Keywords for recruitment blogs (and why you should care)

You already know the importance of having a business blog for your recruitment firm. But what's the next step once you get started?

For a successful content marketing strategy, you need to use the right keywords for recruitment agencies, and then apply them effectively. This can be difficult to get to grips with at first, however it is a crucial step to master in content writing, as without the correct keywords, your carefully crafted blog post risks being lost in the depths of Google!

There are a number of free keyword research tools online such as ‘Google Trends’ or ‘Answer The Public ’ to help you find out what is trending around your topic and the relevant keywords you should be using.

What are keywords?

When writing content, your ‘keyword’ or ‘key phrase’ is what sums up your topic. This is usually the query that readers enter into search engines or is very closely related to it. This can be a word, a phrase or even a question. Your effective use of the keyword, and the popularity of your content will determine how high up in the Google rankings you sit.

Which keywords work for recruitment blogs?

I recommend that you stay away from short keywords when possible. One-worded or two-worded terms are extremely competitive and also very vague. For example, ‘branch manager’ will bring up countless results from all around the globe and may be useless in connecting you to your target audience.

Using niche, long-tail keywords, however, will help you get in front of the right people and will drastically increase your chances of being seen in the search results. To find out which specific keywords to use, and essentially what your subject matter should be, try asking yourself “What do our clients want to know?” or “What are my customers searching for?”.

Where, when and how to use keywords?

It is absolutely crucial to think of your keyword before you start writing. This will allow you to produce SEO effective work, plan your content strategically and stay on topic while writing.

Once you know which phrase you will use, there are three key places in your blog that they must appear in:

1. Title

The first place is the title.

It's tempting to write a clever or witty headline. But, unfortunately, sometimes you have to scrap your alliteration efforts or puns and spend some extra time thinking of something that contains the keyword, in an engaging way. This will certainly help your blog be ranked higher by search engines and will also entice readers to click-through.

2. The opening paragraph

The second place the keyword should appear is the opening paragraph. When writing for Search Engine Optimisation, this section should include your most important keyword or key phrase and ideally it should be in the first sentence. We know that when people are surfing the web, they are more likely to see the first few words of each paragraph, so don’t waste this opportunity!

3. Subheadings

They keyword should also appear in a subheading.

As we know, a well written blog post should be divided into sections so that it is easier to navigate and digest by the reader, but title tags also play an important role in improving Search Engine Optimisation. That’s because Google uses them to gather the context about your page and analyse how relevant it is to the searcher’s inputs.

But don’t just try and cram your search terms into your headings - make sure that they read well and make sense for the reader.

Other than in these three areas mentioned, ensure that you are liberally using paraphrases of the keyword throughout your copy (you can use a keyword planner tool such as SEMRush's writing assistant for inspiration) and in the meta data too. 

Then keep an eye on the results pages (or Google Analytics, or your tracking tool of choice), and watch as your content climbs the ranks.

Originally posted June 2019, updated August 2022