Recruitment SEO
SEO for recruitment agencies competing with the job boards
SEO services for UK recruiters that rank your sector pages for employer searches, get vacancies into Google for Jobs and clean up the expired job pages holding your site back.
- Vacancies eligible for Google for Jobs
- Client and candidate keywords separated
- Audit and recovery for ranking drops
Quick answer
ProntX offers SEO for recruitment agencies across the UK. We fix job posting markup so vacancies appear in Google for Jobs, build sector pages that rank for employer searches, clean up expired and duplicated job pages, and recover sites hit by ATS migrations. Recruitment SEO starts from £595 a month on rolling contracts.
SEO for recruitment agencies is mostly a battle with job boards. Indeed, Reed, Totaljobs and LinkedIn own the broad “jobs in” searches, so an agency site wins by ranking where the boards are weak: specialist sector terms, client-side searches for recruiters, and job pages that qualify for Google for Jobs. ProntX provides SEO services for recruitment agencies across the UK from £595 a month, on rolling contracts.
Two keyword sets that never overlap
A hiring manager types “construction recruitment agency Leeds” or “interim finance director recruiter”. A candidate types “site manager jobs Leeds” or “contract FD roles”. Those searches lead to different pages, compete with different sites and are worth different amounts to you. Most recruitment websites mix them on one page and rank for neither, which is the first thing we untangle.
Where your site can realistically win
You will rarely outrank a national job board for a generic job title. You can outrank it for niche skill and location combinations, for client searches the boards do not target at all, and in the job listings panel that Google shows above normal results, because that panel draws from your own vacancy pages when they are marked up properly.
Google for Jobs
How do recruitment agencies get vacancies into Google for Jobs?
By adding JobPosting structured data to each individual vacancy page and keeping it accurate. Google’s own documentation sets out the rules, and most visibility problems come from breaking one of them.
- Mark up the single vacancy page, never the search results or listing page
- Include title, full description, date posted, hiring organisation and location
- Use “confidential” for the hiring organisation when the client is not named
- Show the salary on the page if it appears in the markup
- Remove filled or expired roles, or set a past closing date
- Avoid “general application” or talent pool posts with no real vacancy
- Give each location its own genuine vacancy, not one advert cloned across towns
- Notify Google of new and removed roles through a sitemap or the Indexing API
On UK Business Forums, one agency owner described posting five versions of the same job in different towns and seeing only one appear. Google’s guidelines list misrepresented, incomplete and expired postings as violations, and leaving expired roles marked up can lead to a manual action. We check how your ATS or job plugin outputs the markup, because that is where most errors start.
Site structure
What pages should a recruitment website have for SEO?
A page for every sector or discipline you recruit for, client pages that sell your service in that sector, and candidate hubs that collect live jobs. Structure matters more than volume.
Clients
Sector service pages
“Engineering recruitment agency”, “legal recruitment consultancy”, “healthcare staffing agency”. Each page explains the roles you fill, how you source, typical time to shortlist, and the consultants who run the desk. These are the pages that bring fee-paying enquiries.
Candidates
Discipline job hubs
A stable hub page for each discipline and region, listing live vacancies with an introduction that stays put when jobs come and go. The hub builds ranking strength over time instead of losing it every time a role closes.
Authority
Salary and market guides
Salary surveys, rate cards and hiring market updates earn links from trade press and are shared by hiring managers. They also give AI search tools something specific to quote when someone asks what a role pays in your sector.
Audit and recovery
Why do recruitment websites lose rankings?
Usually because of thousands of thin, expired job pages, duplicated location pages, or an ATS migration that changed every URL. A recruitment SEO audit and recovery plan fixes the cause before adding anything new.
Common causes we find
- Every closed vacancy left live, so most of the site is dead adverts
- Job pages with three lines of text copied from the client brief
- Near-identical “recruitment agency in [town]” pages for towns you do not cover
- Jobs loaded by JavaScript widgets that search engines struggle to read
- Old URLs dropped without redirects after changing job board software
How we fix them
We crawl the site, compare it with Search Console data, and decide what happens to old vacancies: redirect to the relevant hub, return a proper “gone” status, or keep a filled-role page as a short case study. Thin location pages are merged or rewritten with real local detail. If a migration caused the drop, we rebuild the redirect map from old sitemaps and backlinks. Our technical SEO team handles the fixes directly rather than handing you a spreadsheet.
Local and trust
Does local SEO matter for recruitment agencies?
Yes, for branch-based and regional agencies. Candidates search “recruitment agency near me” and employers check reviews before they call. A strong Google Business Profile for each real office is often the quickest win.
We set up and maintain a profile for each genuine branch, with categories, services, opening hours and photos, and build a fair review process for both clients and candidates. Branches without a staffed office should not have their own profile; that breaches Google’s guidelines and can get listings suspended.
