We’ve heard the same concern from many clients again and again this year: Employers are struggling with lower applicant counts than usual. There are more open roles than applicants to fill them and new competition for those same job seekers is springing up in new industries.

Creating a great job description is the first step in attracting applicants, but it’s equally important to get your job openings in front of the right people!

So where is the best place to post jobs online? 

At CareerPlug, we have insights from industry data and experience helping our clients make hundreds of thousands of hires. We’re sharing what we know about the best places to post your job online, so that we can make this (sometimes exhausting) process a little easier, and help your job openings get more visibility. 

Best Places to Post Jobs Online  

• Job boards and job search engines 
• Custom sources 
• Social media
• Company careers page 

Where should I post my jobs? 

Where you post your open jobs can significantly impact your applicant flow, but you don’t just want more applicants, right? You want high quality applicants that are invested in your open roles. 

In our annual Recruiting Metrics Report, we analyze some of the most common applicant sources to see where the most hires are coming from. Check out some of our findings below: 

One thing is for sure, job boards equal a higher quantity of applicants. But when it comes to applicant quality, there are actually better applicant sources. 

Because of this, we recommend a strategy that involves posting your job to job boards and other places online. Let’s break down some of the best options and how employers are using them to spread their job postings far and wide. 

Job boards and job search engines 

This first category is where the majority of candidates begin their search for their next job. Job boards are a place where employers can post their open jobs. Job search engines, on the other hand, aggregate job posts from all over the internet to include on their platforms. Since many job search engines also act as job boards (like Indeed) we’ll be combining both categories.  

Here are some of the most popular job search engines and job boards:

Indeed

Indeed is the largest job search engine in the world. It aggregates thousands of jobs online and also serves as the largest source of applicants in the US. Indeed also hosts a resume database of over 225 million resumes. 

​​There are a few different ways that a job can get posted on Indeed. Of course, employers can post jobs directly on the website. Additionally, “aggregated jobs” are job postings that are already out in the world that get picked up by Indeed. Lastly, third party or “indexed jobs” is when a job posting is sent to Indeed through another source. This is how an ATS like CareerPlug distributes jobs to Indeed.

Organic jobs are posted for free. These jobs are placed based on keyword relevancy, then by chronological order. Because of this, they fall further down the search results as they age. 

Sponsored jobs are paid to post, based on a daily or monthly budget, and Indeed gives them “premium placement” in search results. This gives job postings additional and longer visibility, which can be a great choice if you need to fill a role urgently or are having trouble finding applicants. 

Glassdoor

Glassdoor is most well-known for its employer reviews. While it serves as a strong hub for candidates to research a company, it also functions as a powerful job search engine. 

Indeed and Glassdoor are now sister companies, so In order to post a job on Glassdoor, you must post the job to Indeed. Jobs sponsored through Indeed are automatically posted on both sites. Employers will likely want to maintain their separate Glassdoor accounts so that they can actively monitor and build their employer brand online. 

ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter markets itself as an online employment marketplace and is another strong source for finding candidates. 

ZipRecruiter offers a free trial to employers for posting their jobs. After the trial expires, the minimum cost to continue is $299/month. This also gives you access to their resume database and job alerts for when a candidate completes a job application. However, you can get your jobs on ZipRecruiter’s organic feed with an ATS like CareerPlug at no additional cost.

Other job search engines 

While these are some of the biggest job search engines and job boards, there are plenty more places to post your jobs online. Some other job sites you might want to consider posting your jobs to are Monster, SimplyHired, JobInventory, and JobCase. CareerPlug automatically publishes your jobs to all these places and more with just one click. 

Custom sources 

Depending on your job opening, you may want to consider posting your job to an industry specific or niche site. For instance, FlexJobs is a great place for posting jobs that have remote or flexible working options. Many industries also have industry specific job boards, like myCNAjobs.com which can help you find qualified Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs). 

Most universities and colleges also host their own job site where students can search for jobs online. Make just you have listed your job on these sites to maximize job visibility. Even though it may take a little work to manually share your jobs to a variety of custom sources, we found that applicants from these sources are 17 times more likely to be hired than applicants from traditional job boards. 

Social media

Social media can also be a useful tool for recruiting. Glassdoor reports that 79 percent of job seekers use social media when conducting their job search, and another survey found that 84 percent of organizations are recruiting via social media with another 9% planning to do so that haven’t already.

Let’s cover some of the best social media sites to post your jobs online. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking social media site, so it makes sense that it has also evolved into a strong platform for job listings. When you post a job to LinkedIn, the site automatically alerts your coworkers and close connections so that they can share the job with their network. 

You can post one job for free at a time on LinkedIn. To increase your job’s visibility, you can pay to promote your open jobs. LinkedIn allows you to add your own budget and promote accordingly. 

Facebook

On Facebook, you can post your openings to your company page. We also find that our clients have great luck with using Facebook groups to share their open jobs. Local, niche, and industry-specific Facebook groups can be a great place to let potential applicants know you are hiring. 

In the “Groups” section of Facebook, just search “[Your City] jobs.” For example, here are the first few search results for the term “Portland jobs.”

TikTok

The popular video sharing app recently launched a new way for employers to share their open jobs and recruit new employees. With TikTok resumes, you can publish job listings and receive “video resumes” from prospective candidates. 

Sure, this may seem like an unconventional method for recruiting, but many large companies like Chipotle and Target are taking advantage of TikTok Resumes to reach Gen Z applicants. 

Other social media platforms

Similar to job search engines and job boards, there are many other social media platforms where you can share your open jobs, including  Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter. It can be helpful to think about your ideal applicants and consider where they are most likely to hang out online. Meet them there! 

Company careers page 

In addition to posting your jobs on job boards and social media sites, you’ll also want to create a strong company careers page where you can list any openings.

We found that an applicant that applies on a company careers page is 4 times more likely to be hired than an applicant from a job board. Another study found that today’s job seeker ranks careers pages as the #1 aspect to learn about a company when researching opportunities.

You can create a careers page using CareerPlug that highlights your employer brand and shows potential applicants what it’s like to work at your company. We recommend including pictures and video, and making sure that benefits and perks are prominently displayed on your page. 

Learn more about creating a compelling careers page by watching the video below: 

Stepping outside the box with your job postings 

Posting your open jobs online is effective, but it’s not the only way to find your next great employee! Utilizing your local network is a great way to recruit top talent, from local job ads to posting a sign in your store to creating an employee referral program.

Creating an employee referral program to announce new openings to your employees consistently can help you find great candidates. As an added bonus, employee referrals come pre-vetted by your own employees, giving you additional insight into their fit for the role and eliminating a lot of guesswork in hiring decisions. 

In fact, an applicant that comes through an employee referral is 18 times more likely to become a hire than an applicant from a job board, making this yet another strong applicant source. 

Customer referrals can be another great source of hires in many industries. Consider sending out an email to customers letting them know that you are hiring. In many cases, there is overlap between your customers and potential employees. 

As you can see, there are many great places to post your job online including job boards, social media sites, your own careers page, and custom sources. Diversifying your strategy is a great way to get more visibility for your open roles and keep your applicant flow steady.