Careers page SEO helps candidates find your employer pages and open roles through search. Google for Jobs adds a separate requirement: eligible vacancies need accurate JobPosting structured data on individual job pages. Large employers need both. Build lasting pages for teams and locations, keep vacancy details aligned with your applicant tracking system, and remove closed roles from Google's job results. Then measure completed applications, not just visits.
I'm Brenden House. I run Searchmaxxed, an SEO and AI SEO agency. This guide covers employers hiring across Australia and the US, rather than recruitment agencies selling placement services.
In summary
- Your careers hub explains the employer; individual vacancy pages describe actual jobs. Only the latter receive
JobPostingmarkup. - Google needs to reach the full job description without a login. Test the rendered page and the application link, not just the schema.
- Closed roles need a deliberate expiry process. Removing a vacancy from the navigation isn't enough.
- Remote eligibility, work location and employer identity must match what candidates see. Hybrid doesn't mean fully remote.
- Keep recruitment conversions separate from customer enquiries, so a surge in jobseekers doesn't masquerade as growth in your sales pipeline. Count completed applications separately.
What does careers page SEO cover?
Careers page SEO covers the employer information candidates research, the vacancies they discover, and the route into an application. Google for Jobs covers eligible individual postings within Google's job-search experience.
Different pages do different work. A manufacturing employer's maintenance careers page can remain useful between hiring rounds, while a particular vacancy closes when someone accepts the offer.
| Page | Candidate's search | What belongs there | JobPosting markup? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Careers hub | Company name + careers | Employer identity, teams, benefits, hiring process and routes to vacancies | No |
| Job-family page | Engineering careers at company | Work, skills, progression and relevant open positions | No |
| Location page | Company jobs in a city | Actual workplace, local employment details and available roles | No |
| Vacancy page | Specific role and location | Complete description, eligibility, application route and closing information | Yes, for a genuine open role |
| Employer information page | Working at company, remote policy | Approved answers with clear market and role distinctions | No |
Build links between them. Candidates should be able to move from an engineering team page to an open engineering role without starting a fresh search.
Use keyword research to match familiar role names and location searches to those pages, rather than filling titles with internal grades candidates won't recognise. Keep the job accurate.
Write distinct title tags and meta descriptions for lasting careers pages, naming the employer and the team or location each page genuinely covers.
Searchmaxxed's SEO services cover the technical structure, page content, schema and internal links behind that route. Your hiring team supplies the employment facts.
Staffing companies face a different problem: winning employer enquiries while attracting candidates. Our guide to SEO for recruitment and staffing covers that separate brief.
How do you get jobs into Google for Jobs?
Make each vacancy accessible to Google, add matching JobPosting structured data, and test the published page. Structured data establishes eligibility; Google decides which results appear.
Use Google's job-posting documentation. It explicitly excludes job-list pages from JobPosting markup.
Start with the visible description. Include responsibilities, qualifications, working hours, employment type, actual location and a working application route, so candidates can decide whether the role fits.
Then map the same facts into JSON-LD, a structured-data format embedded in the page. Don't maintain a second, independently edited version of the vacancy.
| Property | What to supply | Frequent mistake |
|---|---|---|
title | The job title itself | Adding salary, employer name, location or recruitment slogans |
description | The complete job description, formatted in HTML | Sending a short teaser while the page contains the full role |
datePosted | The original publication date | Resetting it whenever the feed synchronises |
hiringOrganization | The actual employer | Naming the ATS supplier instead |
jobLocation | Physical workplace, including addressCountry | Using head-office details for a different worksite |
validThrough | Expiry date and time when the role has a deadline | Leaving a future deadline after the role closes early |
employmentType | The appropriate value, such as FULL_TIME | Putting contract wording only inside an image |
identifier | The employer's unique requisition reference | Losing the reference between the careers site and ATS |
baseSalary | Employer-provided base pay, currency and pay period, if supplied | Publishing an estimate or a figure absent from the page |
directApply | Whether the application experience meets Google's definition | Setting it to true because an Apply button exists |
Google requires the core identity, description and date fields, with location requirements depending on whether the role is remote. Other fields are recommended or conditional.
For example, validThrough is required when a vacancy has an expiry date. Don't invent an unknown deadline.
The HTML page title can include the role, location and employer. The schema title is narrower. Keep it to the job title.
Run the Rich Results Test, then inspect the live URL in Search Console. Check what Google can actually read after publication.
A passing test isn't the finish. Candidates still need a real vacancy and a usable application form.
Can your ATS stop job pages appearing in search?
An applicant tracking system can create an SEO problem when job descriptions are inaccessible, duplicated or disconnected from the employer site. Test the implementation before replacing the platform.
An ATS manages vacancies and applications. It doesn't automatically make every public page findable, and a careers homepage can't compensate for inaccessible job details behind it.
