I’ve long suspected it but now I know. We are big Down Under!
I’ve just read an article by Sandra Hanchard on the Hitwise website. It suggests that jobs.ac.uk is well known to Australian jobseekers.
The piece should also help you understand how people search for jobs on the Web.
Hitwise work with (which means pay, I think) Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to monitor what people are doing online. That probably includes what you and I are doing at some time or another.
Spooky.
Hitwise claim that their, anonymous methods (phew!) allow them to report on, I quote,
‘…hundreds of thousands of websites, in addition to the top few.’
For example, we pay close attention to our position in the Hitwise Top 20 of UK jobs websites.
But I digress.
In her article, Sandra compares job searches in the UK, USA and Australia. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, she points out that January is a busy month for job search terms on the Web. Using her Hitwise data, she goes on to break out the top 200 job search terms by type and market.
Although the majority of the Australian search terms meant little to me, I did a double-take when I spotted our website address (URL) amongst them:
Top 10 Australian search variations on jobs by type
Weeks ending 12th January 2008
- seek jobs
- smart jobs
- reliefweb jobs
- jobs jobs jobs
- hippo jobs
- search 4 jobs
- jobs.ac.uk
- jobs.com.au
- monster jobs
- seek jobs sa
Once I’d read the list, I checked out our traffic figures to see how many visits we get from Australia.
Sure enough, unique visitors from ‘the lucky country’ are in our own Top 10 – usually coming in between 8 or 9th as a percentage of visitors from overseas.
‘Bonza!’ as the Aussies say.
Although they regularly beat us Brits at cricket and rugby…and most other sports come to think of it…I like the Aussies. They’re known for their self-confidence, ‘can do’ attitude and sense of humour.
I like them even more now that I know they’re looking for jobs on jobs.ac.uk 🙂
What can you learn from these results?
Before I pull on my ”I love Oz!’ t-shirt, there’s a nugget of information for you here, too.
Notice in the list above, how people search for jobs.
Yes, they’re using generic and rather blunt terms such as ‘jobs’ or, to be on the safe side, ‘jobs jobs jobs’! But they’re also using URLs as search terms.
Or, in other words, they’re typing a website address INTO the search box of a search engine (Sandra doesn’t list which search engines but Google is dominate in search in Australia).
What’s fascinating and slightly odd, is that, instead of typing the URL into the address bar of their browsers (the space at the very top of your screen) jobseekers are using the text field on a search engine page – Google’s probably – instead!
Your jobseekers rely on search engines
Now, this may be because some folk think that Google – and the other search engines – are the World Wide Web. Which is inaccurate because none of the search engines have yet crawled the entire Interweb.
Or is it because we’re becoming so search dominant that people prefer to start their online activities through the interface of a keyword search?
Or, perhaps, it feels more natural to enter the ‘name’ of a site into that invitingly empty, virgin-white space of a search box?
Or, is it because some people are, as the Aussies put it, ‘Drongos’?
This phenomenon has been noted before by the highly influential Nielsen Net Ratings company (link opens a Pdf).
You need to optimise your careers site for the search engines
Whatever the reason, these results should remind you that you need a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy for your recruitment website.
Search engines are so important that you need to tweak your website until it performs well in the big search monsters – Google, Yahoo and MSN Live.
Of course, you don’t want to attract the drongos! That’s why you should advertise your vacancies on jobs.ac.uk because our jobseekers are fair dinkum.
Are you an Aussie?
If you’re an Aussie – anywhere in the world – then put that vegemite sandwich down and please explain why jobs.ac.uk is such a popular search term where women glow and men plunder?
Cheers mate!
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