Google Search Algorithm for Mobile Could Deep-Six Your Careers Page

Pay Attention to These Top 10 Job Search Trends

Ninety-four percent of the Fortune 100 companies’ web pages fail to fully comply with Google’s new mobile search algorithm, according to Pure Oxygen Labs, a mobile consulting and technology company. That means their career pages and job listings might not even show up for potential candidates.

It says two-thirds of the companies risk being downgraded in search results for not serving mobile versions of indexed pages. The new algorithm is designed to demote web pages that are not built with a responsive mobile web design. That means every page must be optimized for mobile, according to ere.net. Those that aren’t could even be deleted from search results, it says.

It cites three common causes for being penalized:

• A mobile user is served a regular HTML desktop version of your career site or job postings.
• When clicking on a specific job listing, rather than bringing it up, the site redirects the user to the Home page.
• Rich content such as Flash video, which doesn’t display well on smartphones or mobile devices, creates a bad user experience.

Anything that’s less than perfect for the candidate on mobile could invoke the penalty, the article says. With so many organizations complaining that they can’t find the talent they need – well, it’s important to get the tech talent you do have busy fixing this.