You don’t need to work in recruitment to be familiar with the job board Indeed – according to research from StandoutCV, as of April 2024 a whopping 63% of UK jobseekers use it in their job search (leaving Linkedin a distant second with 26%).
Historically anyone could post a job on Indeed, either manually or through an integration with either their own website or job ad distributor platforms. A few clicks and their vacancy was almost instantly listed on the UK’s most used job search engine, ready for candidates to apply. And for a fee you could boost your posting’s visibility, but it wasn’t a requirement, as you could benefit from what they called their ‘organic feed’ traffic at no cost.
And recruiters did benefit from it – with pricing pressure on all businesses it was a cost-effective source of applications. But, whilst direct employers can continue to utilise their free posting offering, what you might not know is that Indeed have recently scrapped their free visibility service for recruitment agencies. So, if you’re working with an agency provider and this is news to you, we’re here to give you the full lowdown.
Changes to organic visibility on Indeed
As of 2nd May this year, Indeed have removed their free visibility service altogether for jobs posted by agencies. Recruiters will now need to use Indeed’s ‘sponsored jobs’ product – meaning they’ll have to pay to ensure their job postings are visible to candidates. There was very little notice, so it’s likely that commercial agreements currently in place have not accounted for these costs.
Who did it impact?
All staffing agencies that benefitted from free organic visibility on Indeed were affected. This includes not only businesses that engaged directly with Indeed but also those who benefitted from applications through their job ads being aggregated from the internet and shared on Indeed via a process called ‘web scraping’.
Reasons behind the changes
Indeed's decision was driven by the prevalence of low-quality, mass-posted roles that made it harder for smaller or niche positions to stand out. They want to focus on promoting higher quality job listings and discourage spam or scam postings by introducing a sponsorship model.
The implications
For recruitment businesses that were used to attracting applications and website visitors from Indeed, this short-notice switch-off will have had a significant impact on traffic and, in turn, sourcing strategies. Agencies operating within lower-margin sectors, including hospitality, retail, and industrial, are most likely to have relied on free visibility to balance cost constraints and are therefore more likely to feel the negative effects. If industrial agencies stop using Indeed because the costs outweigh the small management fees they earn, we anticipate that the audience—industrial job seekers—will eventually migrate to other platforms.
We're ahead of the game
Our candidate registration portal isn’t just about making applications easier and more compliant, it enables us to track the source of our applications too. So, from the moment we were notified of this upcoming change we’ve been able to model exactly how we think it will impact our business, build contingency plans, and continue monitoring on an ongoing basis. Here’s some of the actions we took to mitigate potential impact and overcome the challenges to deliver #StressFreeStaffing:
- Consulted with several job boards, including Indeed, on how to optimise job ad performance on their sites.
- Delivered a ‘best practice guide’ for our teams, along with training and advice to support them in creating clear, concise adverts that reach the right audience and meet the standards of each job board platform.
- Continued to use paid job boards like Indeed, Totaljobs, and CV Library where required, whilst liaising directly with clients about their individual requirements and the costs of sponsored campaigns.
- Enhanced our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts by creating dedicated landing pages for key clients, featuring job listings, partnership details, FAQs, and benefits.
- Audited and improved current job ads with compelling meta titles and keywords to boost SEO rankings.
And our plan is working – despite the drop in traffic from Indeed, we’ve had over 1,000 extra Google clicks in the past month.
But that’s not all – we’re actively leveraging our extensive pre-screened candidate database which boasts an impressive 100,000 fully compliant candidates, registered and ready to work. This means we can keep connecting businesses with top-tier talent smoothly and efficiently, maintaining uninterrupted support for our clients during this transition period.
Your next move
Job ad posting might have gone through some changes, but we're on top of things and have the tools in place to make sure our clients won't feel a thing. Our proactive strategies, ongoing optimisation, and commitment to best practice mean we can handle these challenges smoothly, keeping the high standards and delivering great results our clients have come to expect. It’s all part of our commitment to #StressFreeStaffing - demonstrating our ability to adapt without missing a beat. Do you know if your current agency provider has a contingency plan in place? Now is the time to ask. And in the meantime, if you have any questions about the changes, or you’re interested in discussing what we can do for your business, get in touch with us today.
