Creating the most effective job post can be challenging. The pool of talents and potential employees can be quite limited and disparate, so you need a good job advert that piques curiosity, grabs attention, and incites to your call to action. Not to mention, you are competing with other companies who are also looking for same people. So you better up your game in your talent search.

So how do you do it? By following these tips that most employers ignore. These simple hacks will guarantee that your applicants will have an idea of who it is you are looking for, what you are offering in return, and why they should be in your company.

Make It Search Friendly

Sure, placing boards outside your building or handing out flyers in the park telling everyone that you have vacancies are still practical methods these days, but most of job posting and searching happen in the Internet, so it only makes sense that you make your job advert SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) friendly.

To make your post show up high on search results, use keywords that are relevant in the job description. You can do this by imagining yourself as the job seeker looking for the position you are offering, and ask yourself what the words you will be Googling are.

Avoiding jargons or terms too esoteric to your company may also help. Looking for “Tier 2 Upper Executive Strategy Planner” can be too technical. Instead, settle simply for “Senior Management Strategist.” But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to be specific with your postings. If you are looking for a developer experienced with Python (a high-level programming language), don’t just look for a “Web Developer,” “Python Web Developer” is a better post title.

And lastly, while cryptic questions like “Do you want to earn more while having fun?” can be creative, they will not appear under Google searches.

Utilize A Clear And Concise Language

Just because you need to use relevant keywords doesn’t mean you can flood it until it doesn’t make sense as a whole anymore.  Just as you need to adhere to Google’s algorithm, you need to satisfy the human comprehension as well.

You can do this by writing the post in an easy to understand and coherent manner. This will help the candidate envision the company, the job, and the compensations better. Write in present tense, and use the second person pronoun (“you”) to make it feel more personal. Keep the statements brief and succinct, and put them in bulleted form to make it clear, clean, and orderly. Make it warm, as if you are writing to your best friend. This gives your company a more cordial and sincere atmosphere.

You may also want to stay away from vague terms and phrases when it comes to tasks such as “May be accountable for…” or “Possibility of doing…,” as they are open to interpretations or seem optional, blurring the clear description you are aiming for. And lastly, include frequencies of the tasks, such as “Daily research for projects,” “Weekly oversight of tasks,” or “Monthly submission of reports” so the candidate can have a clear idea of the workload.

Disclosing The Salary

There is no cut-and-dried solution or rule about placing the salary offer in your job posting. Doing so or not each has its own advantages and consequences.

Disclosing the offer can save you a lot of time and effort, since you don’t have to deal anymore with candidates who, after sessions of interview, will back down upon finding out that the compensation is not par with what they are expecting. Also, salaries are a great way to attract applicants, especially if they are reasonable. On the flip side, you will lose your negotiating power, and cannot adjust the number anymore based on what the candidate can offer. Not to mention, competing companies can suddenly upgrade their packages upon seeing the compensation package.

These are the very reason why salaries are mostly withheld. Different talents have different income entitlements, even for those gunning for the same position. This is dictated by age, experience, level of education, training, specialisation, what the previous company is paying, and the candidate’s negotiation abilities. You want to be flexible when bargaining for the offer. On the down side, this might drive away candidates. Let’s admit it, in a world where you can have hundreds of choices right in front of you with a single click, candidates can solely look for jobs where the topic of income is already an available information.

Sell Your Company

You may forget everything in this list, but do not forget this one. Your success in hiring the bets employees hinges on this point: learn to sell your company.

Just as applicants are selling themselves in their curriculum vitae, you need also to impress them with your company descriptions. And yes, if you market your company effective enough, it can blur out whatever number is written in the salary section.

Detail the company’s mission and vision, what it wants to achieve, its goals and purpose for the society. Describe the company culture, the common traits your effective employees have, and the collective atmosphere it produces. Use adjectives and adverbs to give color and boost your descriptions (but don’t overload them). No, you don’t need to have office slides in lieu of stairs to entice candidates, an atmosphere where “diverse talents from different cultures, age, and backgrounds are all welcomed” is a huge draw itself.

As leadership author and speaker Simon Sinek put it, if you can make people (your potential candidates) believe in what you believe, they will work for you not just for money, but they will work with you with their “blood, sweat, and tears.” We think that’s a better scenario.

Cap It Off With a Strong Call-to-Action

Call-To-Actions (CTAs) are sentences that provoke immediate responses from your audience. It is a marketing tool that you see ubiquitously from Home TV Shopping channels (“Call now and get three more…!”) to software platforms (“Give it try – it’s free for 60 days!”) to Netflix ads (“Join free for a month”). They give those who are double thinking a final push to click, sign up, or give the product a try. It works for job adverts, too.

Examples below motivate the job seekers to give your job post a try:

• Apply Now – Don’t miss out on this great opportunity!
• We’re looking forward to hearing from you – Apply today!
• Opportunities like these don’t last long – call us now!
• You are one click away from a great career! Contact us today!
• Our company is waiting for you. Click the Apply button and be with us!

Of course, call-to-actions do not have to actively urge people to apply to your company. They can be a call for candidates to join your community, talent network, or even a chat with your team to share ideas and information. It is a great way to constantly be in touch with potential applicants and keep them in your contacts.