Though the employment picture remains bleak, technical recruiting is showing signs of recovery. As one of the panelists at a Fuqua School of Business (Duke University) event last Wednesday, I learned firsthand from some attendees that several major management consulting firms are aggressively recruiting specialized talent. This puts a premium on innovative methods to surface key technical candidates for unique job openings. To that end, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques, that many web marketers have employed religiously for the last few years to drive more sales of their products and services, are now being employed for recruiting efforts. One SEO technique paying dividends is listing on local search directories. I recently interviewed three local search experts to gain their insights.
Andrew Shotland founder of Local SEO Guide (www.localseoguide.com) was fascinated by the amount of attention local search has garnered over the last six months. To uncover optimum directories for your niche and ensure that job seekers can find you he suggested, “You need to (first) go to Google, plug in all the search terms that are relevant to your business and see what sites come up. (The caveat is) If the local directories are not listed on the first page for your search terms, then they are irrelevant to you.” Therefore, the first step is to find those directories that are ranked well for your key search terms on Google. “The next step is to claim your profile. Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/) find your profile, update your profile and add descriptions to ensure that your profile is correctly targeting those keywords that are relevant to your target audience. It’s no longer enough to just have your website rank highly, you need to also ensure that your company’s local directory page ranks highly as well,” said Mr. Shotland.
Some of the best general local directories are:
4. http://chicago.citysearch.com
However, depending upon your niche you may want to uncover and list on more specialized local directories. Doing so will take a lot of work, but will also pay you multiple benefits including:
1. Promoting your company to key candidates that you seek.
2. Driving potential employees more quickly to your site based upon your niche.
3. Driving more customers to your business.
Consultant Steve Espinosa (http://stephenespinosa.com/) added, “The best thing your company can do is take control of your listing. Correct any data that is inaccurate and add data that is relevant.” He also shared that there are three major data sources that distribute local listing data to the other independent local directories:
Mike Belasco President of seOverflow (www.seoverflow.com) added that small companies that have not taken advantage of local directories have several resources that can assist them:
Our Blog: http://www.seoverflow.com/blog
Get Listed http://getlisted.org/index.aspx
Get Listed Local University http://getlisted.org/university/
Our Media Page: http://www.seoverflow.com/media.html
Our Events Page: http://www.seoverflow.com/events.html
Local Related Blog Posts
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/local-seo/new-google-guidelines-checklist/
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/local-seo/citations-and-local-search/
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/seoverflow/mike-belasco-wins-2010-semmy-for-analytics/
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/call-tracking/roll-your-own-phone-call-tracking-program-it-is-easy/
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/seoverflow/planet-ocean-announces-local-search-expert-mary-bowling/
Presentations
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/ses2009/mike-belascos-slides-from-ses-chicago-local-search-summit/
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/seoverflow/soar-with-local-seo-presentation-slides/
The bottom line is recruiting key technical personnel is becoming increasingly more difficult. Especially with staffing accelerating at many companies, one SEO technique that can be helpful is listing in appropriate local directories. This will provide you with the dual benefit of attracting both desired candidates and customers. The caveat is more companies are discovering this pathway. Therefore, you need to act quickly in order to tap into this valuable resource.
