What Goes into Building your New Staffing Firm Website
Whenever someone is approaching a new website for their staffing firm, there are a number of factors that go into it. This includes what content you want, special practice areas that go into your business, your corporate culture that you want reflected, as well as the overall tone you want set. Beyond that are the capabilities you want the website to have. Many things go into building your staffing firm website; however, the process brings great benefits for your clients, consultants, and candidates.
The Technology Behind Your Staffing Firm Website
When creating your staffing firm website, you need to consider every aspect of what the site consists of. The obvious ones that should be considered are the application process for candidates and a job search feature. Another, is the use of chatbots, whether they are automated and AI enabled, or using the recruiting team as the response engine. Beyond that, will you have a private area for consultants vs. candidates? Do you want to have a full-blown podcast to add to your capabilities? Do you want lead generation forms to trigger even more leads from different case studies, white papers, or data sheets? You need to look at what type of platform you want to be on, whether its WordPress, Drupal, etc. Once the platform has been decided, then the implementation of content, technology, and the overall architecture of the site is put into place.
Design
In addition to content and technology, we are really talking about the preparedness for the design process. In staffing firm marketing, we do infuse our opinions and thoughts, but ultimately, it’s your site and you do need to like and appreciate the site and have the content you want. We always make sure it delivers, but our style isn’t the one in question, it’s yours. We speak with your clients and candidates in order to garner their thoughts and opinions, as much as you want. We want to ensure that we take their feedback into the process in order to have a site that speaks to your audience.
Additionally, in the design process, we want to make wireframes. The idea behind this is to confirm that we are all operating off the same goals and concepts. Rather than making a fully designed staffing firm website right off the bat, starting with a wireframe allows for everyone to see the layout and get on the same page before everything is implemented. This also allows for the designer and developer to be able to really move efficiently and effectively through it.
Return on investment / Call-to-action
To attract people, we are looking at the call-to-action across the site. While some people look at a staffing firm website as an online brochure, the fact is, it is a revenue driving machine and should be treated as such. Whenever someone relegates their website to online brochure, that’s exactly what they’re going to get. Our job is to help you understand that both clients and candidates are actively pursuing opportunities through the website. Maybe not so many clients, but contrary to belief, it’s happening more than you know.
Timing
The next question we always get following the creation of the wireframes is, “how long will building the site take?” The answer to this is: approximately three months. This is assuming that everyone is moving through the process effectively. When it comes to content approval, photo selection, navigation design, technology, etc., everyone needs to come together to make it an efficient process. Building your staffing firm website really relies on both parties, because it is where client thoughts, decisions and approvals all meet successful project management. I equate this to the same issues that sales people and recruiters in staffing have, which is that they have the perfect candidate, it’s sent to the client, and the client doesn’t get back to them for two weeks. Obviously, this slows downs the hiring process. Web development is very similar in that we are constantly following up and trying to make sure that everyone stays on the timeline.
Responsive, User Interface and User Experience
In all cases, the website it going to be built responsive. This refers to whether or not the site can be viewed and navigated correctly on multiple types of screens (mobile, monitor, tablet, etc.). Many people used to think that the application process and job search was something to be viewed in mobile, but not necessarily acted on. Now, it is fully acted on. With all of us having access to Drop Box or Google, all of our documents, like our resumes, are in a place that is accessible through our mobile devices. To anyone that doesn’t necessarily think that that’s happening, it’s occurring with most of our clients at a rate of about 20% of the applicants coming through a mobile device. The behavior and the ease of moving through the site becomes that much more important, so we always look at the user interface and user experience. If it’s too hard to get to where you want to go on mobile, then you are not going to go there. On a website, people are a little more forgiving, but on mobile devices they are not. You have to get to your point and get there fast to lead people in the right directions.
Search Engine Optimization
This brings me to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). How are you going to be found? Your direct traffic is always great, but in reality, it’s the people that don’t know us that we want to get to know. That’s where SEO leaps to the forefront, making sure we understand what you want to be known for. Not everyone wants to be known for IT staffing in their location. Many people want to get into getting their jobs to perform and climb up the ladder of searches. We are constantly working with clients to understand how to apply SEO for their benefit and meets their particular goals.
If your staffing firm website is not performing, then the question is, “what functions can it perform?” and “what do I want it doing?” There’s a really good chance that those are not aligned. Let’s get website alignment in place and move forward for success.