‘Can’t I just use the same text I ran in the last issue of Professional Recruiter/The Times/Dangerous Substance Technology Weekly for my internet vacancy?’

All providers of e-cruitment services regularly face this sort of question, and the answer I always give runs something like this:

Imagine that you had been asked to advertise a vacancy on television. Would you decide that the recruitment ad you ran in the Times was the perfect script? Most people would not.

Now, substitute the word ‘internet’ for the word ‘television’ and ask yourself the same question. If your answer is yes, there is some bad news and some good news.

The bad news is that you are probably letting candidates slip through your fingers and into the clutches of your competitors. The good news is that you can make an immediate difference to the success of your online vacancies by following four simple rules.

Get into the mindset of the internet jobhunter

Forget terms such as ‘browser’ and ‘surfer’ - the sort of professional you are looking to reach is neither of these things.

Online jobhunters are on a mission to retrieve specific information. From databases containing thousands of vacancies, they have to track down the select few that match their experience and aspirations. Partly because most online jobhunting is done during office hours, they want to do this quickly and efficiently.

Produce your vacancy with this pattern in mind. The more it is designed to help a time-pressed jobhunter to find it, and to assess whether it meets their needs quickly, the more effective it will be.

Find out how the database search works

All searches work differently. Any online recruiter worth their salt will be happy to spend time explaining their site’s search, because they need to make it as easy as possible for candidates to find the right vacancies. Luckily, the searches on all jobsites have a fundamental principle in common - they are based on the ‘keyword’.

Use keywords effectively

The most accurate information a search engine has on what the jobhunter needs is the string of keywords they have typed in. The search engine looks for ads in which these words are prominent.

So you need to think like your ideal candidate. List the words you think they will be using, and make sure they are used as often as possible throughout the ad. The more prominent these words are, the closer to the top of the search the ad will be, and the more candidates you will attract.

The job title is particularly important, for two reasons. First, the search engine gives extra significance to keywords in a job title. Second, presented with a list of job titles as a search result, candidates click first on those that match their search words.

So a candidate searching on ‘C++, Doncaster’ will click on a job with the title ‘C++ experts required by Doncaster company’ before one which reads ‘fantastic IT career opportunity’.

Give the candidate the specific information they need

The online candidate has to process a far greater range of vacancies than would be encountered in any other medium. Because of this, the easier it is to assess quickly their suitability for the role, the more likely they are to apply.

Be as specific as possible about location and salary. Vacancies that include salary information, for example, get over 40% more views and more applications than those that do not.

Say what candidates are expected to achieve rather than the background they must have. This means they can quickly see a vacancy is right for them, and you avoid losing excellent candidates who may fall slightly short on arbitrary selection criteria such as number of years’ experience.

These four rules should deliver you immediately improved returns on your online recruitment investment.

Eric Potts is recruitment director at GoJobsite.