Making your career site mobile-friendly is no longer an option.
Google has made mobile-friendliness a ranking signal—by improving ranking for mobile optimized sites, and at the same time, demoting sites that are not. This coming change will have a “significant impact” on mobile search results worldwide for mobile users.
This includes your candidates who are searching for job opportunities on-the-go. The goal is to help users like them find relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their mobile devices.
The algorithm update will only impact searches from a smartphone or tablet. It will not affect searches from a desktop or laptop.
These changes will affect mobile search results in all countries at the same time.
Google will judge each page of your site separately. That means if you have one poorly optimized section, it won’t affect your whole site’s ranking.
You can expect to see immediate impact on your ranking. If you have mobile-friendly pages, you should see the change benefit your ranking. If you don’t, you may experience a decline in mobile traffic.
First, find out what pages on your career site are mobile friendly. You can plug each page URL into the Mobile-Friendly Test to see how a Googlebot views the page.
Take note on what pages pass and what pages fail. Pay most attention to the pages where candidates apply for a job. These are your conversion pages and the most beneficial to make mobile-friendly.
Once you’ve identified the pages you want to optimize, take action toward making them mobile—by contacting your IT department or considering a vendor.
When you hire a vendor to help, look for relevant experience. You want to work with someone who not only has mobile expertise but also employment expertise. Having both will ensure you take the right steps to attracting more mobile users.
