hotjobs dumps ‘date order’ for job search results
March 25th, 2008
Yahoo! HotJobs says job listings will no longer be served in date order. Instead, the job board will deliver results in a search engine-style algorithm of relevancy. They’re labeling it the R.E.A.L. Search Algorithm, meaning Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location.
Jeff Kinder, Y! Hotjobs senior vice president and general manager, says “Yahoo! has shown that relevance matters in search results, and it’s powerful to apply Yahoo!’s search technology to HotJobs and see immediate and significant performance improvements. We believe Yahoo! HotJobs has a distinct advantage as online recruitment evolves and insights and technology play increasingly important roles.”
The algorithm claims to take many variables into account when ranking job descriptions. These include 1) the actual page content, 2) whether or not candidates are responding to a particular posting, 3) whether or not the job is filled and 4) the location of the searcher or query.
To varying degrees, vertical search engines have been incorporating “relevancy” as the default search criteria for a long time. The fact that Yahoo! already has search technology makes this a natural fit, but it’s still significant to see a traditional job board go this route. I don’t anticipate the competition to follow unless the results employers see are way better and start demanding it from the market, which actually could happen.
For job seekers, this move is a good one. Obviously, more relevant search results brings a better user experience. And if Y! can algorithmically filter out spammy jobs, candidates will be happier. Now they just need content, as it seems the listings they spider from the Web aren’t yet integrated into paid results, and probably won’t anytime soon. If job seekers are happier, employers are happier. Or at least that’s the idea. With job board trust declining, this move may just break them even, but that’s better than a fall-off.
Most interesting to me, this direction serves as another alarm for employers to better understand and implement sound SEO tactics when posting jobs. If you’re still posting descriptions that aren’t content-rich, complete with strategic placement of keywords, you’re going to lose to employers who are. Just posting your job earlier than the next guy ain’t gonna cut it much longer. I recommend checking out a recent post on Cheezhead regarding this topic for more insight. You can also sign-up for some free SEO tips for employers.
For more information on R.E.A.L., visit http://hotjobsresources.com and click on the ‘Library’ section.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Interesting move. As a job board owner I have always seen two sides to this story. The older a job appears, the less applicants it gets. Job seekers don’t like older jobs. Employers like the fact that the latest jobs appear first. Perhaps we need to re-train job seekers that newer isn’t always better.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
It seems that Hotjobs (and boards in general) is late in adopting SEO-like strategies such as Indeed.
Of course going after the non-job seeker through making one’s website SE-friendly and niche content sites/blogs is more progressive any way.
Great coverage of this news, Cheez.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:28 am
In much of our user research job ‘freshness’ is a factor in relevancy, as well as the content like salary, location, the employer and so on.
By eliminating ‘freshness’ from the relevancy ranking algorithms, Yahoo might be making the search results less relevant rather than more.
On the other hand, one might logically imagine that the older the job, the more desperate the advertiser, the more likely your application is to succeed.
March 29th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Carey, it sounds like youre trying to make your company feel better for not having the ability to do what yahoo can. i mean, its a safe call that yahoo search engineers clearly understand and can implement this technology. We will see how this all plays out though… it sounds clever.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I totally agree with the fact that Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location are important but time is also a key factor in job search because we cant look for a job which is 60 days old eventhough it’s a relevant job. I encountered a website recently jobmixi.com which has all the functions mentioned above like availability, location, engagement, relevancy and more than all time. This job search engine not only indexes job boards but also company career pages.