Jobs” at its developer conference I/O 2107 in May 2017. A job search within Google, based exactly on the technology described above. The whole thing started in June 2017 in the USA and was rolled out successively in meanwhile more than 120 countries and a multitude of languages around the globe.

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

As we have already read (and experienced first-hand), Google is constantly tweaking its algorithms to provide users with the best possible search experience. As fast as possible, as relevant as possible, the whole thing in the most suitable format: is Google’s standard for the perfect search result. And so we are happy if we enter, for example, “Weather Wiesbaden” and do not get a list of search results with links to websites about the topic weather, but a concrete weather forecast for our location (see Fig. 2.1). The same applies to directions, for example when you search for “How to get to Frankfurt Airport”, ideally you will get a map with the directions as a result—and not links to other websites. If you are looking for flights, the current cinema program, or the height of George Clooney (1.80 m), it is the same thing: you do not want any links to any websites where you have to look up the relevant information on the page, but ideally, you want to have the results where you are at the moment of your search as soon as possible: On the homepage of Google. Google has thousands of developers and scientists working on refining its algorithms and developing useful new search methods to provide exactly this search experience. And, of course, to make job searches easier and more rewarding than ever before.

2.1

What is Google for Jobs?

Contrary to popular belief, Google for Jobs is neither a new job board nor a new Google product. Google for Jobs is nothing more than a prepared search result. More concretely: An integration of job advertisements aggregated from job boards and the companies’ career websites directly on the Google homepage. Google calls the whole thing “Enriched Search Result”, i.e. a search result that is

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_2

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

Fig. 2.1 The weather forecast directly on Google’s homepage—an example of the perfect search experience as defined by Larry Page. The user does not have to visit other sites to get the answer to his search query but gets it directly within Google. Image source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

enriched with various data and displayed on Google’s homepage. Therefore, you cannot access Google’s job search via a separate URL (i.e. Internet address). Uploading a job advertisement using a button is just as impossible with Google for Jobs as calling someone to place your job advertisement, just as you might be used to, from classic job boards. Strictly speaking, the “product” Google for Jobs does not even exist. On the associated microsite (for whose URL jobs.google.com, by the way, had to vacate the space of the previous job page for Google’s internal jobs, i.e. Google’s career website, so to speak), where the job search is presented, there is the only talk of “Job Search on Google”, never of “Google for Jobs”.

2.2 How the Job Search Changes

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How the Job Search Changes

Until Google for Jobs was available, the job search on Google was as follows: After entering a search term, such as “job openings controller San Francisco”, the user received a list of search results, of which the top hits mostly consisted of (a maximum four) paid ads (“Google Ads”), followed by a large number of organic search hits. These search results, in turn, consisted mainly of links to jobs in job boards (occasionally to a career website), which then led the user into the links of some job board, where the actual search and application process took place. A “Candidate Journey”, which was not really much fun and which was also marked by many interruptions. Thanks to Google for Jobs, this is now different. The search query alone is a different one, as the location can usually be given away. Google for Jobs works on a location- or IP-related basis, so that Google takes this into account in the job search, and prioritizes the jobs that are advertised in the vicinity of the searcher. For example, to stick with the above example, a query for jobs as a controller would directly show the user suitable positions at his or her location or environment. Irrespective of this, the user remains on Google during the entire search. The search results are displayed to the user in the form of a blue (or light blue)1 box so omnipresent that there is no way around it (see Fig. 2.2 and 2.3). Although Google for Jobs is dominated by Google Ads2 that is also in the context of the search query (which are used by resourceful companies or job boards to generate traffic or to draw applicants’ attention to vacancies). But then a new scenario is revealed—and a special feature that users in Germany (and other European countries) were the first in the world to see. Above the blue box, you will find a navigation bar where you can choose from a variety of job boards under the heading “Search for jobs at”. Even “Indeed” is listed there, beside StepStone by the way the only large job board, which refuses Google the co-operation. Who else could Google still be angry at? After all, according to Google’s Senior Product Manager for Google search, Nick Zakrasek, during the press conference in Berlin on May 22, 2019, Google aims to give users the widest possible choice of sources for their job search and not to patronize them as to which portal they may find most suitable. Of course, one does not deny oneself to anyone. If you want to 1

Google for Jobs is “work in progress". For example, the view of the box may differ depending on the browser or device used. Furthermore, the display varies depending on the country. 2 Provided, of course, that the corresponding Ads have been switched. After all, not every keyword has its ads, and so the blue box may stick directly to the top of the page.

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

Fig. 2.2 This is how job searches with Google used to work. It took several steps and calling up several pages to get to relevant job results. Source Own representation

Fig. 2.3 The job search with Google for Jobs saves many additional steps. The user remains permanently on Google and is guided to the jobs much faster and more efficiently. Only to apply does the user leave Google and go to an external page or the application form. Source Own representation

2.2 How the Job Search Changes

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make your jobs visible to a broad mass via Google for Jobs, you are welcome to do so. And so all the other well-known job boards play a part in Google for Jobs. In particular, users stumble upon the results of XING, which as a partner of Google for Jobs is the main supplier of jobs for the German market (only topped by the business network LinkedIn, which represents the largest share of jobs delivered via Google for Jobs worldwide), but the other usual suspects (job boards) are also cavorting in. At the press conference, the participating job board partners proudly reported significant increases in access to their website. Under these job boards, which can be clicked on via icon, the user then finds the actual Google for Jobs search result, a “blue box” containing an initial search result list. It is relatively unlikely that a potential applicant will click on the organic results below this result box. What motivation would he have, since all the jobs relevant to him are served up to him in a bite-sized format, with unprecedented transparency? By the way, jobs are displayed even if no explicit search for jobs was made, but Google assumes this to be the best fitting search result based on previous search patterns and other search queries. For example, a search for “website developer Richmond” also returns job openings, although the search intention was quite different, namely that of a developer who could program a website (Fig. 2.4). In this way, Google also reaches potential candidates who are not actively looking for a job. Another reason for companies to use the potential of Google for Jobs. Figure 2.5 also shows: Someone who is looking for a job cannot pass the “blue box” with the job openings. Especially not if he starts his job search on the move (which, only mentioned in passing, is happening more and more often, which is logical because more and more people regard the smartphone as the center of their lives). Then this feature dominates the whole screen. A look at the organic search results below is obsolete, because a click on the box or one of the job openings opens the actual job search and thus the view of “at least x more job openings”, as Google promises. Here again, the user can choose from various search results and limit the selection (see also Chap. 3). Mind you, all this happens inside Google without having to go to an external job board. Only by clicking on the apply button does a user then go to the corresponding external website. Therefore, the user spends significantly more time on Google and can carry out his entire job search there, a clear gain in terms of user-friendliness, which also enables better conversion for companies.

12 Fig. 2.4 Google shows job openings even if the search intention was a different one. This means that even users who are not actively looking for a job, but who are open to change, can be reached. Image source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

2.2 How the Job Search Changes Fig. 2.5 Between Google Ads and the organic search results you will find the blue Google for Jobs box. Image source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

Status Quo Google for Jobs

If you take a look at the study Recruiting Trends 2019 [7] you get the impression that German companies are way ahead when it comes to Google for Jobs. However, according to the authors of the study, only 40% of HR professionals have heard of Google for Jobs. The situation is even worse with the candidates: Only 15.8% have ever heard of Google’s job search. This makes it all the more surprising that—although Google for Jobs was not even available at the time of the survey in summer 2018—this new feature is rated as very good. This in turn leads us to the next question: If Google for Jobs is judged to be very good after all—why is it (despite the long lead time, I ask you to keep this in mind) hardly used by companies until now (June 2021)? Especially from companies where one might expect it due to their size or their recruitment activities in global markets? Whose duty would it be to lead the way? Apart from this, many German companies also recruit abroad, for example in the USA, where Google for Jobs was launched four years ago. That it would come to Germany (and other countries) was as clear as anything. The fact that one does not wait until it is rolled out here was one of the most important homework of the recruiting companies, who like to blame the so-called shortage of skilled workers for not being able to find qualified employees. If you take a look at the activities of the DAX30-companies (Deutscher AktienIndex (German stock index)), for example, you quickly realize that massive potential is being wasted there. A quick survey in May 2019 shows that more than half of the companies (56%) are not prepared for Google for Jobs [8]. The other 43% are also anything but sunny. For example, in six companies the job data is incorrect (as shown in Fig. 2.6 as an example), for example, the publication date, the company name, the complete location, or even the job title is missing. For six more, no errors are displayed, but not all data fields are maintained properly (see Chap. 4). The most common warning issued by Google, unsurprisingly, is the lack of salary information. Of course, the specification of the salary or salary range is an absolute taboo subject in Germany. Both sides—applicants and recruiters alike—would benefit massively from greater salary transparency. If Google applied its strict rules regarding the preparation of jobs, six more companies would be left out of Google for Jobs. Fortunately, Google is not (yet) taking the companies to court as harshly as announced on the website: If one or more of these policies are violated, Google may take “manual action” (Google takes this step if “a human auditor at Google has determined that the pages on the site do not meet Google’s quality guidelines for webmasters.” [9]) (see Fig. 2.7).

