Job boards typically have a plethora of (usually good) reasons why they won’t share traffic data with the public - at least not via third party anyway. Because of this, we’re dependent on services such as comScore or Hitwise for close-as-can-be data.
That’s why I’m impressed LatPro was recently and voluntarily added to Quantcast, a third party metrics solution that enables the public to access real information about a site, including uniques to even demographic data.
Joining sites have to add code to their site, so the numbers are pretty close to exact. I added it to Cheezhead last year and invited others to do the same. I don’t know of any bloggers or job boards who took me up on the challenge at the time. The online employment space is due a little transparency, but it’s likely a pipe dream.
Click here for the official news. Another site owned by the LatPro group, Diversity Jobs.com, is included as well.
Other Posts
- January 10, 2006 -- google + volkswagon = future recruitment advertising bliss
- July 14, 2005 -- google and firefox, sittin’ in a tree …
- August 21, 2005 -- open letter to simplyhired, indeed
- June 29, 2006 -- five good minutes with background information services president jason morris
- September 27, 2005 -- monster’s view from austin, texas
- July 16, 2005 -- employment branding, front and center thanks to dot-jobs
- August 31, 2005 -- google diving deeper into print waters
This post was written by:
Joel Cheesman - who has written 1253 posts on Cheezhead.
One of the most widely-read bloggers on emerging recruitment issues in the world. Accomplishments include being named Recruiting.com’s Best Technology Recruitment Blog and Best Recruiting Blog. Joel's been featured in Fast Company magazine, BusinessWeek Magazine, Resumes for Dummies, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal and more. Plug into Joel via Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, iTunes, YouTube or Flickr.
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December 4th, 2007 at 6:00 am
I think the US online recruitment market should look more closely at the UK market - the annual NORAS (National Online Recruitment Audience Survey) and the associated bi-annual ABCe traffic audit create a very open and transparent marketplace where traffic numbers and detailed audience demographics are publicly available for almost every jobboard - certainly the top 50.
/Martin
December 5th, 2007 at 6:29 am
To follow on from (and agree with) Martin’s comment, the UK’s use of an independent auditor (ABC Electronic) to certify traffic levels and the yearly NORAS survey both provide useful information to advertisers. It’s a good model and certainly one other countries should consider adopting.
On the downside, the actual number of participating job boards, particular for NORAS, is relatively low, although most of the major players are audited.
In addition, there are some questions over the value of the primary metrics audited (Unique Users and Page Impressions) in the recruitment space. These concerns are being addressed by the introduction of new metrics, such as ‘number of applications’, but it is likely to take time for job boards to adopt these.
December 9th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Dude: I’m on Quantcast as a direct result of your original post. -HJ
December 10th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Right on, Harry.
December 19th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
We’re in. Added the code today.