In today’s world, there’s no excuse to not have a quality page on your company website that’s dedicated to your job openings. Technology is easy and cheap enough that companies of all sizes (and all budgets) can afford to create and maintain one of those lovely Careers Sites.

1 – Show Professional Image and Employer Branding

For many of your potential candidates, your careers site will be the first point of contact. They may or may not be familiar with your company, but it’s likely that this is going to be their first impression of employee life. So, if you wouldn’t make an interviewee wait in a dirty, outdated waiting room, make sure you have a modern and quality version of your website.

Whether you create your own page or use an outsourced service to manage it, make sure that it contains your company colors, logos, and fonts. Not only do generic sites appear less attractive and desirable to potential candidates, but they also raise concerns about sending their resumes to a scam artist instead of a respectable company.

2 – List All Open Positions (and Delete Them When They’re Closed)

It’s pretty common for companies to add new positions to their site when they’re trying to hire, but a problem arrives when they forget to remove them after they’re filled. Looking like you’re hiring 200 people will get a lot of attention, but sending just one “Sorry, that position has already been filled” response will cause many to wonder how many others aren’t available. Job seekers are already being told that only 15 – 20% of jobs are advertised, so at least let them think that their list is up-to-date.

3 – Use for Legal Protection

“Even though federal labor rules don’t require employers to post openings, human-resources departments at many companies require them to be listed on a job board or career site for some period… Such postings are meant to make hiring fair and transparent, and may help to protect employers from discrimination lawsuits…” – Lauren Weber and Leslie Kwoh,“Beware the Phantom Job Listing”, The Wall Street Journal

Even if you created the position because you did an internal search of your company and found the perfect candidate for it, it’s still a good idea to give it a bit of advertising online. Whenever you fail to notify the general public about an open position, you leave yourself open to the possibility of a lawsuit because of discriminatory hiring practices. But, if it’s a strict company policy to always spread the news of a job, you’re far less likely to be sued because of picking favorites (and more likely to win the case, if it comes up).

4 – Learn How to Apply Updates

We already discussed why you need to update the positions when they’re vacant and filled, but don’t forget about the physical act of getting them on your website. This is pretty simple if someone in your company manages your site, but it’s trickier if it’s externally designed and managed. In that case, there are a few good options. First, learn a little web design, or invest in a software program, and become capable of letting the hiring managers update the website themselves. Your other option is to build your hiring system into your website, and then these changes will happen automatically (this is discussed in the next section).

5 – Integrate with Recruiting Systems

Many ATS services allow for the capability to combine your applicant tracking system directly with your hiring site. In some cases, they can host a dedicated page for you, so you’ll be sure to have a well-maintained career page, and all the information will be in one place.

6 – Optimize for Mobile

If you have read anything lately about the internet and recruiting, you’ve surely seen an article on the importance of having a career site optimized for mobile usage.

“86% of current job seekers would use their smartphone to search for jobs” – Selina Kerley, “Mobile Recruiting: It’s Here to Stay!”, Undercover Recruiter

Glassdoor conducted a survey this past year, and they found that 75% of people are likely to search for jobs via a mobile device in .... Studies have seen these sorts of statistics growing drastically and consistently over the past few years, so now is the time to make sure your career site can accommodate those searchers.

On a similar note, we all know that both sides of the equation are using their phones more, so check out our recent article for some reasons why recruiters can benefit from having an app of their....

7 – Make It Personal

All the mumbo jumbo about brand image aside, this is going to be a major factor in the minds of the qualified candidates who have (or will inevitably get) offers from multiple companies. Have testimonials from current employees, create a job ad, list your event calendar, and show images of your office. Make sure that these potential employees can “feel” your company before they even talk to anyone. That will save a lot of time for everyone.

8 – Have a Call-to-Action Method

“If candidates can’t easily submit their information on your career site, they’ll be gone before they can ever figure out how to apply.” –“How Your Career Site Is Losing Candidates”, Recruiting.com

This may be the last element of our list, but it’s probably the most important! Make sure you give these people a way to contact you. Without a form, a button to submit information, or at least an email address, people will fall in love with you and be unable to apply.

How many of these tips are you taking advantage of on your site? Did we miss anything, or is there anything else that you’re wondering about? Comment, Email us or send a tweet, and we can help research ways to make sure that your hiring headaches become a thing of the past.

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This post originally appeared on Recruitee Blog (newsletter: eepurl.com/bMHiZD) 

Hagi Trinh is an avid recruitment writer at Recruitee. The team is working on the greatest hiring platform of all time. You can sign up at recruitee.com to try it out and follow us on Twitter @recruiteeHR.