2.3 Status Quo Google for Jobs

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Fig. 2.6 Using the structured data test tool provided by Google at https://search.google.com/ structured-data/testing-tool, it is easy to see whether the job advertisement has been prepared correctly or not. The fact that—as in this case—the job title and the name of the company are missing is more than a flaw, however, and as a consequence, the jobs cannot be found via Google for Jobs. Image source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

Fig. 2.7 Strictly speaking, such search results would not be allowed according to Google guidelines (possibly Google grants to start its job search, we write the end of May 2020, the whole thing is still “work in progress”, companies a grace period). Here is missing both the job title (Dotzheimer Str. 182 b, you will agree with me, is not very suitable as a job title) and the complete job description. So the user does not know what kind of place it is. It is just stupid that the company misses out on applications this way. Image source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

This in turn means that your jobs cannot be displayed or excluded from Google searches. And that in turn means that once the problem has been resolved, you may submit a “request to re-validate the site”. According to Google, this can take anywhere from a few days to a week or two—fatal when you consider how important transparency and speed in recruiting are today. Just in passing, it should be mentioned that even Google does not follow its recommendations in its job advertisements. For example, in many cases, you will not find a complete description, a specific contact person, or even details of the location. According to Nick Zakrasek, the fact that Google itself does not follow the recommendations regarding salary information (see also Chaps. 3 and 4.) is because, as a company, the structure of the job advertisements should be uniform. The same applies to salary information. Strangely enough, not much of this uniform preparation can be seen globally. Regardless of this, the whole thing should not be a reason for you to do it the same way Google does. Be a role model, be transparent! Score points with the applicant! In fact, according to the above-mentioned study, only 20% of the top 1000 companies believe that Google for Jobs will have a very strong impact on their company’s recruitment. And the other 80%? They are sleeping the “Sleeping Beauty” sleep of the eternal recruiter: 80% of those surveyed “currently see little or no influence”. These results do not give the companies a particularly good report card and once again show the state of technology affinity—or rather ignorance of recruiting potential—in German HR departments. This is also underlined by another study: To check how “Google-ready” German SMEs are, Bloofusion, a provider specializing in search engine optimization, examined 500 websites of German SMEs. The result (considering the potential Google offers for recruiting) is disastrous. According to this, only 1.47% of companies implement a correct job posting markup (see Chap. 4) [10]. All others are thus invisible to potential applicants! However, it seems to be a global phenomenon. There is also a lot of room for improvement in US companies. The service provider Jobiak, for example, which specializes in Google for Jobs, determined that, of the 2.5 million jobs advertised in the USA via Google for Jobs, only 20% originate directly from the companies’ career websites [11]. Also in Japan, one of the last countries in which Google for Jobs was activated before Germany, the scenario is dominated by job boards and recruiting agencies, as an industry insider told me. All the less surprising then are the further findings of the recruiting trends. The question was also asked how well companies are prepared for Google for Jobs. According to this, 30% of the top 1000 companies are well-positioned.

2.3 Status Quo Google for Jobs

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These figures are astonishing, but a glance at the search results on Google and the above-mentioned investigations clearly show the opposite. And how do companies assess the opportunities and risks of Google for Jobs? These results are also very revealing: For example, more than a third of the companies expect that thanks to Google’s job search, suitable candidates will apply who would otherwise not have applied. As many as 40% expect “improvements in filling vacancies in terms of speed of filling and simplicity”. However, the last aspect of the survey reveals that the respondents did not seem to have any real idea what they were being asked about: Only 30% “see advantages in cost efficiency”—even though Google for Jobs is absolutely free, unlike job boards (see the following chapter). Only 10% think that thanks to Google for Jobs vacancies can be filled more appropriately. The Cloud Talent Solution mentioned in Sect. 1.2, the core of Google for Jobs, ensures, for example, that potential applicants, even those with job titles that are not practical and that job titles that bypass the applicant are still correctly assigned to a search query, or that jobs are displayed according to the location. It becomes particularly bizarre when it is said that most companies see as the greatest risk the additional costs that arise if a good placement of their own job advertisements on Google for Jobs is to be achieved (73%). Once again: Google for Jobs is free of charge. Investments are necessary at the most to prepare the jobs once according to the new data scheme. But this is not witchcraft for a developer. I will even go so far as to say that you do not have to be a developer (more on this in Chap. 4). And even if you are: these costs make up a fraction of the costs you pay for a job board of your choice. And the findability of jobs depends on the completeness of the data—and ultimately results from the filters that a job seeker sets. Looking at the results of the study, it is quite obvious that the estimates are far from reality. Because Google for Jobs will not be without consequences in terms of visibility, reach, awareness, traffic, and applications. The British HR service provider Madgex, for example, recorded a 25% increase in the number of hits on job advertisements shortly after the introduction of Google for Jobs in Great Britain, in some cases even significantly more. An average increase of 47% or more was recorded in applications [12]. Thanks to an optimized user journey (the user gets to the job results or job description faster without having to make additional clicks) the conversion has massively improved: the user has already read the job details within Google, the probability that he/she will now submit his/her application increases significantly. The experiences of German companies that have been actively using Google for Jobs in the USA from the very beginning are also in line with these statements.

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

For example, the feedback from the US recruiters at the German automotive supplier Brose (Brose Fahrzeugteile) is that many applicants use the “jobs in the vicinity” function, and in this way, one gets into the relevant set of potential candidates, Bernd M. Schell, Global Lead & Project Manager HR Online Services at Brose, told me. The visualization of the route to the employer is also perceived as important. Overall, Google for Jobs has been very successful since July 2017 [13]. For example, Google for Jobs has become one of the main sources for job applications. Even the major job boards in Germany have recognized that they benefit from Google in terms of reach and awareness. XING has a dual function: firstly, through its job ads (as already mentioned, XING is the main supplier of Google for Jobs in Germany), and secondly, through its employer ratings on XING (which are mirrored 1:1 by kununu,3 which is another beneficiary). Not to mention small and niche job boards. Only the job board of the German employment agency is not among them—almost grossly negligent, it should do everything to get applicants into work—and StepStone, a subsidiary of the Axel Springer empire. At an investor conference, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner explained the move based on previous experience abroad. “In markets where we have a stronger position, such as South Africa, we have not allowed Google for Jobs to use our content”, he is quoted in the online portal heise.de [14]. In South Africa, for example, Google was prevented from making its job search an important hub for job seekers, and for this reason, it was decided not to support Google for Jobs in Germany. An interesting note in passing: In the UK, the Axel Springer subsidiary Totaljobs is very much a part of this [15]. Perhaps a detail that Mr. Döpfner has missed? An evaluation of the SEO portal Sistrix [16] clearly shows the effects of the introduction of Google for Jobs in Germany on the visibility of job boards within the Google ranking after only a short time (see Fig. 2.8). StepStone is also feeling the effects of the introduction of Google for Jobs in other ways. For example, a statement by the job board says that traffic that reaches the job board via Google is decreasing. The Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger, BDZV) and the Association of German Magazine Publishers (Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger, VDZ) also fear Google’s job search and accuse the search engine giant of “abuse of market power” [17]. Google’s job search is by no means welcomed so enthusiastically by everyone. Especially in Europe the moody “Datenkrake (data octopus)” has a hard time. As early as August 2019, 23 job boards filed a

3

kununu is the largest employer-rating platform in Europe.

2.4 What Does Google for Jobs Cost?

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Fig. 2.8 The Sistrix Visibility Index clearly shows that the visibility of Google for Jobs is organically stronger than that of the established market players such as Stepstone.de, Indeed.com, or Arbeitsagentur.de (which is not surprising, since the box always ranks first). Image source Screenshot Sistrix https://www.sistrix.de/news/google-jobs-in-deutsc hland-marktfuehrer-ueber-nacht/

complaint with the EU. One feels massively disadvantaged, because one is displaced from the search results of Google, so the tenor [18]. A complaint that was refreshed in November 2020 and signed by more job boards [19].

2.4

What Does Google for Jobs Cost?

