Anatomy of a Great Staffing Firm Website

I just love websites that are well designed. In my earlier days I worked as an Information Architect for companies like Digitas. And I've designed all the sites that fall under my company umbrella as the CEO of AllCountyJobs.com. So I think I have a little credibility when it comes to recognizing good web design.

Recently one of my podcast service companies, RecruitingPods, brought on a new client called Onward Healthcare. They are a Wilton, CT based healthcare staffing firm.

I was thoroughly impressed by their design aesthetics. In fact, it was 'love at first site', if I may say so.

So I decided to break down their homepage and point out exactly why i think this is one of the BEST sites I have ever seen implemented for a staffing firm.

1. Clean interface design. Uncluttered, clear calls to action and top notch graphics. Navigation is clear and intuitive.

2. SEO. They paid special attention to search engine friendliness as evidenced by the large black text "Travel Nursing and Allied Health Jobs". A you can see throughout the page they are targeting 2 keyword phrases:

travel nursing

allied health jobs

3. 800#. I think every firm should have a toll-free way to let people call. An 800# is clearly displayed here and tells potential clients and candidates that you are a professional company that values there time.

4. Contact info. The contact us link is front and center and two large gold buttons direct jobseekers to connect with them. How easy is that! Kudos to them for guiding the user.

5. Hotjobs. Always display the latest jobs on your homepage. I think it lends more credibility to your firm and helps highlight the most pertinent reqs you have.

6. News/events. Another nicely done element that adds credibility and helps visitors to research and learn more about Onward.

7. Social Media. Onward proudly showcases its social media pages including facebook, twitter and even its podcast show, the "Travel Nursing Insider". Its important to promote these links all over the web. Let people find you whereever THEY are!

Comment by Slouch on January 6, 2010 at 1:03am: It's an interesting post. The thing i saw that was interesting was that they recognized that the words onward and upward have been working since 2001 when Hot Jobs used them. http://www.clickz.com/576771

Comment by Gerry Crispin on January 6, 2010 at 2:07pm: Thanks for the review. I enjoyed your perspective Chris. The phone # implies the promise of NO black hole. A huge differentiator. Even in health care. Still, few if any firms (other than pacific Northwest labs) will actually commit to the experience a candidate can expect. It is still a missing ingredient in most deisngs.

Comment by Chris Russell on January 6, 2010 at 2:51pm: Agreed Gerry, its such a simple feature that costs very little.

Comment by Brad Smith on January 6, 2010 at 3:07pm: Nice post Chris. From an SEO perspective there are a number of things that they have done really well:

1. Their blog is hosted on their domain (Not blogger.com or wordpress.com). That way onwardhealthcare.com is reaping the SEO benefit from the content.

2. Every page has a unique Meta Page Title with specific keywords

3. URL's include specific keywords (for example the Local Nursing page includes /Per-Diem-Nursing-Jobs/

4. They have a nice clean sitemap with keyword rich anchor text links.

5. Most images throughout the website have alt tags (although I would add alt tags to the homepage, like they have across most subpages).

6. Headlines throughout the site are text based and not graphics. The search engines can read them and they are keyword rich.

Overall it's a very nice site and very well done. As an SEO and marketing consultant, I love seeing sites that are complete and well-executed.

Comment by Ken Clark on January 7, 2010 at 3:33pm: Chris, I appreciate the kind words and thanks to everyone else as well for your comments. I am so proud of our marketing team. They put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into the site design to make it as easy as possible for us to connect with our target audience, and it is really great to see their hard work recognized here. Onward and Upward!

Comment by Akiode Segun on January 8, 2010 at 9:02am: Chris, nice post. You did a nice job of analyzing the Onward Healthcare site with easy to understand words. It was very enlightening for me. Keep up the good work. Cheers. Segun