Trust also shows on the site itself: named consultants with their sectors and experience, membership of trade bodies you genuinely hold, clear privacy information for candidates, and your company details. Claims about fill rates or guarantees are approved by your director or compliance lead first. See our local SEO service for the full approach.
Links
Where do recruitment agencies get good backlinks?
From the industries they recruit for. A link from a trade association or sector magazine tells Google which market you serve far better than a general directory ever will.
Data
Salary surveys
Trade titles and local business press quote original pay data and link to the source.
Membership
Sector bodies
Member listings and event pages from associations in the sectors you serve.
Partners
Clients and schools
Co-written hiring reports with clients, and careers pages at colleges and universities you work with.
Comment
Expert quotes
Consultants answering journalists’ questions on hiring trends, wages and skills shortages.
We avoid paid link schemes and recruitment “directory” networks that exist only to sell links. They rarely help and can cause harm. Instead we turn what your consultants already know about the market into material that journalists and associations want to reference, then do the outreach ourselves. Our link building page explains the method in more detail.
Pricing
How much do SEO services for recruitment agencies cost?
ProntX recruitment SEO starts from £595 a month. Agencies with many sectors, branches or a large vacancy feed typically need more work each month; final price depends on scope.
| Plan | Typical cost | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Niche agency | From £595 a month | One or two sectors, job markup checks, sector pages, Google Business Profile |
| Multi-sector agency | Typically £1,000 to £1,800 a month | Several desks, salary guides, link building, regular technical work on the job feed |
| Audit and recovery | Quoted after a free audit | Ranking drops, ATS migrations, large-scale expired job clean-up |
All plans are rolling monthly; see pricing. Because SEO takes months, many agencies combine it with PPC for recruiters for quicker client enquiries, or a joined-up recruitment marketing plan.
ProntX has worked with more than 200 clients in six years and we never promise rankings. Our free SEO audit tests your vacancy markup, sector pages and competitors against the job boards, delivered as a personal video within two working days.
How it works
What happens after you get in touch
- 01Free audit
We review your site, search visibility, ads and competitors, then send a short video walkthrough with the quickest wins.
Request audit - 02Plan and price
A one-page plan with goals, channels, timeline and a fixed monthly price. No surprises later.
See prices - 03Launch in weeks
Tracking first, then quick wins, then the bigger builds. You see progress in the first month.
See our work - 04Report and grow
Monthly report in plain English: leads, sales, cost per result and what we do next.
Talk to us
Same industry
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FAQ
Recruitment SEO questions, answered
Still unsure? Ask us anything. We reply within one working day.
Can a recruitment agency outrank Indeed or Reed?
For broad job titles, rarely. For specialist roles, skill and location combinations, and searches made by employers looking for a recruiter, often yes. Job boards do not target client-side searches at all. Agency job pages can also appear in the Google for Jobs panel alongside the boards when they carry correct structured data, which levels the field for candidate traffic.
Why are my jobs not showing in Google for Jobs?
The usual causes are missing or broken JobPosting markup from your ATS or plugin, markup on listing pages instead of single vacancies, duplicated adverts across locations, expired roles left live, or speculative talent pool posts. Google may take a few days to index new roles. We test sample vacancies, read Search Console reports and fix the template so every new job is eligible.
What should we do with old job pages?
Do not leave thousands of closed vacancies live. Either remove them with a proper status code, redirect them to the matching discipline hub, or set a past closing date in the markup. Occasionally a filled role is worth keeping as a short case study. The right choice depends on whether the page has links or traffic, which we check before deciding.
Is SEO worth it for a small recruitment agency?
Usually, if you specialise. A niche agency with a clear sector can rank for client searches with modest competition, and a few retained clients a year can repay a year of SEO. Generalist agencies chasing broad terms find it slower. We tell you honestly in the audit which searches are realistic for your size and budget.
How long does recruitment SEO take?
Fixing job markup can bring vacancies into Google for Jobs within days or weeks. Sector and client pages typically take three to six months to rank, and competitive city terms longer. Recovery from a ranking drop depends on the cause; redirect fixes can work quickly, while a site full of thin pages takes several months to clean up.
Should every consultant write blog posts?
Not necessarily. A few strong salary guides and market updates beat a weekly stream of generic tips. Consultants are best used as sources: a short call or voice note on what they see in the market, which our writers turn into accurate content under their name, with their approval before publishing.
Do you work with our ATS or job board software?
We work with the vacancy feed from most common recruitment platforms and website job plugins. We check what markup and URLs they produce, whether pages are readable by search engines, and how closed roles are handled. Where the software limits what can be fixed, we explain the options, including changes your provider can make.
Will SEO help us appear in AI search answers?
It helps. AI tools tend to cite pages with clear, specific facts: salary ranges, hiring timelines, sector expertise and named experts. Well-structured sector pages and salary guides are the type of content they quote. Our AI search optimisation work builds on the same foundations.
Works well with
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