One question that keeps coming up (and according to the above-mentioned study there is a great need for clarification) is what it costs to be on Google for Jobs. Since Google for Jobs is merely an optimized search result, the question can be quickly answered with one word: Nothing. A more differentiated answer: The fact that your jobs are listed on Google for Jobs will of course cost you the effort of getting to grips with the subject. Depending on the size of your company and how you hand over the jobs to Google (see Chap. 4), you should of course take into account the time and effort required to make your jobs fit for Google for Jobs. But if you compare this with the costs of placing your jobs on the classic job boards (there are only a few exceptions), these are peanuts. Especially since the expense is only incurred once. You can find out how your jobs appear on Google for Jobs in Chap. 4. Another question that arises in this context is: Can I get better positions, can I buy better visibility for my jobs? A clear “no” also applies here, which was also

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An Approach to Google for Jobs

confirmed at the press conference for the launch of Google for Jobs in Germany. There is no way to buy a better placement at Google for Jobs, similar to Google Ads. Only in passing, it should be noted that Google initially also said that you cannot buy a better position in the search results. As early as 2000, two years after the start of the search engine, Google announced its “Adwords” and the possibility of using paid ads to increase visibility [20]. Shamed be whoever thinks bad of it.

3

How to Use Google for Jobs for Job Search

Google for Jobs is the first recruiting solution designed primarily for candidates, not recruiters. The aim is to make job searches as easy and as accurate as possible and to bring applicants and companies together as quickly as possible. As already mentioned, Google for Jobs is not a new job board. As a result, you cannot access Google for Jobs via a separate Internet address. Logically, Google for Jobs is not a concrete product, but rather a search result—as if you were googling “What does EVP mean” or “How will the weather be?” In both cases, the corresponding result is displayed directly on the Google homepage—without the need to visit an additional page. How to Access Google for Jobs And you can now do the same with job advertisements. If you want to use Google for Jobs, all you have to do is start a search for jobs. This can be done in different ways. For example • • • • •

Jobs near me Jobs in marketing Job offer controlling Marketing jobs Fireman’s positions

and so on. As a rule, it is not necessary to specify the location. Google orients itself by your IP address or the location of your smartphone and, if possible, shows you the jobs that are as close to your location as possible. Of course, you can also search for jobs outside your location. Google will then present the results to you in the form of a box highlighted in blue, as in Fig. 2.4 or 2.5, between Google Ads (the

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_3

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Fig. 3.1 Google for Jobs offers a variety of filter options. For example, the search results of “jobs near me” can be narrowed down by the filter category, title, location, date posted, type, company type or even employer. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

paid search results) and the organic search results. I will now tell you what is special about Google for Jobs and what possibilities this new search experience offers. Unique Filter Options In addition to extreme hit accuracy, the job search offers an unbelievable number of filter options that have not existed in this form before (see Fig. 3.1). The filter options depend on the respective country/location. Possible filter options are. • Category • Job titles (here the user finds alternative job titles and can narrow down his search accordingly) • Location (very granular perimeter search) • Date posted • Type of employment • Language • Employers What is particularly interesting, however, is the aforementioned fact that the core of Google for Jobs is the Cloud Talent Solution and that the whole thing works based on machine learning or AI. After all, according to Google’s website, “this

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How to Use Google for Jobs for Job Search

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Fig. 3.2 Using the “Title” filter, the job titles assigned to a search category can also be displayed and filtered. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

AI solution was developed to support the talent acquisition technologies that exist in companies” [21]. And so you will also be shown jobs that were not explicitly searched for because the job title is simply too unworldly (e.g. because companies are sometimes very creative in creating job titles or because there can be quite different role titles for the same job or because you were perhaps a little imprecise, that is supposed to happen) or which are as close as possible to your place of residence (see Fig. 3.2). Unique Transparency With Google for Jobs, you get unprecedented transparency about jobs. At least in theory. Although Google promises that no duplicates will be shown and that a job will only be shown once, even if it has been published on several job boards, this does not work at present. The problem that Google faces as much as applicants are job search engines that “crawl” (i.e. readout) jobs from job search engines, which in turn pull their jobs from job boards or career sites. These job search engines collect the job advertisements (and their metadata) published on job boards or career sites and display them in the form of links on the source page on a separate platform, the job search engine itself [22]. Unfortunately, the whole thing is now taking on a nasty dimension and one can almost speak of “job board spam” (because the metadata gets worse from a crawl to crawl with the consequence that what the user gets to see is almost useless). The business model of some of these providers is not so

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How to Use Google for Jobs for Job Search

Fig. 3.3 Subject to the fact that the employer has entered the exact location, the user can display the route and travel time directly within Google for Jobs. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

much transparency about the job market, but rather the tapping of user data, who, believing it to be a serious platform, create a profile whose data can then be misused by the operators. Despite all this, you as a user have probably never before had such a concentrated offer and such immediate access to jobs as is possible with Google’s optimized job search. Jobs Nearby As already mentioned above, the focus of Google for Jobs is on the most personalized display of the results possible. Google wants to bring applicants and companies together and keep the journey to the job site as short as possible. For this reason, Google for Jobs displays both the distance to work and the travel time, if possible (see Fig. 3.3). The basic prerequisite for this is, however, that the company posting the job offers this information down to the last detail. Something that unfortunately

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How to Use Google for Jobs for Job Search

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Fig. 3.4 The job advertisements displayed via Google for Jobs are also supplemented by salary information. If the company itself does not provide any such information, Google searches for it and aggregates it from portals such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or others. If the salary is given, a graphic representation of how the actual earnings compare to the market average is displayed. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

is not the case for many jobs to date. This is very unfortunate because Google for Jobs even allows an exact location query, such as “Jobs Melrose Place Los Angeles”, and only displays results for jobs that are located at this address. Jobs with Salary Information But Google does not only aggregate data from Google Maps. Data is also collected from external websites. For example, for your salary. So you have a rough idea of what you can earn in your future job. A rough idea because very few employers provide this information voluntarily and Google takes this information from portals such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, XING, salary.com or similar sites. And so the salary details are estimates, which Google cannot guarantee to be valid (see Fig. 3.4). Jobs with Employer Ratings And because Google wants applicants to be happy and does not want you, the applicant, to buy the pig in a poke, you will also find a rating of the employer: employer ratings are generated from kununu, XING, Glassdoor, softgarden or indeed, for example, and are also displayed directly (see Fig. 3.5).

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Fig. 3.5 On Google for Jobs, applicants are spoilt for choice as to which channel they want to apply through. In this example, five application options are available. The button of the source is usually placed first. This is particularly important when viewed via smartphone. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

Jobs for Remote Workers In keeping with the spirit of “New Work” or “Work 4.0”, there is also the option of searching for so-called remote jobs. Due to the corona virus, work in many companies increasingly takes place in the home office. It is therefore very helpful for applicants to see at a glance which employers allow remote work and which do not. Google recommends companies to mark their jobs accordingly. Not relevant for companies outside the USA is a label that indicates that the jobs advertised are also suitable for US veterans. Apply How and Where You Want Google for Jobs allows you to apply for jobs through various sources. This could be the career site of a company or LinkedIn or another job board. Google displays a job only once within the search results (even if your job has been played out on

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How to Use Google for Jobs for Job Search

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Fig. 3.6 Google for Jobs also enables the automated sending of jobs tailored to the search query (in this case jobs in recruiting in Wiesbaden) immediately upon appearance of the job in the index, using daily or weekly updates. You can also save jobs that you would like to take a closer look at or apply for as favorites

different portals. At least Google claims this, see above), but then offers the option to apply through different channels. The Apply button of the primary source (ideally the company’s career page) is usually displayed first. If the job has been advertised on other job boards, these application buttons will also appear (see Fig. 3.5). New Jobs Fresh in Your Mailbox The right job is not always there the first time you search. That’s why Google for Jobs also offers the option of receiving email notifications about new jobs based on the selected categories—provided you have signed in with your Google Account (Fig. 3.6). This login is also required if you want to save jobs as favorites. So “Google Jobs” not only ensures the best possible accuracy, but also the best possible transparency.

4

Use Potential as an Employer: How to Get in at Google for Jobs

The older ones of us surely still remember the legendary AOL commercial from the Internet’s childhood years, in which tennis legend Boris Becker explains to us how easy it is to get on the Internet with AOL. Being listed in Google for Jobs is not as easy as it was with the modem. Because, as already written, Google for Jobs is not a job board in the conventional sense. There is no possibility to upload jobs via form or upload. However, the whole thing is not magic and requires less knowledge than the classic search engine optimization (SEO). However, you should have some technical understanding—or know someone who does. Colleagues in the IT department, for example, would be a great address! There are several ways to get your jobs into Google for Jobs and get an incredible reach boost. My unqualified recommendation is: Make sure that the jobs you advertise on your career website end up directly on Google for Jobs. Now take some time and find out how you can make yourself independent of all other providers, save a lot of money, and enjoy a high reach. The following information and tips may help you.

