Last week we discussed the seven basic elements of a great career website.  As a principal feature of your internal sourcing resources, effective management of your site can help you tap into a greater pool of qualified candidates.  Today we will look at how implementing Google Analytics can optimize your site’s traffic performance, and increase your applicant conversion ratio.

Sourcing with your career site is similar to pouring sand through a funnel.  You start with a handful, and as the funnel narrows towards the bottom, you end up with only a fraction of that amount.   So too with a career site: many people will arrive at the homepage, some will browse, fewer than that will search your job openings, and a tiny number will apply.     

However, the smaller and less qualified the site’s visitor base, the fewer resumes you will actually receive.  It therefore follows that to widen the funnel and increase your applicant conversion ratio, you must focus on multiplying your qualified traffic flow.  Leveraging your website/funnel’s potential requires you to draw a larger, more relevant audience – an audience comprised of serious and suitable potential candidates.  To do this, you first need to figure out who your audience is, what attracts them and what you can do to modify your website.

Who Are You and What Do You Want?

Linking the free Google Analytics tool to your site is a strong strategic move towards improving your overall traffic and increasing your applicant conversion ratio.  Google Analytics is a sourcing metric which, well, analyzes your visitor patterns through a wide array of customizable variables, aiding you in understanding the efficacy of your current site layout and branding messages.  Knowing what works and what doesn’t can help you identify ineffective elements and tackle them head-on.  By correcting the problem areas, you remove the ‘turn-offs’ which plagued your website and can target a wider, more qualified and more responsive traffic flow.

Google Analytics pinpoints sections which need improvement.  Take another look at our list of recommended website components to get ideas of where you can focus and what you can change.  For example, a drop in traffic on your job list page is a hint that you should update it on a more frequent basis; if your employee blog has drawn fewer readers in the recent weeks, consider creating a more noticeable, centrally-located link.

The Basics Offerings

1.  Traffic Source: You can check how each visitor accessed your site – whether they followed a link (and from which referring website), typed your web address into the browser or found it in an Internet search.  If they used this last option, you can see which keywords they used; if your website subscribes to Google AdWords, you can actually follow the trends using Google’s synchronized technology.  Tracking the quantitative variables – such as which keywords are frequently used and which are not, and where each searcher is based – provides you with a clearer understanding of the manner in which people search.  By modifying your keywords to reflect their habits, you will be able to target potential visitors more easily.

2.    Content: Optimizing your content is key in retaining visitors and increasing your conversion ratio, and Google Analytics allows you to evaluate what your visitors are viewing.  By examining elements such as which pages they peruse (and which they don’t), how much time they spend on each page, and which links they click, you gain a better idea of which sections are most popular, and can focus on improving the relevance of areas
with less traffic.  For example, a consistently high bounce rate on the application submission webpage means something is driving people away.  This is your cue to simplify the process, by making it one-step and clarifying the instructions.

3.    Visitors: You can view quantitative data on your site’s visitors, and break down the figures into categories: how many were repeat visitors and how many were unique, average page views and what language they speak, just to name a few.  Visitor reports are completely adaptable, and allow you to view the data according to your needs.  You can also check how many people from any worldwide region frequented your site and which webpages they viewed. This is especially important if you have job openings in a specific city and want to analyze the success rate of your conversion ratio.  By targeting locals from this city – for example, by listing the position openings on your homepage, or adding the name of the city to your Google Adwords keywords – you can track their browsing histories, and determine how you can improve your sourcing tactics.  

Conclusion

The key to long-term management of your career website is consistent evaluation and constant modification.  Your goal is find out what turns a regular visitor into an applicant, and how you can shorten the conversion time.  Following the traffic, content and visitor patterns revealed by Google Analytics will help you focus on the specific issues that are slowing your traffic performance.  Solving these problems will allow you to maximize your website’s potential, by directly sourcing more qualified potential candidates.  Remember, you want to widen the funnel.  By appealing to a larger pool of people, you will undoubtedly improve the ratio between visitor and applicant.