Recruitment firms can obtain a clearer picture of how their website will be viewed by Google and other search engines courtesy of a new free search engine optimisation (SEO) auditing tool. Its developer, Andy Drinkwater, spent many years working in SEO-related roles in the recruitment industry, largely at the agency directory, Agency Central. 

He told Recruiter that with Google issuing around 50 releases and updates to its algorithms every month, he wanted to create a tool that would help recruiters gain more visibility and control of their site. “The SEO market is unregulated and I wanted to do something that didn’t pull at the purse-strings but rather gave everyone the chance to see what was taking place on their site,” said Drinkwater, who set up the specialist consultancy iNet SEO in 2012. 

iNet SEO derives no direct revenue from the tool but can offer its services if organisations require it. In many cases, however, Drinkwater said the tool will provide them with sufficient information to make amendments to the site. Use of it requires no sign-up and a recruiter simply enters its website URL. The tool then looks for key SEO factors such as the page title, description, number of backlinks, number of internal links and other elements that will make a difference to a ranking on Google. It also provides information on why, for instance, a page title or description is useful for optimisation. “On the whole, many people know they need to do something to better optimise their site, but not how,” said Drinkwater.

He went on to explain that if a recruitment firm does experience a drop in traffic, the problem may simply stem from a change in the algorithms. “A case in point is Google Panda, which was introduced to target sites which heavily advertised other people’s services,” he explained. “But it’s evolved and if you’ve got what is seen as a ‘thin content’ page which doesn’t have much worth to anyone, that one page is enough to drag your whole site down the rankings.”

Drinkwater concluded: “There’s quite a fine line between where there’s enough and too much. But if you write great content which is aimed at the user rather than Google, you are pretty much on to a winner.” 

The audit tool can be accessed at www.inetseo.co.uk/audit