4.1

You Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Ensure that Your Jobs Have an Unprecedented Reach

As comfortable as it is to rely on others, the best thing is always your independence. Besides, four years of close observation of the posts played out via Google for Jobs show that the third-party providers (i.e. job boards and ATS1 providers) do not always do a (literally) clean job. So go there and make sure yourself that your job postings are “Google Jobs” fit. And then simply submit them via XML 1

ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System or E-Recruiting-Software.

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_4

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Sitemap or a so-called Indexing API. That should be your goal. You are completely independent of external providers and can save a lot of money. At least in theory and the initial phase. Because of course, despite Google for Jobs, every job and every job board where your jobs attract the attention of potential applicants means additional reach. Apart from the fact that an applicant first has to “learn” to use Google as the sole tool for job search. And we still seem a long way from that. People are increasingly using Google to find jobs, but not across the board. Just in passing, it should be mentioned that Google—depending on the search term—also shows jobs to those who are not actively looking for a job. With this, you can also reach “passive searchers” and latently change-willing candidates. This does not work for every search term, but some. And the number is likely to increase, or rather, what is played out to the individual is also strongly dependent on the search behavior. After all, Google knows more about us than we think we know about ourselves. The prerequisite for your jobs to be findable at all via Google for Jobs is a certain form of preparation for your job offers. More precisely, they must comply with the Google guidelines or the recommendations of schema.org. You will find extensive information on Google itself or the mentioned platform of schema.org. With the ontology developed by schema.org, website contents can be prepared in a way that enables Google to display more relevant search results or to prepare them accordingly when displaying them. These Sources Provide You with the Necessary Information in Detail • Technical guidelines: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/ job-posting • Content guidelines for your job advertisements: https://developers.google.com/ search/docs/data-types/job-posting#content-guidelines • Job Posting—Scheme (schema.org): https://schema.org/JobPosting Now it gets a bit technical, but as a recruiter, you should not be afraid of it anyway. I promise it won’t be too technical, though. When it comes to the preparation of your job advertisements, some elements are necessary and elements that are “nice to have” (but in my opinion also necessary). In general, your jobs must be declared as JobPosting. And now it is time to take a look at the required data fields. Let’s start with the mandatory ones.

4.1 You Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Ensure ...

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The Job Title It is not surprising, but the job title itself is one of the most important “quality criteria” for your job advertisements. This does not only apply to Google for Jobs, but it also applies generally and without restrictions to all job ads! Because without a good job title there is also no discoverability. That means for you: • Ensure clarity in the job title! Ask yourself whether the title describes the role correctly! Job titles such as “employee”, “consultant” or “clerk” are anything but clear. Be specific: For which area are you looking for an employee, which tasks are primarily his or her responsibility, or which skills do they need for the position? • Be specific, not vague: Use the title “Senior Frontend Developer” rather than the generic “Web Developer” (but better yet, be more specific). Instead of “Apply for IT job now—an employee with French skills wanted in Bielefeld”, write “IT specialist with French skills” (the place that in principle can increase the findability of jobs gets its own data field, see below). • Do not use job codes (i.e. reference numbers), addresses or the name of the town, salary details, company name, or special characters in the title field (except the asterisk, which you use to indicate the third sex if you want to indicate it). Exclamation marks or exclusive capitalization of the job title are also not permitted (e.g. “ACCOUNTANT WANTED FOR INTERNATIONAL MAJOR CORPORATION!!!”). Google’s markup provides separate data fields for the location, salary details, or company name. • The job title should not be longer than 65 to 67 characters, rather shorter. Anything above this is not or not fully displayed to the user in the search results. In case of doubt, important information will be lost (see Fig. 4.1)! One should not think it’s possible, there are even companies that forget the job title. It should be clear that such jobs do not appear in Google for Jobs either, of course. By the way, Google’s test tool for structured data (see also Sect. 2.3) will tell you whether you have done everything right. The Complete One! Job Description The description is virtually the heart of your job ad prepared for Google for Jobs. And just like in real life, the same applies here: Only a detailed and practical, detailed job description that makes you want the job is a good job advertisement. By the way, detailed also means complete. This means that (ideally) the content of the complete job advertisement belongs in this data field: intro (employer’s profile), tasks, requirements, contact person, benefits, call for applications. Only if this data

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Fig. 4.1 Pay attention to the length of the job title. If the job title is too long, not all of the job title will be displayed and the user will be forced to make up the rest. By the way, “Staff Perfusionist—Richmond, VA *$5000 Sign-on Bonus+Additional Generous…” is “Staff Perfusionist—Richmond, VA *$5000 Sign-on Bonus+Additional Generous Sign-on Bonus*. The job title is not only too long, but it also contains information that is not allowed according to Google guidelines. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

is complete will it be displayed to the user via Google for Jobs. And only then! However, it is up to you which contents you transmit. It would also be conceivable to omit certain aspects. In any case, the first five lines must arouse the user’s interest. These are the first lines that are displayed to the user in the result list. A selfcongratulatory description à la “we are the biggest, the most beautiful, the greatest, have the best products and are market leaders anyway” is not one of them. Only in passing, it should be mentioned that the keywords in the context of the position should also appear in the description. • A detailed job description not only ensures the best possible orientation for the applicant’s decision-making process but is the be-all and end-all of your presentation on Google for Jobs! • Design the description in such a way that a potential employee feels immediately addressed by the first few lines. These are decisive in determining whether he or she continues reading—or jumps to the next job offer.

4.1 You Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Ensure ...

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• To ensure that the reader is not presented with plain text deserts without full stops and commas, make sure that line breaks and paragraphs are used by using HTML tags. According to Google, for example,

,
,

and
• and for headings to are possible. It should even be possible to use characterlevel formatting tags like and , Google writes in its guidelines. A look at the majority of the ads played out to date—whether in the USA, Japan, Germany, or anywhere else in the rest of the world—shows that there is still a great deal of potential for optimization in the preparation of job ads. Neither you nor potential applicants want an advertisement, as Fig. 4.2 shows. Even if Google itself does not follow the guidelines, that should not be a reason for you to make the same mistake. To avoid this, please read this book.
  
  Fig. 4.2 Without any HTML tags, your ad on Google for Jobs will quickly turn into an unstructured desert of text. These are therefore essential for a user-friendly ad and increase the chance that your ad will be noticed by applicants. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
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  Use Potential as an Employer: How to Get in at Google for Jobs
  
  Fig. 4.3 HTML tags provide more clarity and structure. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  • You should include all, really all contents (i.e.: introductory text, tasks, requirements, benefits, contact persons, call for applications) in the description. All of them! You can still differentiate between responsibilities, requirements, incentive compensation, etc., but despite schema.org recommendations, this information does not affect what the user sees in the search results (see Fig. 4.3)! The Company Location (jobLocation) Google wants to offer its users the best possible service and transparency. That’s why the correct display of the location or address is immensely important. Also, the distance to the workplace is crucial for many applicants. Commuting makes you ill [23], and the shortest possible commute to work ensures the highest level of satisfaction. Google knows this too. You can also see from the search queries at Google itself that the search for “jobs near me” or “remote jobs” is constantly increasing. • Indicating the location provides clarity and enables Google to show a potential applicant the way and time to work. • Required are country, location, postal code, street, and house number. It is also possible to enter geo-location data.
  
