Cheezhead

It has yet to be official, but the .jobs domain is coming. This will allow companies to register unique domain names with a .jobs instead of the common .com domain. So, for example, jobs at Progressive Insurance could be www.Progressive.jobs.

Don’t underestimate the impact this could have on Internet recruitment advertising and potentially launching corporate career centers to the top of the heap on search engine results pages, leaving online job sites like Monster relegated to secondary pages.

Here’s why: Right now, search engines like Google give extra significance to domains like .gov and .edu. They figure these domains obviously belong to legitimate, important sites, and they’re usually correct. If Google decides that .jobs has more weight when searching for jobs than a .com, then that makes it much tougher for the job boards to remain on the top of the search food chain.

I predict Google and others will give more credence to the .jobs domain. Online searches have become cluttered with insignificant job sites. Users want to find real jobs at real companies, which .jobs helps fulfill.

So, if you’re a corporate site, you’d better get your employment section in order. The day that you rank higher than the big bad job boards you currently advertise with might not be far away.

Oh yeah, and SHRM is supporting the  initiative. And, I’d guess will be promoting it big time when the time comes.

Cleveland, Ohio-based Employ Media will be managing the domains. Learn more.