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This could be disruptive to sem(r)

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

First off…What are Yahoo! Shortcuts?

A Yahoo! Shortcut is a quick way to get to the information you want. A Yahoo! Shortcut automatically appears when it is relevant to your search and can contain links to useful content from Yahoo!, its partners, or across the web. Some of the content may come from partners who pay to be included in Yahoo! or have another financial relationship with Yahoo!. Read more about Yahoo! Shortcuts.

Here are two examples of Yahoo! Shortcuts…

Raylewisshortcuttb

Wilcoshortcuttb

Ray Lewis shortcut from Yahoo! Sports | live link

Wilco shortcut from Yahoo! Music | live link

If Yahoo! HotJobs were to implement a, ‘Jobs Shortcut,’ for employers it could be disruptive to search engine marketing for recruitment.

With these shortcuts(a new form of paid placement) employers could tap into the talent opportunity of the Yahoo! Search engine while never having to learn search engine marketing principles.

These shortcuts would directly connect the search engines’ job seekers to relative and local employers’ jobs; delivering a great user experience to the seeker, driving more relevant and local talent to the employer’s career sites and even more employer branding value than today’s text link ads do.

In addition, they would be flexible enough to support employers’ dynamic recruiting needs as the content and links in the shortcut would be linked to the jobs that are live on the employer’s site.

Here’s a mock up that I put together. This is not live.

Recruitmentshortcutverit

Recruitmentshortcutverizo

What do you think?

Would Job Shortcuts be disruptive to sem(r)?

How would they effect career site optimization? Would employers respond?

How much should an employer be willing to spend on something like this?

Know anyone interested in trying it out?

Get ready to add, ‘local SEM(r),’ to your recruiting budget

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

eMarketer is reporting that US Local Paid Search As a Percent of Total Paid Search Advertising Spending(say that 10 times fast) is expected to climb to 23% in 2011. That’s almost double what it was in 2006.

Local-search-marketing-recruiting

When you consider this research and the following facts it’s hard to argue against Yahoo! being dominantly positioned to drive this local SEM(r) growth.

  • The HR consumer is adopting new technologies link
  • Employers want seekers to engage in their own career sites and will be spending towards career site promotion. link
  • SEO and SEM are big buzz in the space
  • Monster and Careerbuilder are focusing on international market growth link | link
  • The Yahoo! experience is made more local thanks to the newspaper content deal link
  • The Yahoo! experience is made more social thanks to integrations of web 2.0 sites like Yahoo! Answers and Flickr into other sites on the network
  • With HotJobs, Yahoo! has been supporting recruiters for about 6 years already
  • Google is new to the game
  • Yahoo! can provide search + display support to recruiters on a local scale and research shows that this boosts performance link
  • MarketingSherpa found that in 2006, keywords on Yahoo! were 28% less expensive than on Google link

eMarketer’s Search Marketing Whitepaper: Counting Dollars and Clicks

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Recruitment has yet to catch on as a category being watched
by analysts such as David Hallerman of eMarketer.com though I expect that will change given the rapidly expanding adoption of new media in the recruitment ad
space and the demand of HR execs to market their own career sites. (pointed out
by DirectEmployers’s 2007 Recruiting Trend Survey).

Hallerman’s study of the Search Marketing landscape
is a valuable read to anyone interested in leveraging paid search or search
engine optimization for recruitment.

If you’re a recruiter, this whitepaper has too much
information(TMI) and you should be hittin’
the phones
. So, I’ve listed below the things that I think are most
important to you.

If you’re a Human Resources consultant, blogger or pundit type
than this whitepaper is a must read. Shut down email, pay for and download the whitepaper,
grab a coffee, bite the cap off of your pen, start reading and scribbling
notes. Educate your clients. Make their recruiting efforts more effective.

If you’re an entrepreneur thinking of launching a search
engine marketing agency specifically for recruitment then quit telling everyone
about your idea. It’s annoying. Find someone whom has already paid for the whitepaper. Convince her to send you a copy. If it requires lying, don’t worry. It’s not the first time you’ll lie and it wont be the last. Use the research to formulate your biz plan. Get moving. The barrier to entry in this space is low right now. More competition is on the way. Your long term plans should include integrating VOIP, RSS and SMS into your product suite.

