Three Steps to Writing a Killer Job Title for Your Ad

If you’ve been a follower of our blog for a while, then you know that what really sets us apart at ApplicantPro is our fierce dedication to creating HR professionals whom are strategic hirers. What we’ve found to be the most effective methods for infusing these belief systems into the minds of our clients and our many Webinar attendees is teaching a more marketing based approach to hiring because put simply – marketers understand the web. If you don’t understand the web, you’re not going to get the type of applicants you need in order to hire the best fit for your positions.

I’ve presented a free Webinar a handful of times wherein I dive pretty deeply into all the components that really comprise a killer job ad, but today I wanted to dedicate an entire post to one of the most vital pieces of success relative to the job ad – the job title.

Just as we tend to judge a book by its cover (mainly the title), so do we judge a job based on what’s listed in the job title section.

Just as we tend to judge a book by its cover (mainly the title), so do we judge a job based on what’s listed in the job title section. Unfortunately for most employers, the job title tends to be the most neglected portion of the actual ad because everyone’s focused on the content of the body. Or even worse, HR professionals are simply copying and pasting their legal job descriptions into the ad and not adding any additional content (eeek!). If this is something you can relate to, please read this.

So, I’ve narrowed down the three most important aspects of composing a job title that’s going to maximize your job ad real estate and entice superstar applicants to click on your ad.

Job Title Tip # 1 – Keywords are Your Best Friend

Never, I repeat NEVER skip lacing your title with designated keywords. From an SEO perspective, you’re doing yourself a major disservice if you overlook this key step. Now don’t lace both your job title and your job ad with the location of your business. For one, it’s fifty percent of the prompts provided to applicants when they hop onto a job board (most job boards and aggregators request that the user add in both a “what” aka type of job he/she is looking for and also a “where” aka location). Knowing this, you’re going to want to include both of those ‘what’ and ‘where’ elements into your ad as many times as you can get away with before the ad reaches spam territory (note: a good rule of thumb for keyword density is the two percent rule. Keep the amount of keywords you embed in your ad to two percent of your total word content).

Expert Tip: If your office is located in a smaller suburb of a big city, feel free to list the big city in your your ad. This helps you cast a wider net and reach a bigger audience. You can add a line of text in the body of your ad that provides the exact location or something like “located ten minutes South of Salt Lake City.”

Job Title Tip #2 – Skip the Internal Job Title

Computer speak is very literal because unlike humans, computers are incapable of abstract thought. So, they don’t understand that when you say Sr. Financial Strategist II in your job title what you really mean is an Accountant with 5+ years of experience. In fact, no one outside of your internal accounting department is going to understand what that phrase means…which wouldn’t be a big deal if you were wanting to hire someone in your accounting department for that position. Let’s face it, the chances of you taking the time to post an ad on a job board for an opening you’re looking to fill internally are slim. Thus, it will benefit you to make your job title a little more user friendly by choosing language that applicants are actually going to enter into the “what” field.

Highlight what you think are key benefits to working for your company.

Expert Tip: If you’re unsure of which keywords pack the meanest punch, you can check out free tools like seobook.com which in the keyword tool, will provide you with statistics for the phrases you research. It will also list alternate keywords which may be searched for more frequently. A great example of this is “Accounting” vs. “Accountant.” Accounting is a more popular keyword than accountant.

Job Title Tip #3 – More is Better

Over the years, job boards and job aggregators have loosened the reins a little on the amount of characters you can utilize in your job title. This is great news for employers because as we discussed earlier, the job title is the first place potential applicants look when they’re sorting through hundreds of job ads vying for their attention from your competitors. What then you really need to do is maximize your real estate, here. You already know that your job title should contain at a minimum very specific user-friendly keywords, but you also need something that will set you apart…something that will entice people to click on your ad to learn more about what you have to offer. Don’t be afraid to use as much space as the board and the aggregator provide to accomplish this goal.

Expert Tip: Get creative. Highlight what you think are key benefits to working for your company. For example: “Accounting Executive, Flexible Schedule, Great Benefits” is a job title that says a lot more to an applicant than simply “Sr. Financial Strategist II.”

Did you know that ApplicantPro has a dedicated job title and job ad optimization expert? Call us today to learn more about how to write an ad that will cast the widest net for attracting your next superstar employees.,