  4.1 You Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Ensure ...
  
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  • If the work is to be performed at several locations, you can create the jobLocation property multiple times. Google will display the most suitable location based on the prospective customer’s search query. If there is no work location such as an office, Google says you don’t need this property. • If a job is offered as homeoffice or remote work, you can also indicate this by using the tags jobLocationType and applicantLocationRequirements. With the latter tag, you indicate where the employee can perform telecommute. At least one country must be selected. The location of the company, just like the job title, is indispensable! Without any indication of the location, there is no visibility. Date of Job Publication and Validity of the Job Offer (datePosted, validThrough) The date of the job posting is also required for a proper posting in Google’s Job Search. This serves, among other things, to recognize the actuality of the hiring date and to be able to sort it accordingly. Job offers that appear in Google for Jobs but have long since expired will be penalized by Google. In extreme cases, permanent exclusion. Even if Google does not seem to be strict about adhering to the guidelines so far, at least the high demand for the quality of the job advertisements becomes apparent. Since it is never really clear when a job will be filled, it is recommended to specify a date in the far future as a validThrough date. This is especially useful if the jobs are not automatically maintained via ATS and Indexing API, but rather manually via the CMS. The Name of the Company (hiringOrganization) The name of the company should not be missing either. How else should it be possible to assign the name to the job or company? It is also important to indicate the detailed company name. If this is missing, Google may classify the job ad as spam. For example, it should say “Starbucks Corp.”, not just Starbucks. Besides, Google’s job search offers a corresponding filter option, which allows the jobs to be assigned to individual employers. You should also make sure to include the company logo. For various reasons: • It is eye-catching and ensures recognition value (companies that do not hand over a logo are displayed in the job results list with initial letters only). For example, companies such as Accenture, Access, or Avature would get an A, or Google
  
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  Fig. 4.4 This illustration shows very nicely how important the logo is. While on the left side only letters instead of a logo can be seen and an assignment to the company is only possible at second glance, the jobs on the right side show immediately that they are jobs at Google. Would you have recognized that the second company on the left is also Google? Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  would get a G if no logo is submitted. This does not necessarily make it easier for the applicant (and therefore you), as Fig. 4.4 shows. Although the following data fields are not mandatory according to Google guidelines, in my opinion, there is no way around it if you are serious about transparency and applicants. The Base Salary: The Icing on the Cake I don’t think I have to say much about it. Apart from the fact that applicants want to be told this, that the salary is a sign of transparency and esteem, a guarantee for more applications, and a way to view fewer inappropriate applications, the job advertisements played by Google Jobs do in any case include a salary. It is up to you to decide whether you would rather have a salary range from Glassdoor, XING, salary.com, gehalt.de or any other source displayed there, or whether you would
  
  4.1 You Take Matters into Your Own Hands and Ensure ...
  
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  prefer to display your own. My recommendation: Use the field. Do it better than the competition. According to a study conducted by Jobiak, this was the case in only 4% of the job advertisements displayed in the USA via Google for Jobs [24]. There is a lot of room for improvement—and a lot of potential for you to score points with the applicant! Type of Post: Full-time, Part-time, Temporary, etc. (employmentType) This information is also not mandatory but is highly recommended. The user can see immediately whether the job is full-time or part-time or even a job with a temporary employment agency, for example, and can filter according to these criteria. Summary Below you will find once again an overview of all data fields in Fig. 4.5. Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator (JSON-LD), which you can access at https://tec hnicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/, is a helpful resource for creating the right markup. Especially if you don’t write out your jobs automatically, this tool is an incredible help. And here’s how it works. To Add Schema Markups to Your Job ad Call up the page https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/. Click on the drop-down menu and select “Job Posting”. The procedure is now actually self-explanatory. Simply copy and paste the HTML data from your job ad into the respective fields. The tool does the rest and transfers the whole thing to the schema markup (see Fig. 4.6). Be sure to use JSON-LD instead of microdata, as it is much easier to implement. Now insert the whole thing on the HTML page of your job ad below the actual HTML ad. Done! Using the structured data test tool, you can put your work and all your jobs through their paces and see if there’s anything you missed. Figure 4.7 shows what this can look like. Get Google to Reach with WordPress Plugin It’s all too complicated for you? Do you work with WordPress? Then you should take a look at the plugin WP Jobmanager. This plugin has been able to play jobs in a Google-Jobs friendly way since its release in August 2017 [25]. The BlueGlass plugin also allows an uncomplicated preparation of jobs according to Google’s guidelines [26].
  
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  Use Potential as an Employer: How to Get in at Google for Jobs
  
  Fig. 4.5 The table shows all relevant data fields of a job posting according to Google guidelines together with a short description, own representation
  
  4.2 Your Applicant Management Software Can also Help You ...
  
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  Fig. 4.6 With Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator you can create the markup for your job advertisements with just a few clicks. Picture source Screenshot Google Merkle Inc. https:// technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/. Accessed: May 13, 2019
  
  4.2
  
  Your Applicant Management Software Can also Help You Find Your Way to Google for Jobs
  
  Another way that your jobs get into Google for Jobs in an uncomplicated way and with almost no intervention is through your e-recruiting software provider. Provided that they have recognized the signs of the times and have made their (or of course your) jobs Google fit. However, I would not rely on that if I were you. ATS that relies on structured data is still in short supply and once again it is confirmed that these service providers are excellent at managing applicant data, but are otherwise not very helpful. Apart from that, they are not necessarily interested in this, as they prefer to earn money as multiposters by posting their jobs on the usual suspicious job boards. Transferring via ATS can offer you the following advantages: Preparation of the job advertisements according to schema.org or Google guidelines, automated creation of an XML sitemap for your jobs, automated submission of the sitemap to Google. The best way to find out if your provider has recognized the signs of the times and offers real service to his customers is to confront him directly with the topic.
  
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  Use Potential as an Employer: How to Get in at Google for Jobs
  
  Fig. 4.7 The test tool for structured data clearly shows whether the data schema was prepared correctly or not. In this case, the company (hiringOrganization), the location (jobLocation), the job title, and the date of publication (datePosted) are missing. No wonder that this position remains invisible. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  4.3
  
  The Simplest Way is to Use the Job Board of Your Choice
  
  The simplest way is to use the job board of your choice. Unless these are called StepStone or indeed or it concerns even the job board of the Employment Agency. Because these three job boards (by the way the range-strongest job boards in Germany. Still.) persistently refuse the likable data collector from Mountain View. Both indeed, and StepStone persists in their position not to participate in Google for Jobs and fear competitive disadvantages (see also Sect. 2.3).
  
  4.3 The Simplest Way is to Use the Job Board of Your Choice
  
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  Most of the job boards (in Germany there are over 1200 job boards, so it’s a bit difficult to get an overview), are part of Google’s “Job Search Experience”. As the biggest (global) suppliers, who also play a role in Germany, these are LinkedIn and Glassdoor. The largest national supplier is XING, which currently dominates Google for Jobs. But also smaller and less known job boards or even Facebook (yes, exactly Facebook!) have recognized the potential to generate a previously unknown reach in this way. Because they are undoubtedly certain of it. So if you publish your job ad on a job board that displays your jobs in a Google-compliant manner, you don’t need to do anything else. All you have to do is wait for the applications to arrive. Alternatively, you can also use the services of third-party providers such as Jobiak (http://bit.ly/GfJjobiak) or SEO for Jobs (http://bit.ly/SeoForJobs), which catapult your jobs into Google for Jobs with just a few clicks and at a manageable cost (even relative to job boards).
  
  5
  
  Submit the Jobs to Google
  
  If you have considered all the points mentioned above, your jobs are quasi “Google for Jobs-fit”, they only have to be transferred to Google. Only now, because uploading or something like that does not work. It works the same way as with “normal” websites. Google “searches” the content itself and includes it in its search. But there are a few things you have to take into account to make sure that your jobs will also reach the applicants. For this purpose, you should be familiar with Google Analytics and the Google Search Console. Or know someone familiar with them.
  
  5.1
  
  Via XML Sitemap
  
  Once the jobs have been created, ideally use the Google Search Console to update your site’s XML sitemap to inform Google that there are now jobs to crawl here. It is essential that your jobs can be crawled by Google and that they are not blocked by your robots.txt file. As with the best SEO standards, the jobs should have a clear, descriptive URL. So not perfectemployer.com/jobs/job%2Fm0199e46c81c4f07a99cde%3F, but perfectemployer.com/jobs/senior-front-end-developer-java. In its guidelines, Google recommends setting up a separate XML sitemap exclusively for the jobs. Our own experience shows, however, that it is even possible to read out the jobs without explicitly passing the jobs via XML Sitemap, let alone via a separate Job XML Sitemap. However, not all jobs are indexed, especially if a large number of jobs are involved.
  
  © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_5
  
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  5.2
  
  5
  
  Submit the Jobs to Google
  
  Via Indexing API
  
  For faster indexing of jobs, Google recommends setting up an indexing API. This additional step is particularly recommended for companies with a large number of jobs and especially with a very volatile job playout. This is because Google promises a significantly faster inclusion in the Google for Jobs index. Not only is the inclusion of new jobs guaranteed in this way, but also the deletion of expired jobs is done automatically. “With the API, jobs are deleted in about 30 minutes after technical publication in the Google index and just as reliably, but with a slight time lag,” reports Bernd M. Schell from the automotive supplier Brose on his experiences with Google for Jobs in the USA.
  