Recruiters, here is the summary of info from this whitepaper
that matters most to you:

How much do search
keywords cost?

eMarketer: ‘Keywords on Google are 28% & 29% more
expensive than on Yahoo! and MSN respectively.’

Me: Since keyword pricing is driven up with
competition in the market, Google’s success in the consumer ad market may hurt
it in the recruitment ad space

Which works better:
paid search advertising or search engine optimization (SEO)?

eMarketer: ‘More US marketers cite SEO for best return on
investment than do those who cite paid search…A higher percentage of large
advertisers currently engage in (paid search) than those who use SEO….Control
maybe be one reason some advertisers prefer paid search to SEO. ‘

Me: A cost effective SEO strategy is worthwhile for
employers’ long term recruiting objectives. Paid search is the go to tool for
supporting immediate and dynamically changing recruiting objectives. Paid
search and SEO always compliment each other so the right strategy across both
will make a world of difference today and tomorrow.

Measuring results…

eMarketer: ‘The core metrics advertisers and agencies use
to measure the effectiveness of search engine marketing include web site
traffic volume, conversion rates, click-through rates and the bottom line of
return on investment(ROI).’

Me: The best recruiters will know the source of their best leads. Identifying new sources will require your understanding career site analytics. Get familiar with analytics like clicks, conversion
rates, click-through rates. Take a tip from Jim Stroud. Read: Career Site Analytics a la JimStroud

Emarketer-search-marketing-dollars-clic Search Marketing: Counting Dollars and Clicks

Search engine marketing is a highly concentrated industry. Over 90% of US paid search ad spending will go to Google and Yahoo! in 2007. One result of this concentration is that it often makes advertising on second-tier search engines a better value—less competition for keywords means a broader reach for fewer ad dollars.  Get it at eMarketer.com.

Related:

How much do search engine marketing keywords cost?

Monday, August 13th, 2007

I recently read an awesome whitepaper on search engine marketing. I’ll review it in full here this week but wanted to quickly share this snippet from the report…

‘MarketingSherpa found that in 2006, the average price(for keywords) on Google was 28% or 29% higher than for Yahoo!’s or MSN’s paid search, respectively.’

Replay and Downloads: Yahoo! HotJobs Search Marketing Webinar with Peter Weddle

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Here is the replay and the presentations from the Yahoo! HotJobs Search Marketing Webinar with Peter Weddle.

 


yahoo-hotjobs-search-engine-marketing-webinar-with-peter-weddle-replay

Webinar Replay

Click to hear a replay of the Yahoo! HotJobs Search Marketing Webinar with Peter Weddle, originally broadcast on May 23, 2007.


ppc-recruiting-yahoo-hotjobs-webinar-with-peter-weddle

Reach Beyond the Job Board

The Key to Sourcing & Recruiting the Best Talent
Peter Weddle, WEDDLE’s, Peter@weddles.com


ppc-recruiting-yahoo-hotjobs-webinar-with-peter-weddle-Pdf_icon

Search Marketing with Yahoo! HotJobs

How to get started search marketing for talent
Michael DeLuca, Vice President of Sales, Yahoo! HotJobs

Related

Links I just shared with a friend looking for info on Recruiting blogs and Search Engine Marketing for Recruitment, SEM(r)

Friday, April 27th, 2007
Search Engine Marketing for Recruitment, SEM(r)
- Employment branding value of SEM(r). link
- I suggest your strategy include seperate approaches to attract active seekers and passive seekers.
Landing Pages
- Technical case for landing pages. link
- More practical explanation of the importance of landing pages. link
Recruiting Blogs
- Durbin media has a great whitepaper, ‘How to Start A Corporate Recruiting Blog.’ link
- An example of a Creative VP at Digitas using his blog for recruitment. link
- Blog Wild! is a quick read and introduces you completely to blogs. link
- Some examples of my using my blog as a recruiting blog to drive leads. link

Hey HR, want more Recruiting budget?

Friday, January 26th, 2007

If you’re an employer that has yet to think outside of the job postings and resume search box, and you think that’s ok…well, I and others like me have got some news for you. You are being out innovated in Recruitment by some very unlikely organizations.

I know. I know. You’re HR… ‘Everyone looks at us as a cost center. No one thinks that we are directly impacting the bottom line. They keep cutting our Recruiting budget. They don’t add to it.’

When I hear this, I believe it but statements like this place blame on executive management and I don’t believe that’s where it belongs. Sorry, my beloved HR. The blame belongs to you. You’re making decisions based on poor data.

