indeed.com killing them softly
July 10th, 2007
Recent rumors of Simply Hired getting pinched by CareerBuilder has forced Indeed.com to up its damage control rhetoric. And for good reason.
By and large, job boards are both their primary content provider and revenue source. As a result, Indeed is very careful to not outwardly cross the line into competitive territory, such as offering resume or job posting options.
“We’re just a search engine that drives traffic to your site,” they’re sure to tell employment portals. “The Switzerland of the job board landscape.”
Maybe. Maybe not. Some job board heads aren’t buying it. And I’m not sure I blame them. Consider the following:
- Taking up PPC real estate. Indeed is an active advertiser on Google’s AdWords platform. Queries such as “job search” reveal their ad. More advertisers mean higher prices. Indeed is making it more expensive for many job sites to drive traffic via search marketing.
- Infiltrating the Top Ten. Indeed is very aware of search engine optimization tactics and its value. As a result, they do a superior job of leveraging organic rankings and creating a wealth of job related content. There are only ten results on Google’s first page. For every keyphrase that Indeed masters, someone has to suffer. Usually a job site. Again querying the popular term “job search” reveals Indeed as a Top Ten organic result. Simply Hired’s there too, by the way.
- Push competition. Indeed does a great job of plugging users into its RSS feed option, e-mail alert functionality and similar technologies, which ping job seekers of choice postings on a (near) real time basis. If you’re a job board with the same technology, particularly one that generates revenue via advertising in this fashion, this might not be such a great thing. Want someone plugged into you, or Indeed?
- Down wit’ ATS. For job sites, probably the most dangerous, under-the-radar strategy Indeed practices. I discussed this in some detail here, but the basic premise is they’re going directly to applicant tracking providers for job content. Arguably great for everyone involved, except job sites, who get cut out of the equation.
The peeps at Indeed are adamant about publicly preaching a Google‘esque, do no evil mantra. It’s within such warm-and-fuzzy quarters that they’ll probably succeed or fail. It’s the perception they need to sell. Not everyone is buying.
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July 10th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Indeed is actively selling their PPC solution directly to employers, trying to get a piece of the recruiting budget earmarked for job boards. If anyone thought Indeed was going to earn their revenue from ONLY Job Boards, c’mon.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:21 am
The real question in my mind is why the big three haven’t shut off Indeed? Do they not see the threat, or is it anti-Google sentiment, or what?
July 11th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I’m not sure how the job boards could shut off Indeed if they wanted to. Ultimately, the content isn’t copyrighted by Monster because the job descriptions belong to the employers.
And, of course, all the employers care about is getting enough exposure to get the right candidates, so they aren’t going to turn over their copyright to the job boards.
In any case, the job boards are all having problems because any ‘ol database can store jobs. And as you have pointed out, Herr Cheezmeister, job listings are available everywhere on blogs and the market has become diluted.
What value does posting a job on a Monster have anymore? Other than getting 500 unqualified resumes for every 1 qualified one?
Dan