Check a vacancy:
- Open its URL without signing in and confirm the complete description appears, rather than a teaser sending visitors elsewhere for the details.
- Check the HTTP response, robots rules,
noindexsetting and canonical URL. - Inspect Google's rendered page. Make sure the role isn't missing after JavaScript loads.
- Follow ordinary links from the careers hub to the vacancy, checking that candidates and crawlers can reach it without submitting a search.
- Use your phone. Follow the application route and confirm the correct requisition opens with its requirements intact.
- Compare the visible details, schema and ATS record, including status and closing time.
Duplicates need an owner. If your careers domain and ATS both expose the same vacancy, agree which URL should be canonical and implement that choice where supported.
Keep that choice consistent across internal links and vacancy sitemaps. Don't point every job's canonical tag at the careers homepage; those pages aren't interchangeable copies.
Searchmaxxed handles crawl, indexing, canonical, rendering and mobile-performance work within the agreed scope. Vendor-controlled changes need the ATS owner's involvement, rather than a website fix pretending to reach inside another platform.
What should happen when a job expires?
A closed vacancy must stop appearing as an available job. Google permits expiry through a past validThrough value, removal of JobPosting, or a page returning HTTP 404 or 410.
Choose deliberately. A retained page can explain that applications have closed and link to relevant current roles, without presenting the old vacancy as open.
Google's removal guidance also recommends notifying it through the Indexing API. Sitemap removal alone isn't enough.
Keep these operations distinct:
| What happened | Page treatment | Google notification |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy opened or changed | Publish accurate visible details and matching markup | URL_UPDATED |
| Role closed; useful page retained | Show closure clearly; remove JobPosting or set its expiry in the past | Notify the update with URL_UPDATED |
| Vacancy page removed | Return 404 or 410 | URL_DELETED after the removal is live |
| Page kept but excluded from indexing | Add noindex; allow Google to crawl the instruction | URL_DELETED after the instruction is live |
The Indexing API documentation distinguishes updates from deletions. Closure doesn't always mean deletion.
How do you test the whole vacancy lifecycle?
Test job states, not just templates. A technically valid open-role page tells you nothing about whether the feed will remove its markup after somebody fills the position.
Consider a hypothetical enterprise software company hiring in Australia and the US. Its careers site reads vacancies from an ATS, while marketing maintains the employer pages.
Before launch, put these test records through the complete publishing route:
| Test record | What the candidate must see | What the technical check must confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Newly approved role | Correct description and working application link | Indexable canonical URL with matching JobPosting |
| Role filled before its deadline | Closed status, without an active application invitation | Expired or removed markup despite the original future deadline |
| Description or location changed | Updated terms everywhere | Visible page and schema match the ATS change |
| Fully remote role restricted to Australia | Australia eligibility stated plainly | Correct remote markup and applicant geography |
| Hybrid role requiring office attendance | Attendance requirement beside the location | No misleading fully remote designation |
| Feed unavailable | Honest availability message where needed | Failure doesn't silently create false vacancies or erase valid records |
This is a proposed acceptance checklist, not a client case study. Keep the expected result beside each requisition reference, then record the actual page and schema output.
Give hiring operations control of vacancy status and employment details. Give engineering responsibility for feed behaviour, while marketing owns the lasting employer information and SEO acceptance checks.
That division matters. Otherwise, a role can close in the ATS while remaining enthusiastically available everywhere else.
How should location pages and remote jobs work?
Location pages should describe real workplaces or genuine hiring eligibility, with useful information beyond a filtered vacancy list. Remote roles need explicit geographical restrictions where those apply.
Start with the workplace. A manufacturing site page can explain the teams based there, shift arrangements, transport access and current opportunities using facts approved by the employer.
When no roles are open, say so. Keep the page if its workplace information remains useful, but don't invent a vacancy to fill the space.
For job posting SEO, Google's remote rules are precise:
- Use
jobLocationType: "TELECOMMUTE"when the role can be performed fully remotely. - Specify eligible applicant geography through
applicantLocationRequirements, with the country information Google requires. - Match that geography in the visible description.
- Don't label occasional home working or required office attendance as fully remote.
An employee choosing between an office and fully remote work differs from someone required to attend the office. Describe the actual arrangement before choosing markup.
For an Australian vacancy and a US vacancy, check each country's record separately. Employment terms, pay currency, working hours and eligibility may differ despite identical job titles.
Apply the same care to deadlines. Where a deadline includes a time, use its correct timezone offset so the visible closing time agrees with the structured value.
Our location-page and schema work starts with those distinctions. More URLs won't fix missing information.
How do employer-brand searches connect with AI answers?
Employer-brand SEO makes reliable answers about working at your company easy to find. AI search adds another reason to publish those facts clearly, without turning policy into promotional copy.