I know that you have limited resources and time to do more research but its impacting your pitch for more Recruiting budget. Here are some examples of what other orgs are doing in regards to innovation in Recruiting.

By the way, if it helps, and you do get more budget, then don’t forget who helped you out. {enter synchronous corny smile/wink/sparkle in the eye/sound of glass chime}

EXAMPLES
It’s not just super-innovative orgs that are showing you up. It’s a typically slow-to-move government agency like the CIA that is using Facebook and Search Engine Marketing for Recruitment, Display Advertising and Video. (hat tip)

Click images to zoom.

Ciafacebook_1  Facebooksocialsearch Ciagoogle_1

It’s local police departments like the Las Vegas Police Department that are crafting their recruitment messages and using traditional offline media with Search Engine Marketing and SEO to drive Millennials to their cool career sites like LVPD’s ‘Protect The City’ site. (story | hat tip)

Click images to zoom.

Lvpdcareersite Lvpddisplay

Even a convent in Michigan is seeing radical change in their nun recruiting metrics! I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

If a government stiff in bad tie and short sleeve button-up shirt; a police sergeant with, ‘30 years on the job,’ and Mother Theresa have realized the potential of social media, search engines and display advertising…don’t you think its time you got serious about your pitch to executive management?

Let the execs know what’s going in your marketplace. It’s exciting time and these new technologies can a very positive impact on their bottom line. You know that and you are now slightly better informed than you were before. So, go now and inform them. Get that budget! Godspeed.

Digg!

Related

ATS Sourcing Data, Mis-Information Superhighway

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

I’m perfectly comfortable telling you that my friend Rj is a degenerate gambler and the worst source of information in the tri-state area. Rj, like everyone else who grew up in north jersey has a nickname. We call him Mis-Information Superhighway. He’s not a bad guy; just poorly informed.

This matters to you because a recent study by JobsInLogistics.com found that 83% or 5 out of 6 candidates enter inaccurate data. (when asked how they were referred to jobs they were applying to on a company’s career site) You like Rj maybe making decisions based on shoty data.

The study was documented in this whitepaper, ‘ATS Sourcing Data – 83% Inaccurate.’ It’s worth reading.

My 2 cents…

Monster’s career site hosting service does this…
Monsterats

This is also the practice of many custom built career sites…
Nonmonsterats_1

This is unacceptable…
My $12.50/mo. blog software is providing me better tracking than the services that you’re paying an arm and a leg for are providing you. I can tell you that the most recent visitor to my blog came from a Yahoo search results page. That person searched, ‘matt martone job search marketing‘ and landed on my homepage. Prior to that, another person came from my linkedin profile and landed on my homepage. At 8:08a someone else landed here and came from a Google search results page. That person was searching, ‘searchmarketing.google

If my $12.50/mo. is getting me better tracking data than your ATS vendor is providing you then you need to press that vendor for more support.

As the recruitment advertising landscape broadens to include more services for job seeker traffic from search engines, social networks, blogs and aggregators like Indeed.com, you’ll need a better understanding of which services are providing you the greatest return. You’ll need better tracking.

Oh yeah…btw…Rj’s out of work. If your interested, you can find his resume on Monster, really.

Digg!

Change to Google impacts online recruitment.

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006

Go1 Search Engine Journal is reporting that Google’s, ‘new AdWords ranking system relies heavily on Landing Page Quality.’

This is a significant development for online recruiting departments, especially those eager to explore the world of Search Engine job seeker traffic often discussed by Cheezhead.

The article also states that, ‘Advertisers who may be providing a poor experience on their site will notice that their traffic across the content network decreases as a result of this change.’

What does this mean to a corporate recruiting department?

Well optimized career site landing pages have an even greater opportunity to be visible and attract the less-active and passive job seekers using the Search Engines.

Poorly optimized career site landing pages, which is very common, will result in even more missed opportunities to attract job seekers and convert them to applicants.

If your career site is hosted and managed by a 3rd party vendor then you should ask, ‘How is this product’s landing pages optimized for organic and paid search results?’

You want landing pages on your career site for each department and hiring initiatives with links to the jobs and news relevant to that department or initiative.

Job Blogs work great for this. I use my blog as a landing page for a sales hiring initiative that we have here at HotJobs.

Example of Job Blogs for good Landing Page practice.

Digg!