  5.3
  
  Canonical Tags to Protect Against Duplicate Content
  
  Especially in larger companies, it is the case that the same job is advertised several times—for example, a sales representative at different locations. Then there are not only pages with the same or almost the same content, but also with the same title and almost the same URL. Google then sees the whole thing as a duplicate version of the same page. Google then independently selects one URL as the canonical version, but still punishes the others and does not crawl them or crawls them less frequently. As a result, some of your jobs won’t appear on Google for Jobs—making them invisible to potential employees. The whole thing is avoided by setting the so-called Canonical tag on the “original content” page.
  
  5.4
  
  Via ATS and Job Boards
  
  Just for the sake of completeness, we would like to point out the possibility of submitting the jobs to Google via ATS, the job board of your choice or a thirdparty provider like Jobiak or SEO for Jobs. You can read everything else about this in Sects. 4.2 or 4.3.
  
  6
  
  Evaluation of Success with Google Analytics and Google Search Console
  
  Once you have taken all the steps you need to take, it probably won’t be long before this is reflected in an increase in clicks on your career website. Here, too, Google offers the best transparency (as long as you evaluate your website accesses with Google Analytics or a similar tool). Every URL to which Google for Jobs refers automatically receives a so-called UTM parameter. You do not have to do anything else—except of course to evaluate the data. You can use the following parameters in conjunction with Google Analytics or other tracking tools: • utm_campaign = google_jobs_apply • utm_source = google_jobs_apply • utm_medium = organic Let’s just look at an example of this: The above-mentioned parameters are now appended to the link of the actual job advertisement (see Fig. 6.1). Evaluation via Google Analytics Google Analytics can then clearly assign where the clicks on the job ad came from (see Fig. 6.2). 1. 2. 3. 4.
  
  Call up the corresponding property in Google Analytics Click on “Acquisition” Click on “All accesses” Click on “Source/Medium” and search for “google_jobs_apply/organic” in the column Source/Medium 5. Enjoy the access via Google for Jobs and compare the traffic with other sources.
  
  © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_6
  
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  Evaluation of Success with Google Analytics …
  
  Fig. 6.1 Google for Jobs automatically generates campaign links, which can then be evaluated via Google Analytics & Co. In this way, both the success of Google for Jobs and of individual ads can be measured directly and without distortion. Picture source Screenshot of the Be-Lufthansa job board, Lufthansa Group. career.be-lufthansa.com/index.php?ac=jobad&id=66078&language=2&utm_ campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic
  
  Fig. 6.2 Using Google Analytics, it is easy to see how much traffic comes through Google for Jobs. In this example, this is still manageable, as the jobs have only been played out via Google for a short time. The picture is likely to change rapidly and google_jobs_apply/organic will soon be at the top of the list. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
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  Evaluation of Success with Google Analytics …
  
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  Fig. 6.3 The Google Search Console provides you with an overview of the status of your job ads and alerts you to any errors that may be present. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  Monitoring via Google Search Console You can also use the Performance Report in the Search Console to access the data from the Job Vacancy View (the view on the Google for Jobs homepage) or the Details View for your job posting. Here too, Google offers you the best service and transparency. If you have created a job and it has been indexed by Google, you will receive a notification in your email box. From this you can then see whether everything went smoothly or whether there is still a need for action, for example missing fields such as “baseSalary.value.value” or “jobLocation.address.addressRegion” need to be added (Fig. 6.3).
  
  7
  
  What Mistakes Companies Are Already Making Today—and How You Can Avoid Them
  
  Over the last four years, I have been able to get a good idea of where the preparation of job advertisements is always a problem. And it doesn’t matter whether the company is based in Texas, Tokyo, Tarragona, Tewkesbury, or Telgte. To avoid making the same mistakes, I have summarized my findings for you. Not be Represented at all on Google for Jobs The biggest mistake a company could make would be not to be represented with its jobs on Google for Jobs at all. For the best possible results, with the jobs advertised on their career site. And not on external sites. All the more reason for companies to benefit and have a significant influence on Candidate Journey. Missing Logo Although the logo is not decisive for war (i.e. in the sense of the “War for Talents”), it is not quite as trivial. If you do not specify a logo, only the first letter of your company appears in the job list. In a list of many companies that may not have a logo, you will not only not be noticed, but there is also no direct, “visual” assignment to your company possible. A logo on the other hand creates identity and is much easier to remember and assign. However, Google itself “selects the logo that best matches the display in search results, whether it is the Knowledge Graph logo or the hiringOrganization logo”. [27] This sometimes leads to strange results. For example, the original logo of the Federal Bureau of Investigations was emblazoned on the hiring agency Personallösungen FBI (Personal Solutions FBI) (see Fig. 7.1). This attracts attention, but probably the wrong one;-). The logo is part of the hiringOrganization data field.
  
  © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_7
  
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  Fig. 7.1 If Google does not find a logo, it can be assigned arbitrarily. This can lead to strange situations, as the example of FBI (Personal Solutions with Office and Industry Professionals) shows, where Google assigned the logo of the F.B.I. (Federal Bureau of Investigations). Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  Missing or Incomplete Job Description This is probably the most common mistake, which also has a major impact on the success of your job ads on Google for Jobs. Here you will find either no content at all (empty) or only incomplete content (for example, only the entry to the job ad). Another extreme is the double content. For whatever reason, the contents of the job ad (or even just excerpts) are found several times among each other. Even if I have already mentioned it before (in Chap. 4): The description is the be-all and end-all of your job ad. Here the complete description belongs in: Intro (please be as appealing as possible, since the introductory text is the first thing a potential applicant gets to read), tasks, requirements, aka benefits, contact person, call for applications. Missing HTML Tags To ensure that your job advertisements are not displayed as unstructured text deserts (see Fig. 4.2), they must be marked with HTML tags. Especially
  or

  for line breaks or paragraphs and

• for list items to enumerate the tasks or requirements (all other markups according to Google guidelines, such as to are not displayed, but can have an impact on SEO). Missing or Incomplete Address Data These lead in particular to the fact that a “Jobs near me” search cannot be done properly and the way to work cannot be displayed. In case of doubt, you will lose
  
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  Fig. 7.2 A salary of EUR 0 per month is unlikely to attract many applicants. If this were the actual hourly wage or salary, the situation would be very different. This makes it all the more important to transfer this data in full! Picture source Screenshot Google LLC. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  reach and attention, and companies that maintain this data correctly will be ahead in the favour of potential applicants (see also Chap. 3). Lack of Type of Employment If the information is missing, whether it is a full-time or part-time position, a position that I can fill remotely, or as a temporary employee, the applicant lacks orientation and you may be giving away potential. Missing Salary Declaration I don’t think I need to comment further. Applicants want to know what they will earn. So disclose it on your own terms. You save yourself the trouble of reviewing applications that don’t fit into your salary structure anyway. This gives you plenty of time to focus on applications that fit the bill. Apart from that, Google will do its best to aggregate the data not provided elsewhere and will display data from Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or other portals instead (or in addition). Some companies resort to a trick and use “0” (zero) as the value. As a result, they may deliver a 100% error-free data schema, but cheat themselves and their applicants—or alienate them completely, as is very likely to happen in a subsequent job advertisement (Fig. 7.2). Regarding the correct display of a salary range, see also Fig. 4.5.
  
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  7 What Mistakes Companies Are Already Making Today …
  
  If Google denies you access and your jobs are not accessible via Google for Jobs, there may be other reasons, such as a missing application button or a wrong data scheme. It is even possible that your jobs were initially listed but suddenly disappear from the index. There are good reasons for both, which I have summarized for you here: The Content of the Page Differs from the Structured Data Sometimes the structured data is stored on the job overview page. This will not work, because the structured JobPosting data is never implemented on the homepage of the job board, but always only on the page of the job posting itself. No Application can be Submitted on the Job Offers Page It’s as obvious as can be: It must be recognized that you can apply for a job on the site or that there is a possibility to apply for a job, e.g. via e-mail link or the apply button. A clear invitation to apply—especially if an application can only be made by e-mail—ensures that your job advertisement is then also displayed. Speaking of clear: The CTA (Call to Action), i.e. the call for applications, should be eye-catching. Candidates usually want to apply directly to the career site of a company. The further the path to the application, the greater the risk that it will be abandoned. My urgent recommendation is, therefore: To make sure that your applicants can access your job offers or applications as directly as possible and avoid, if possible, the detour via third-party providers, such as job boards. This is the only way to achieve a satisfactory Candidate Journey with as few clicks and “media breaks” as possible. The Application is Subject to a Fee Also, this is supposed to come along in times of internet fraud and is of course punished by Google. Incorrect (or Missing) Place of Work The place where the workplace is located (or at least the registered office) must be indicated. Otherwise, Google cannot determine location-based data. This means that the job is not visible on Google for Jobs. Jobs that Advertise Jobs just to Generate Applications There are supposed to be companies that advertise jobs but only do so to fill their talent pool or to pretend to be economically successful. Such job postings are also on Google’s red list.
  
