A reader asks;
Wondering if you were aware of, or have views on Job Boards setting up different URLs for the same job?
I’m aware of a couple of major Job Boards in the UK that are generating different URLs for the same job. So for a job posted for a Python developer in Swindon, one URL might be jobboard /Swindon/python and the other might be jobboard/python-developer/SouthWest as a for instance. The job board has their own developed platform.
I guess there is an SEO advantage is that any given job stands more chance of being retrieved (on the board itself and in google search results) at a higher position, given different search parameters.
Is this smart practice or a bit dodgy? (I’m thinking here that the number of available jobs to candidates may be being overstated). Do you know of any commercial platforms that offer this? Just wondered if you have any insights from your experience as I hadn’t noticed this before in being around job boards for 20 years or so.
My answer:
Short answer is yes this is a good idea. The more pages you can show google the more results you can get to appear in Google. The key is differentiating the content. If the same job appears in two different URLs in theory Google should index them both. I wonder if that site is also changing the page text a bit too. Small differences in job titles can make it seem like another listing.
Indeed is a master at SEO strategy having created URLS for every possible combination of location/company/job title. For example they have pages for every city and job category/title imaginable. That helps them create long tail SEO search results.
