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"Sajjad Masud is the Co-Founder and CEO of Simplicant, a talent acquisition platform for growing companies in a socially-networked world. Connect with Sajjad and the Simplicant team on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.\nYou might be familiar with how search engine optimization, or SEO, can help search engines like Google and Bing discover your website. Using keywords, linkbacks, social media and page ranking can help your site gain the added exposure you need to turn clicks into customers. But, can SEO also help you find the right candidates for your open positions?\nA little search engine optimization can go a long way toward getting your jobs out in front of the candidates your company needs to meet its growth objectives. Companies of all varieties understand the role of SEO in bringing traffic to their sites, but many are ignoring the importance of using SEO for their talent acquisition strategy. If your startup has recently acquired funding and you want to hire the best, SEO can be an important and affordable part of your recruitment marketing campaign. Here are some tips for how to optimize your talent acquisition strategy to find the people your startup company needs to thrive.\nDo a Little Digging\nBefore you start developing your talent acquisition SEO strategy, take a step back and figure out what kind of candidate you need for your company. Give some thought to the work experience, attitude and skills your ideal employee will need to be successful.\nOnce you know what your company is looking for, think about what your ideal candidate might be looking for. Discover what industry-specific terms, programs or buzzwords candidates matching your requirements would typically search for to find their dream job. Armed with your list of ideal candidate attributes, look at similar job descriptions and even use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool for inspiration.\nBe ready to roll up your sleeves and do a little research. Understanding the needs of your ideal candidate will go a long way toward helping you nab the talent your company needs.\nKey Into Your Keywords\nAt this point, you should have a list of keywords both relevant to your company\u2019s needs for which talented candidates are likely to be searching. Next, you need to include the keywords in your job description.\nFor example, if you are hiring a digital marketing position for your newly-funded startup, you should not only include obvious keywords such as \"marketing\" and \"digital,\" but you may also want to sprinkle in more specific job requirements such as \"social media,\" \"SEO\" or \"content management.\" Additionally, remember the importance of location. Most talent is looking in a specific geographic area, so include location-based keywords to let candidates know whether the job is based in San Francisco or New York City.\nFinally, it is important to be as specific as possible with keywords in your job title in order to find the best candidates. For instance, do not bill your opening as a \"web developer\" if it is really a \"Java front-end developer\" you are looking for. It might seem counterintuitive, but the more specific your keywords, the more likely you are to hear from qualified candidates.\nKnow Your Ranking\nIt is also important to pay attention to Google PageRank when deciding on what sites to post your jobs. For those not familiar, Google\u2019s ranking system ranges from 0 to 10 and shows how popular a site is based on algorithms: below a 3 means the site has a low ranking on Google, 3 means the site is average, 4 to 7 is a healthy page ranking and means Google considers the page to have useful content, and 8 to 10 would denote a massively popular site. For instance, LinkedIn.com has a ranking of 9.\nWhen putting together your recruitment marketing strategy, it is best to focus on posting to sites with a PageRank of at least 3, but preferably higher. Once you have identified job sites with healthy page ranks, use a talent acquisition platform to distribute your open positions to these well-trafficked destinations.\nDon\u2019t Hold Back on Linking\nLinks are an important SEO tool. Google uses links \u2014 both outbound and inbound \u2014 to calculate how important your site is and, therefore, how useful viewers will find the information on your page.\nTo get your job description in front of talented candidates, cross-link your open positions as much as possible. This means you should have your job description page, company career site and blog all linked to each other. More links to and from your job description means more paths leading to your open positions. As a result, it will be easier for the right candidates to find your jobs.\nSocialize To Optimize\nSocial media is not only a great platform for the distribution of jobs, but it can also give you the linkbacks you need for increased exposure in Google search rankings. As social media becomes more important in everything from communicating with friends to promoting your business, it is crucial not to ignore these networks in your talent acquisition efforts.\nA next-gen social recruiting platform can help you promote your openings on the major social channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The increased exposure can give your job descriptions better SEO, as the increased links to your site will make the search engines see your content as more valuable. The more you share your open positions, the better the overall distribution as the jobs are shared by your friends, friends of friends and so on. When many people share your jobs, Google will see the social sharing activity and linkbacks as a positive sign indicating that your job descriptions are valuable content. As a result, your jobs will rise in search results, making it easier for your ideal candidates to find them.\nOptimizing your job descriptions for search engines can be a powerful tool to help your company find the best possible fit and the right employee, especially when working on a limited budget. Integrate these SEO practices into your existing talent acquisition strategy to be more effective at reaching the talent your company needs for staying competitive in the war for talent.\nWhat are some ways you use SEO strategies to find the best people? Share in the comments.\nSocial Media Job Listings\nEvery week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!\n\nEmail Marketing Manager at HowAboutWe.com in Brooklyn, NY\nManager, Social Media (ABC Family) at Disney ABC Television Group in Burbank, Calif.\nResponsive Design Specialist at Inc.com in New York, NY\n\n\n\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, pressureUA"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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