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  Expired Jobs If a job has expired (i.e. it has a validThrough date in the past), Google will also remove the job from the index. If the job is not deactivated, Google may penalize the company that posted it. In the worst case, this means that your jobs will be out of the index for a while and will not reappear in the index as quickly (see also Sect. 2.3). Missing Information on the Employer This also happens (for whatever reason). The hiringOrganization field MUST contain the name of the employer, otherwise, the job will not appear on Google for Jobs. Also, the specification of a wrong employer leads to disqualification. Failure to Indicate the Job Title Logically, a missing job title means that a job cannot be found. Also, the job title and job description must never be identical. Missing XML Sitemap After you have prepared the jobs accordingly, you must still submit them to Google. Although the Google crawler may take them on its own on your next visit, you are on the safe side if you create a separate XML sitemap just for the jobs. If you have a large number of jobs that are updated quite frequently (daily), it is recommended that you also set up an Indexing API (more information on this here: https://develo pers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/quickstart). This interface guarantees that your jobs will appear on Google in no time. In General The job description must be complete. Google distinguishes between errors that result in the job not being indexed—such as the missing company name or job title—and warnings that include recommendations on what data should be added— such as salary or full address. Error messages are mandatory fields, and warnings are incomplete fields that are not required, but recommended. My recommendation again is: Fill out all fields completely. The more complete your details are, the more Google (and the applicant and your hiring manager and your boss anyway) will love you.
  
  8
  
  What Does Google for Jobs Mean for Job Search, Recruiting—and Job Boards?
  
  Even if many die-hards don’t want to admit it and see Google for Jobs as simply overrated, Google for Jobs will radically change the way we look for jobs. Just as Google and other digital gadgets have radically changed our user behavior in many other ways. What isn’t googled today at every possible and impossible opportunity? And above all: How does Google influence us in this process? I’ve already described what Google is doing to make sure that we don’t have to move to another site in a big way. Google is doing everything it can to keep us on Google. What does m/f/d mean? Shows us Google on Google. How will the weather be? Shows us Google on Google. What movie is playing in the cinema tonight? Shows us Google on Google. How tall is Angela Merkel? Show us Google on Google. How did DSC Arminia Bielefeld play? Shows us Google on Google. Where can I find the next baker? Google has the answer. And so on and immediately. A logical consequence of this is that Google also wants to support us in one of the (supposedly) most important things in life: job search. After all, many people spend more time at work than with their partner (there may well be other reasons for this) or waste a lot of time on the way to work. Not to forget the time itself, which it costs to look for jobs. Of course, Google does not do all this out of pure charity. Google is a powerful global corporation that makes a lot of money with our data. And so, not only does collecting job search data bring us many pleasant benefits, but Google can also skim this data and make a profit. For example, through appropriately played out ads. If we take the whole thing a little further (I don’t think we have to think too far), it will probably not even be necessary to actively search for jobs in the future. Thanks to the fact that we let Google rule our lives (Google Search, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Gmail, everything we do on our smartphones with Google Apps installed, smart home applications such as Nest, the Google Voice Assistant, etc.), Google has such a comprehensive profile of us that the data © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_8
  
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  Fig. 8.1 Google is occasionally testing the possibility of providing search recommendations directly on its homepage, independently of a search query for jobs. If you click on one of the links circled in red, users are redirected to Google for Jobs. Picture source Screenshot Google LLC/Joel Cheesman (https://www.ere.net/google-for-jobs-homepage/. Accessed: May 14, 2019). Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.
  
  octopus (Datenkrake) knows more about us than we can imagine. And thanks to even more data that Google collects in the course of its job search improvement initiative, Google also knows long before we do, that it’s time for a job change and also where and as what. There are already initial tests that prove exactly that (see Fig. 8.1)! And, as I wrote above, Google is already showing jobs to its users, even if they have not explicitly searched for them. This is a great opportunity for companies since only a few of the labor market participants are really looking for jobs and most of them are still in the job market (they are willing to change jobs and are very receptive to such “random” job offers). But apart from that, Google for Jobs has other (sometimes massive) effects and the market (especially) for active candidates will change fundamentally. The Importance of Job Boards will Gradually Decline Of course, Google is by no means interested in opening up a new market segment and disrupting the job market. This has been repeatedly confirmed in press conferences
  
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  and press releases (although at the time it was also said that Google would never commercialize its search. This was true until the advent of Google Adwords, see also Sect. 2.4). Of course, Google cannot yet deliver relevant results without many job boards as job suppliers. And so there is a mutual dependency, which is established in “partnerships”: Google needs the jobs of the job boards to be relevant at all; the job boards need Google’s reach to achieve the necessary relevance and to build up and expand their reach. Live and let live is the motto. And that’s why the XING career network in Google for Jobs, for example, is seen as a way of making your job market offer even better known. Jens Stief, Managing Director of XING’s ERecruiting division, expects the partnership with Google to attract even more job seekers to the portal. This may work (at least for the next few years, I’m sure it will, since humans are creatures of habit and HR departments always need a little longer before they adapt a useful technology—this is impressively demonstrated by what was said in Sect. 2.3), but if you look at how Google has appropriated our behavior in other areas (see above), it could well go in a different direction in the medium term. Or who, for example, still uses the “Yellow Pages” (including the online edition) or corresponding web catalogs? The Reach of Employers (or niche job markets) and Thus the Findability of their Job Advertisements will Change Significantly With its optimized job search, Google enables companies to dramatically increase their reach. While up to now extensive measures of search engine optimization have been necessary or large investments in job advertisements at external job boards, Google offers with its optimized job search an unprecedented opportunity for all companies, no matter what size, no matter what industry, to show their jobs to a large mass of potential applicants. You can read how this works in this book, in many blogs, or on Google’s developer website. Equal opportunities for all! Even niche markets profit immensely from this additional reach. However, Google’s primary goal may indeed be to get directly to the source of the original job advertisements from the career website and “not through the “middlemen” of the job boards”, as Johannes Beus, founder of the SEO portal Sistrix, writes [16]. The Majority of the Traffic to Your Website or Applications will be Done via Google Jobs in the Future While it used to take expensive job postings to get attention and reach, Google for Jobs makes it much easier. The advantage: the applicant now lands on your career website to apply for a job with you, not on an external job board. As a result, the traffic on your career website will increase dramatically. This is especially true because
  
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  Google favors jobs that landed on Google Jobs directly from your career site. For example, if a job appears on both Job Board A, Job Board B, and your Careers Website, the Apply to Your Careers Website button will appear first. Provided you observe the points mentioned in Chap. 5! Google Rewards Richly Prepared Job Advertisements (Salary Details, Location, etc.) Those who prepare their job advertisements properly and implement all criteria according to Google’s guidelines will benefit from better visibility of their job advertisement. At least that is what Google promises. As of June 2021, after an evaluation of the job postings, it is not really clear which criteria Google uses to display the job postings. Even SEO experts are groping in the dark. It’s not how upto-date the job offers are, because the jobs that are displayed in the top 5 results, for example, are sometimes brand new, sometimes several weeks old. Also, the content does not seem to be the decisive criterion. Not even the completeness of the data or the exact location. But why should one understand Google’s search algorithm here, when in a “normal” search it is a book with seven seals? The Quality of Job Advertisements is Improved Thanks to Structured Data and Corresponding Guidelines Due to the data schema and books like this, the quality (including the content) will improve in the long term. If you do everything right, you can look forward to receiving suitable applications. The Quality of the Search Results Themselves Becomes Better Google’s Cloud Talent Solution ensures that a potential applicant is also shown results that were not within his or her immediate search radius—for example, because you advertised with titles that were not in line with the market. Google is so smart that it shows a candidate these results as well. Companies that rely on this solution have seen significant improvements in the quantity and quality of applications. This also applies to a job search with a high degree of location (see Chap. 3). The Importance of Structured Data is Increasing StepStone, for example, also relies on structured data with its Liquid Design to counter the data octopuses and “educate” its users to better structured job ads. Will it work and is it good to put your customers on the right track with guidelines? That always depends a little bit on it. Time will show.
  
