Multiple recruitment Search Engine Optimization (HR SEO) vendors have sprung up in the wake of HR realizing that they should be branding themselves and not the job boards, which is creating a lot of confusion regarding SEO. I have heard and seen multiple examples of this including check boxes placed on ATS systems that allow you to SEO your jobs, case studies completed where the keyword search has no keyword volume at all, and the list continues. I believe it's unfair to mislead an audience that may not be educated about the SEO space into thinking that a job distribution model will create a SEO strategy. This is the furthest thing from the truth when in reality they are buying pay-per click and performing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) instead of true SEO.

For SEO to be effective you have to have multiple ingredients for it to work and more importantly work effectively.

What I mean by work effectively is if I were to get you a #1 ranking in Google for a keyword phrase like Seattle welding jobs you would think this is effective. However if I did keyword research on Seattle welding jobs and found that the keyword volume (this is the amount of times someone searches on the keyword) has no supported data or very little data that means that no one is searching that keyword phrase. You would be #1 in Google for a phrase that no one ever searches on which means that the SEO strategy didn't help you at all to capture more candidates in natural search. This is only one example of what you should be educated about when selecting an SEO vendor.

Here are the multiple ingredients that make up a true SEO strategy and the work that goes into increasing your SEO ranking.

1. Back Links - A back link is when a website places a link to your site on theirs. Back linking is not placing a link on your site to another.

2. Page Rank - Google measures page rank from 0-10 with 10 being the best. You can get the Google toolbar here to see your page rank.

3. Content - Search engines love good content and the more you have the better off you will be to get pushed up in rankings.

4. Title Tags - This is the title of what the page says when you log onto it.

5. Meta Tags - Keywords that the search engine robots know how to index and your site

6. Submission - The website needs to be submitted to the search engines to find it.

7. Manual Submission - Some search engines don't automate your submission so it needs to be done by hand.

8. Ranking Monitoring - Just because a site reaches #1 in a search engine doesn't mean it will stay there.

These are a just few things that go into making a webpage SEO optimized. If your considering SEO and talking with vendors make sure to ask them the above referenced questions. You will learn a lot about what their system, product or person does and is capable of and how that's different from just job distribution.