6 ways to make your job ads more searchable

May 27, 2026

Every day, candidates search for jobs. They open up Google, SEEK, or LinkedIn, type in a job title, a location, a work arrangement, and often click on whatever comes up first. If your job ad isn’t optimisedoptimized for search, it isn’t even a part of that conversation. The candidate finds a competitor’s listing instead, applies, and you never even knew they were looking.

If you’re looking for tried and tested ways to optimiseoptimize your job ads for search engines, and to show up where candidates are looking, here are 6 tips to help you get started:

1. Use the job title candidates are actually searching for

Your internal job titles might make sense within your organisationorganization, but they rarely match what candidates search for when looking for a new role. Roles like “Growth Ninja,” “People Champion” or “Digital Evangelist” might reflect your culture, but they won’t surface easily in job search results.

Use standard, widely-used job titles. “Senior Marketing Manager” will outperform “Brand Growth Lead” in search visibility. Keep titles under 60 characters, avoid acronyms where possible, and don’t bury the core role under department names or seniority prefixes.

The rule is simple: if a candidate wouldn’t type it into a search bar, don’t use it as your job title.

2. OptimiseOptimize your career site

Job searches don’t start on job boards as often as you might think. In fact, 78% of job searches start on Google. An SEO-optimisedoptimized careers site means your roles can be found by candidates even earlier in their journey. A good career site needs to be well-structured, fast-loading and mobile-optimisedoptimized. That way, both candidates and search engines can navigate it quickly and easily. PageUp’s recruitment marketing platform is built with SEO optimisationoptimization at its core, so teams can manage and update content without waiting on IT.

3. Be specific about location and work arrangement

Search engines prioritiseprioritize job listings that include clear location and work arrangement details (and top tip: so do candidates). Whether a role is remote, hybrid or on-site should appear in both the job summary and the body of the listing. For location-based roles, include the city or region clearly, both for search visibility and to reduce applications from candidates who aren’t a geographic fit. “Marketing Manager – San Francisco (Hybrid)” will rank higher than “Marketing Manager” for local candidates.

4. Include salary information

Job boards and search engines consistently rank listings higher when salary details are included, because it increases engagement and reduces bounce rate. Candidates who see a salary range are more likely to click, read and apply. Those who don’t see it often leave. Even a broad range is better than nothing. Avoid using catch-all statements: “Competitive salary” tells a search engine (and a candidate) very little and adds unnecessary friction to the process.

Beyond SEO, salary transparency is increasingly a legal requirement. Pay transparency laws are already in effect across parts of the US, UK and EU, requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings, with more jurisdictions moving in the same direction. Even where it isn’t yet mandatory, the direction of travel is clear. Getting into the habit of including salary information now means you’re ahead of compliance requirements, not scrambling to catch up when legislation lands in your region.

5. OptimiseOptimize for AI search

Some TA teams aren’t thinking about this one yet, but they should be. Candidates are already using AI-powered search tools to research employers, and get a feel for company culture, often without ever even visiting a careers site. If your content isn’t structured and information-rich, you won’t show up in those answers.

The good news is that the same clear, well-structured content that helps you rank in other search tools, will also help AI tools to surface and recommend your organisationorganization. Clear descriptions, consistent messaging around culture and values, and regularly updated content all give AI tools something accurate to work with. PageUp Clinch’s SEO and AI-optimisedoptimized career sites are designed with exactly this in mind.

One area that punches above its weight here is employee-generated content. Candidates want to know what it’s actually like to work somewhere. AI tools draw on published information to answer that question, so highlighting real, authentic employee stories on your career site is crucial to filling that gap. Tools like Employee Connections make it easy to capture and publish authentic employee voices, giving both candidates and AI search tools a credible, straight-from-the-source view of life at your organisationorganization.

6. Write for humans first, search engines second

The best thing you can do for your search rankings? Write for candidates, not algorithms. Modern search tools, including AI, are built to surface content that is clear, relevant and genuinely useful. If your job ads are written well for people, they’ll perform well in search, too.

The reserve is also true. Keyword-stuffed job descriptions might seem SEO-savvy, but search engines (and more importantly, candidates) can see through that approach. Clarity and structure now drive rankings more than density. A job ad with a strong title, honest requirements and a clear sense of the role’s impact will outperform a bloated list of buzzwords every time.

The bottom line

Every unoptimisedunoptimized job ad is a potential missed hire. Multiply that across a quarter of open roles, and it’s a huge gap in your pipeline. AI is accelerating this gap. The candidates who would have found you via Google are increasingly finding their next role through AI-generated recommendations. If your content isn’t structured to show up there, you’re not in the running.

The fix is straightforward, but the time to start is now. Begin with the basics: job titles candidates actually search for, salary ranges included, structured descriptions in place. Get those right, and you’ll already be 10 steps ahead of your competitors.

Want to dive deeper into how you can write the perfect job ad? Check out our job ad checklist for an outline of what to include to nail the brief every single time.