The modern recruiter has access to a wide assortment of time-saving technology—like Exelare applicant tracking software. Be that as it may, one old-fashioned recruiting tool is still very much with us: the job ad. These days, job ads tend to be found not just in the classified section of the newspaper but also on the internet, with online career sites like Monster.com accounting for a large share of this sort of traffic.

In addition, many companies have dedicated career sites where they post their current openings. Like it or not, recruiters can expect to continue devoting a significant portion of their valuable time to the task of creating job descriptions. Here are some quick tips for optimizing your job descriptions effectively in the contemporary digital age.

Optimize Your Job Description

Use Variations on Job Titles – Are you searching for an administrative assistant or an office assistant? A manager or a supervisor? The non-standardization of job titles means that we have different terms for more or less the same kinds of positions. You may be recruiting for an “executive secretary” opening, but it’s a good practice to include synonyms and near-synonyms (e.g., executive assistant) in order to maximize the number of hits your posting receives.

Use Abbreviations – It’s also wise to include commonly recognized abbreviations when appropriate, such as “QC” for quality control and “HR” for human resources. You should use the full term in addition to the abbreviation—again, this increases the odds of a relevant hit.

Remember to Include the Location – Online job postings can be viewed from all over the country—and the rest of the world. That’s why you should be very clear about the location of the job opportunity. Always include city and state. If the job is in a small municipality that might not necessarily be recognizable to locals, then include a broader geographic identifier (e.g., Southern California).

Optimize the URL – If possible, include relevant keywords in the URL of the job posting. For example, nameofcompany.com/executive-assistant-opening-6524 is much better than nameofcompany.com/6524.

creating job descriptions

Be Mobile-Friendly – A growing proportion of job seekers are looking up ads on their mobile phones. What is the relevance of this to recruiters? You need to keep your descriptions short in order to accommodate tiny screens.

Use Facebook’s Job-Posting Tab – If you have a company page on Facebook—and it’s a sound practice to have one—you can take advantage of its job-posting feature, released in February 2017. This function gives you a handful of simple tools for creating and posting job ads on your business page. Candidates can easily respond to ads, as Facebook automatically populates many application fields using information already stored on the site.