A candidate might ask whether your engineering team works remotely, how graduate hiring works, or which benefits apply in a particular country. Answer the specific question.
| Candidate question | Useful employer evidence | Page owner to involve |
|---|---|---|
| Can I work remotely? | Approved policy, eligible roles and country restrictions | HR and hiring operations |
| What does the interview involve? | Actual stages, assessments and accessibility contact | Talent acquisition |
| What benefits apply here? | Country-specific benefits and eligibility | HR |
| What would I work on? | Approved team examples and role responsibilities | Hiring manager |
| Is this company a good employer? | Concrete policies and consented employee accounts, rather than unsupported praise | HR and communications |
Google's AI-search guidance says supporting pages must be indexed and eligible for snippets. It requires no special AI schema.
Searchmaxxed's AI SEO, GEO and AEO work includes clear owned-page facts and tracking what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers say. For careers content, the useful question is whether those answers describe your employment policies correctly.
We can improve the source pages. We can't write the workplace into being, replace HR's policy decisions, or control an answer engine's verdict about your company.
How do you measure career site SEO properly?
Measure organic discovery, completed applications and qualified applicants separately. Keep employer-search traffic out of customer-acquisition totals, especially when the careers section shares your main website.
Start with the requisition reference. Carry it through page analytics and application reporting where your systems permit, without sending applicant personal information into general website analytics.
Then separate the stages:
| Stage | What to measure | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Search Console impressions and clicks for careers URLs | That a visitor applied |
| Intent | Application starts or clicks to the ATS | That the application was completed |
| Completion | Confirmed submissions from the application system | That the applicant met the hiring criteria |
| Quality | Qualified applicants and interviews reported by hiring operations | That SEO caused every hiring outcome |
| Hiring | Hires linked to the recorded source where available | A complete account of earlier candidate interactions |
If the ATS can't return completion data, label your website event “Apply click”. Don't rename it “Application” because the bigger number looks more useful.
Compare like with like. A hiring freeze can reduce applications even while discovery improves, so record open requisitions and the mix of roles alongside the search results.
For the software-company example, reconcile the ATS's open roles against published vacancy URLs. Check missing and stale roles first.
Searchmaxxed's measurement work connects Search Console and GA4 with the agreed conversion signals. A hiring-system integration needs its own reporting scope, including agreement on which application events the platform can actually return to your website analytics.
Is Searchmaxxed right for your careers site?
Searchmaxxed fits employers that need careers-page content and technical SEO implemented together, rather than an audit handed to an already busy team. The scope depends on website access and ATS constraints.
| Searchmaxxed is a good fit if | Look elsewhere if |
|---|---|
| You need careers content and technical SEO implemented together | You want strategy advice with no changes to your site |
| Your employer pages and vacancy templates need continuing improvements | You only need a handful of job descriptions rewritten |
| Your team controls employment facts and can arrange website access | You need a recruitment agency to screen candidates and make hiring decisions |
Our managed work includes implementation, weekly releases, direct access to the people doing the work, and client ownership of the site, content and data. Those commitments matter when employer pages and vacancy templates need continuing changes.
Growth System and Agentic Search Engineering combine SEO with AI-search work. Custom & Enterprise can include multiple markets, dedicated engineering and custom reporting where the careers platform needs a broader scope.
We aren't your recruitment agency. Candidate screening, hiring decisions and employment-policy approval remain with your organisation, and ATS capabilities need checking before integration work is agreed.
If the job is only rewriting a handful of descriptions, a full managed search engagement may be more than you need. If the obstacle is vendor access, resolve that dependency first.
Frequently asked questions
Does a careers homepage need JobPosting schema?
No. Google restricts JobPosting to a page describing an individual job, not the careers homepage or a list of vacancies.
Do jobs have to be hosted on the main company domain?
Not necessarily. The important checks are accessible job pages, clear employer identity, canonical consistency, matching structured data and a working application route.
Can a hybrid job use TELECOMMUTE markup?
Not when office attendance is required. Google reserves TELECOMMUTE for roles that can be performed fully remotely, including an optional fully remote arrangement.
Should expired jobs redirect to the careers homepage?
Not by default. Choose a truthful closed-page, removal or replacement strategy; a homepage redirect doesn't preserve the information somebody expected from a specific vacancy.
Is the Google Indexing API a replacement for a sitemap?
No. Google recommends the Indexing API for job-posting updates while still recommending a sitemap for coverage across the wider site.
Does JobPosting markup make an employer appear in AI answers?
JobPosting markup describes a vacancy. Google's AI features use normal SEO foundations and don't require special AI schema; employer-policy answers need readable, accurate source pages.
What should a careers SEO brief include?
Include the careers URL, ATS platform, target hiring markets, priority job families and known reporting gaps. Name the owners of employment facts and website changes.
Bring that brief to Searchmaxxed so we can scope the pages, technical fixes and measurement around your hiring operation. Let's talk pricing.