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  The Importance of SEA, or Google Ads, is Increasing. Theoretically at Least Paid search hits (i.e. Google ads) are becoming more important. Because these are the ones that are always shown above the blue box and thus have an even higher presence than before. Job boards, in particular, will be vying for these places, this is already apparent (but especially those who do not participate in Google for Jobs will be placed there if possible to compensate for lost traffic and to direct users to their pages). Companies could also have the incentive to place themselves above the actual job search in order to attract the attention of potential applicants and distract them from the search results. Recruiting Agencies Can Open up a New Free Channel For example, Indeed no longer allows job ads to be published for free in the U.S.; only premium ads are allowed here. Until the whole thing spills over to other countries, it is probably only a short question of time. In Germany, for example, ads from external job boards have no longer been permitted on Indeed since January 2019. New Providers that Help Companies to Appear on Google for Jobs Without Much Effort will Enter the Market Just like search engine optimization or search engine marketing, new service providers will enter the market, companies will take over the optimization of their job advertisements and then play them off via Google (e.g. Jobiak or SEO for Jobs).
  
  9
  
  A Few Words to Conclude
  
  I hope I could give you an interesting and helpful overview of the opportunities offered by Google for Jobs. Fact is: We can’t get around Google for Jobs. Nearly 100% of all search queries are made via Google on the move, but on the desktop, it is still a good 90%. People are increasingly using Google to search for jobs, and the trend is rising sharply. Google is doing everything it can to offer its users the best possible user experience. With Google for Jobs, this is now also possible for job search. For businesses, Google for Jobs offers an unprecedented opportunity to provide reach. Regardless of size, industry, or job description. Virtually the same right for everyone—regardless of budget, because using Google for Jobs is free. The focus of Google for Jobs is on the local job search. Bringing applicants and companies together in the best and fastest possible way—that’s Google’s claim. It’s up to you whether you want to use your job postings to create more transparency in the job market or not. This applies not only to the reach of your job advertisements but also to their content. With this book, you have work at your disposal that brings together all the essential findings on Google for Jobs from the last four years and contains important tips and advice. So, make the most of it! Of course, the online world is as fast-moving as anything else, that’s why I keep you up to date on my blog personalmarketing2null.de and Twitter (@pm2null). You are also welcome to contact me by e-mail: [email protected] and tell me about your experiences with Google for Jobs or let me share your opinion. Please understand, however, if I do not reply within 24 h. In this sense: Thank you for your interest and goodbye!
  
  © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9_9
  
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  What You Learned From This essential
  
  • A lot of knowledge on how to make the best use of Google for Jobs—whether as a job applicant or someone whose job it is to recruit (let’s call him a recruiter for my sake) • A thorough understanding of how Google for Jobs works and what it can do • Valuable recommendations for action and practical advice from two years of intensive market observation for the correct use of Google’s new job search feature • Tips and tricks for optimization
  
  © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 H. Knabenreich, Google for Jobs, essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33113-9
  
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  1. Careerbuilder, o. V. 2017. Careerbuilder candidate journey studie 2017. http://presse.car eerbuilder.de/documents/tag/candidate-journey-studie. Accessed 12 Jan 2019. 2. Weitzel, T., et al. 2018. Recruiting trends 2018. https://www.uni-bamberg.de/isdl/tra nsfer/e-recruiting/recruiting-trends/recruiting-trends-2018/. Accessed 12 Jan 2019. 3. Ullrich, Felicia, et al. 2019. Azubi-recruiting trends 2019. https://www.testsysteme.de/ studie. Accessed 27 May 2019. 4. Softgarden, o. V. 2019. Jobsuche in Zeiten von Google for Jobs. https://go.softgarden. de/jobsucheinzeitenvongooglejobs. Accessed 14 May 2019. 5. Tandler, Marcus. 2011. Der Endgegner. http://www.secretsites.de/joblog/der-endgegner/. Accessed 12 May 2019. 6. indeed, o. V. 2016. 4 Statistiken, die Recruiter derzeit kennen sollten. http://blog.de.ind eed.com/2016/05/17/4-statistiken-die-recruiter-derzeit-kennen-sollten/. Accessed 5 May 2019. 7. Weitzel, Tim, et al. 2019. Recruiting-Trends-Themenspecial Digitalisierung und Zukunft der Arbeit. https://www.unibamberg.de/fileadmin/uni/fakultaeten/wiai_lehrstuehle/isdl/ Studien_2019_02_Digitalisierung_Web.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2019. 8. Knabenreich, Henner. 2019. Google for Jobs: DAX30-Unternehmen schlecht aufgestellt. https://personalmarketing2null.de/2019/05/google-for-jobs-dax30-unternehmens chlecht-aufgestellt/. Accessed 20 May 2019. 9. Google, o. V. o. J. Bericht manuelle Maßnahmen. https://support.google.com/webmas ters/answer/9044175. Accessed 12 May 2019. 10. Hövener, Markus. 2019. Personalsuche über Suchmaschinen: Wie der Mittelstand von Google profitieren kann. https://www.bloofusion.de/infos/advisories/personalsucheueber-suchmaschinen. Accessed 7 June 2019. 11. Jobiak, o. V. 2019. Google for jobs data uncovers interesting trends. https://www.jobiak. ai/google-for-jobs-data-uncovers-interesting-trends/. Accessed 21 May 2019. 12. Madgex, o. V. 2018. Google for jobs – Everything you need to know. https://info.mad gex.com/google-for-jobs-guide. Accessed 12 May 2019. 13. Schell, Bernd M. 2019. Kommentar zu Google for Jobs erobert Deutschland. https://per sonalmarketing2null.de/2019/03/google-for-jobs-deutschland/#comment-8759. Accessed 12 May 2019.
  
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  14. Kleinz, Torsten. 2019. Google for Jobs – Der neue Heilsbringer im Jobmarkt. https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Google-for-Jobs-Der-neue-Heilsbrin ger-im-Jobmarkt4358488.html. Accessed 13 May 2019. 15. Kelion, Leo. 2018. Google’s job hunting service comes to UK. https://www.bbc.com/ news/technology-44853472. Accessed 18 May 2019. 16. Beus, Johannes. 2019. Google Jobs in Deutschland: Marktführer über Nacht. https:// www.sistrix.de/news/google-jobs-in-deutschland-marktfuehrer-ueber-nacht/. Accessed 28 May 2019. 17. Reuters, o. V. 2019. Springer-Tochter Stepstone spürt die neue Konkurrenz “Google for Jobs”. https://de.reuters.com/article/deutschland-springer-stepstone-google-idDEKC N1T71OI. Accessed 11 June 2019. 18. o. V. 2019. Call of e-recruitment services for intervention against Google’s favouring of Google for Jobs. https://www.openinternetproject.net/news/113-open-letter-call-ofe-recruitment-services-for-intervention-against-google-s-favouring-of-google-for-jobs. Accessed 19 Aug 2019 19. European newspaper publishers’ association 2020. Tech companies call upon the Commission to enforce its 2017 abuse of dominance decision by finally putting an end to Google’s continuing practice of favouring its own specialised search services within general search results pages. https://www.enpa.eu/sites/default/files/inlinefiles/Final_ENG_Joint%20Letter%20of%20Online%20Intermediaries%20to%20M. Vestager_ENG%20-%2011.11.2020.pdf Accessed 15 Nov 2020. 20. Google, o. V. 2000. Google launches self-service advertising program. https://google press.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.html. Accessed 20 May 2019. 21. Google, o. V. o. J. Cloud talent solution. https://cloud.google.com/solutions/talent-sol ution/. Accessed 12 May 2019. 22. Zils, Eva. o. J. Was ist eine Online Jobsuchmaschine? https://www.online-recruiting.net/ was-ist-eine-online-jobsuchmaschine/. Accessed 12 May 2019. 23. Stern, o. V. o. J. Wenn der Weg zur Arbeit krank macht – So ungesund ist Berufspendeln. https://www.stern.de/wirtschaft/job/pendeln-zum-arbeitsplatz–wenn-der-wegzurarbeit-krank-macht-8524218.html. Accessed 18 May 2019. 24. Jobiak, o. V. 2019. Google for jobs data uncovers interesting trends. https://www.jobiak. ai/google-for-jobs-data-uncovers-interesting-trends/. Accessed 20 May 2019. 25. WP Jobmanager, o. V. o. J. Google job search integration. https://wpjobmanager.com/ document/google-job-search-integration/. Accessed 13 May 2019. 26. Blueglass, o. V. o. J. Jobs for wordpress. https://www.blueglass.ch/jobs-for-wordpressplugin. Accessed 11 June 2019. 27. Google, o. V. 2019. Stellenausschreibung/Firmenlogo aktualisieren. https://developers. google.com/search/docs/data-types/job-posting?hl=de#company-logo. Accessed 20 May 2019.