6 Tips for Using SEO Tactics to Boost Physician Recruitment

Whether they’re using Google, Bing, or another search engine, physicians have come to rely on search engine results to find their next opportunity. Because of this, physician recruiters are discovering the need to improve their career pages’ and job posting’s SEO, increasing their chances of getting their position in front of prospective candidates. 

But with so many changes occuring with the algorithms search engines use, many recruiters are struggling to figure out what their SEO strategy needs to look like in order to get their physician recruitment opportunities on the first page of results. In order to help with this, we’ve gathered six simple tips to improve your job descriptions’ SEO – and boost your physician recruitment efforts.

1. Do Some Keyword Research

Keyword choice is one of the biggest factors that affects where your job posting ranks in search results. Selecting the right long-tail key words can mean the difference between ranking on the first page of results or being relegated to the often unseen second page or worse. But how is a recruiter supposed to know which keywords will be most effective? Tools like the Google Adwords Keyword Planner, Google Correlate, and Ubersuggest all offer free tools that allow individuals to research keywords.

Here are three things to look for when selecting keywords:

• Monthly search volume – the higher the better!
• Ranking difficulty – pick keywords with a lower ranking difficulty to make it easier to get your posting on the first page of results
• Variations – Your ideal keyword may be too difficult to rank for or not have sufficient search volume, but a variation may be just right

2. Boost Your Ranking with Links

Both internal links and back links play a large role in determining a page’s search rankings. When creating a page for a new position’s description, you’re going to want to link it to both relevant pages within your own site, as well as earn inbound links from other high-reputation sites.

Some quick tips on link building:

• Link you job posting page to both your careers page, the corresponding service line’s page, and, if possible, the practice’s or group’s individual page.
• Posting to major job boards with links back to your site are an easy way to get back links that can boost your ranking. Link to both your main careers page on you company’s profile (included with most job postings) as well as the individual position’s page within the actual job posting.
• Include Social Sharing buttons on your job postings, allowing viewers to share your job posting on social media, creating back links each time.

3. Work Organically

When you are writing your job description and including your keywords, it’s important not to overdo it. Keyword stuffing (placing the same keyword more than a few times within a page) can actually cause your rankings to tank. Instead, use your main keywords and variations organically throughout the posting.

4. Keep the URL Simple

When most organizations publish their job postings on their site, the vast majority don’t think about the URL. Instead of using a job requisition number or another generic URL, use a simple yet descriptive one. A sample URL should include:

• Your organization’s name
• The job title (i.e.-“internal medicine physician”)
• The city/location

5. Take Advantage of Visuals

Images and videos are more than just useful recruitment collateral – both are a great way to boost your job description’s SEO. These will likely increase the average time a visitor spends on a page, and image alt-text serves as another way to include keywords and descriptive text in your posting. Both of these things will help improve your posting’s search engine rank as both visit length and the alt-text factor into Google’s ranking algorithm.

6. Make the Job Description specific

In the past couple of years, search engines have come to acknowledge that content is king. Because of this, search engines have begun to reward sites and pages that post lengthy, descriptive, and useful information. In fact, one of the factors google evaluates is whether the content is in-depth or shallow. To make sure your job posting is hitting the right quality metrics, visit Google’s checklist and see what you might be missing.

Key Take Aways:

• Keywords are the cornerstone of any good SEO strategy. Make sure to do your research and insert them organically throughout your posting.
• Relevant images and videos can increase your page’s rankings, so make sure to include them as often as possible.
• When in doubt, get specific! Search engines have begun to reward pages with in-depth content and punish those with superficial information designed solely for search engines rather than visitors.