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How To Add Structured Data To Job Postings?

How To Add Structured Data To Job Postings? featured image
12 Oct 2020
Nirlep Patel
Structured Data
Use the JobPosting structured data markup to your job posting web pages for improving and simplifying job-seeking search appearances. With the help of the structured data job postings are made eligible for appearing in a special search experience in Google Search Results. You can collaborate with Google by using a third-party job site.

The JobPostings feature has many benefits: 👇

  1. You get more interactive results as the feature makes your job postings eligible to be displayed in Google’s job search experience. It features your logo, review, ratings and job details.
  2. Makes job search experience easy and motivates applicants as they can choose a tailor-made job with the help of various filters like location, job title, etc., attracting the correct applicants for the job.
  3. The feature also increases chances of discovery and conversion rates by giving job seekers a new avenue of interactions with your postings and click through to your site.

How Do I Add Structured Data?

Apart from the usual steps of adding structured data to your content, ensure that you follow the technical guidelines and job posting content policies your host load settings allow for frequent crawls.

PRO TIP 👨🏻‍🏫: Please refer to the previous post of the series to know more about How To Add Structured Data.

How Do I Remove A Job Posting?

To remove a job posting, follow the below steps:

  1. Remove your page by following one of the below-listed actions:
  2. Make sure the validThrough property is populated and forgotten.
  3.  Remove the entire page.
  4.  Remove the JobPosting structured data from the page.

Inform Google through one of the following ways:

  1. Use the indexing API for requesting the removal of a job posting URL from Google’s search index.
  2.  If not using the indexing API, then submit a new sitemap to Google by sending a GET request to the below-stated URL:

PRO TIP 👨🏻‍🏫: Google recommends using indexing API instead of Sitemap as the former prompts Googlebot for crawling your pager faster than removing the said URL from the site map and informing Google. A sitemap coverage is recommended for covering your entire site.

How To Mark Up Work From Home Jobs?

A job should be marked up as a work from a home job under the following circumstances:

For jobs that can be performed at home but there are geographical restrictions on the employee’s location. The employee does not need to go to the physical job office or location.

Properties such as:

  1. applicationLocationRequierements
  2. jobLocationType
  3. Should be used.

 For jobs that can be performed at a physical worksite in a city or home in the US. Properties such as:

  1. jobLocation
  2. jobType… Should be used.

For jobs that can be performed at a physical location in any of the cities.

Example: For Jobs that are performed at Michigan, New York or Texas.

Properties Such as:

  • JobLocation
  • JobLocationType
  • ApplicantLocationRequierements 

The various properties related to marking up work from home jobs:

  1. JobLocationType: Use the entity for specifying a work from home job.
  2. ApplicantLocationRequierements: The entity specifies geographic locations of the employee for work from home jobs. It is mandatory to state one country.
  3. JobLocation: The entity specifies the physical location of the job. Do not use the property for jobs not having a physical location. Example: Construction Sites.

How Do I Update My Company Logo?

Usually, Google uses the same company logo shown in your company’s knowledge card for the company’s job postings. You can choose to suggest a change or use structured data for indicating your preferred logo.

Companies having a third-party job site can provide for a different logo other than the image/logo shown in the company’s knowledge graph card and let Google pick the best logo for displaying it over search results. It can either be the knowledge graph logo or hiringOrganisation logo.

What Are The Technical Guidelines To Follow?

  1. Always add structured data on the most detailed leaf. Avoid adding structured data for pages presenting a list of job searches. Apply structured data for the most specific pages that describe a single job.
  2. Add the JobPosting Structured data for every job posting you want to advertise. The structured data must appear as the said job description.
  3. Try and use the various properties only once, unless the said job description requires it to be added more than once.
  4. Follow the general sitemap guidelines if you are using sitemaps for keeping Google informed about future changes.

Ensure:

  1. Googlebot can access the sitemap’s URL that is not blocked by robots.txt file or other properties.
  2.  Use accurate time for the <lastmode> sitemap, <pubDate> (RSS) OR <updated> (Atom) for indicating whether the page has changed or not. The value should indicate the last time of URL content change. Mentioning the accurate time is recommended as crawl bandwidth is limited. The accurate time helps google to avoid re-crawling of pages.
  3. Avoid including search result pages, list pages, etc. in the sitemap.

Job Posting Content Policies:

Policies like General Structured Data Guidelines, Webmaster Quality Guidelines, etc. ensure that users stay connected with open, relevant jobs. These policies also make sure that jobs are easy to apply.

Irrelevant Content:

Use the JobPosting entity for marking up content only related to job postings.

Incompetent Content:

Google does not allow job postings with incomplete job descriptions.

Misinterpretation :

Google does not support job postings attempting to impersonate another person, organisation or companies or organisations engaging in illegal and fraud activities. It includes using multiple accounts for evading Google’s policy, bypass blocks, etc. Policy Violations such as:

  1. aJobs or content representing the employer unrealistically or inaccurately.
  2. Fake Job postings or non-existent job postings where the primary aim is to collect applicants information rather than employing the applicants.
  3. .Providing false location information not matching the actual job location.
  4. Unauthorized job postings.
  5. Profanity And Vulgar Language:
  6. Google does not support postings containing profane or vulgar language.
  7. Advertisements disguised as Job Postings:Google does not support promotional content disguised as job postings, for example, affiliate programs.
  8. Legal Remove Requests: When Google receives complaints stating that the content in a job posting is violating rules and laws, the said job postings are handled according to Google Search Policies.
  9. Expired Job Postings:Google does not entertain expired job postings. Ensure to remove expired job postings from your websites. If you do not wish to remove them then ensure that the ValidThrough property is populated.
  10. Jobs Without A Way To Apply: Job Postings that:
  11. Advertise various events such as career fair invitations, etc
  12. Job Postings requiring a login for viewing the job descriptions Are not allowed by Google.
  13. Resume Collection:Request resumes only for openings. Google has the authority to remove Requests for collecting candidate data and not the hiring data.
  14. Job Requests: All jobs must specify job requests like qualifications needed and other information that might be relevant to the user. Job postings wherein the job applicant offers to perform a job are not allowed by Google.
  15. Payment Requirement: Jobs requiring payment from applicants are not allowed.

WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS PROPERTIES OF THE MARKUP?

  1. DatePosted: The original date of a job posting in ISO-8601. The entity holds the original date when the employer posted the job posting.
  2.  Text: The entity holds the full description of the job in HTML format. It should include job responsibilities, qualifications, education, skills, working hours, and experience requirements.
  3.  It is the actual representation of the job. The description should not match the title. 
  4. The description is formatted in HTML
  5. Minimum Paragraph breaks must be added using <br>,<p>, OR \n.
  6.  The feature recognizes HTML tags such as: <p>, <ul> and <li>
  7. The feature does not recognise header and character level tags such as <hl>, <strong> and <em>. These tags do not affect the formatting and can be included on the page.

What Are The Various Properties Of The Markup?

  1. DatePosted: The original date of a job posting in ISO-8601. The entity holds the original date when the employer posted the job posting.
  2.  Text: The entity holds the full description of the job in HTML format. It should include job responsibilities, qualifications, education, skills, working hours, and experience requirements.
  3.  It is the actual representation of the job. The description should not match the title. 
  4. The description is formatted in HTML
  5. Minimum Paragraph breaks must be added using <br>,<p>, OR \n.
  6.  The feature recognizes HTML tags such as: <p>, <ul> and <li>
  7. The feature does not recognise header and character level tags such as <hl>, <strong> and <em>. These tags do not affect the formatting and can be included on the page.

HiringOrganisation: The said organisation offering the job position. It should include the company name and not the company location.Companies having a third-party job site can provide for a different logo other than the image/logo shown in the company’s knowledge graph card and let Google pick the best logo for displaying it over search results. It can either be the knowledge graph logo or hiringOrganisation logo. Ensure to follow the Logo Image and Company Image Guidelines.

JobLocation: The entity holds the physical location of the job and not the location where the said job was posted. The more accurate properties you provide, the higher the quality of job posting to the users.

  • Multiple Physical Locations :

Add Jobocation property in an array for jobs having multiple locations. Google chooses the best location for display depending on the job seeker’s query.

  • Remote Jobs:

Use JobLocationType for jobs where the employed might or completely work from home. The said property is not required when ApplicantLocationRequierement is present.

Title: The title of the said job :

 Follow the below-listed practices:

  1. The property must only include the job title.
  2.  Do not include address, salaries, company name, etc.
  3. The title must be precise and readable.
  4.  Avoid overusing characters such as! and *. Overusing them can lead your structured data to be considered as spammy structured data.
  5. Do not use the name in place of the title. The two properties are not interchangeable.
  6. In case you are a third party website then avoid modifying the job title for following the above-said guidelines as it can lead to the title being unreadable. Provide the same title that the employer has given.
  7. ValidThrough: The entity holds the expiry date of the job posting inISO-8601 Format.
  8. Do not use the property if the job posting does not have an expiry date.
  9. ApplicantLocationRequierements: The entity holds the geographic location wherein the employees may be located for being eligible for work from home jobs.
  10. BaseSalary: The real base salary of the job as stated by the employer.Use the following case-sensitive values for unitText of Quantitative value:
    1. HOUR
    2. DAY
    3. WEEK
    4. MONTH
    5. YEAR

    Always define a minValue and maxValue other than the single value.

  11. EmploymentType: The said type of employment. Example:
  • FULL_TIME
  • PART_TIME
  • CONTRACTOR
  • TEMPORARY
  • INTERN
  • VOLUNTEER
  • PER_DIEM
  • OTHER

You are free to include more than one EmploymentType property.

Identifier: The entity contains the hiring organisation’s unique identifier for the said job.

JobLocatioType: Jobs where the employee must work entirely from home, those jobs are marked up as TELECOMMUTE jobs. 

A. Do not mark up Occasional work from home jobs, jobs where remote work is a negotiable benefit or other jobs which are not entirely remote.

B. Use the ApplicantLocationRequierements for specifying at least one country from where applicants are eligible to work or specify a default country to a JobLocation. For remote jobs not containing JobLocation, Google shows the said job to anyone in the country that is specified in the JobLocation.

PRO TIP: Google supports Telecommute as an AdditionalProperty of JobLocation. Google does not plan on diminishing the AdditionalProperty however, it does encourage the use of the new schema.

How Do I Fix Troubleshooting Problems?

  1. When the structured data is wrong on the page:
  • It occurs when a job listing page ( a search result page containing one or more job postings) has the JobPosting structured data.

 Use the JobPosting Structured data only on a Job posting page ( a page containing a single job and is not a search engine result page). You might receive the search console message for the same.

How Do I Fix the Issue?

  1. Verify the structured data aligning with the actual page content, is representing the job to be performed and does not mislead users.
  2. Ensure to use the URL inspection tool for making the content visible on the rendered page.
  3.  After resolving the issue, submit your site for reconsideration.

If The Expired Jobs Are Still Live:

Users can access the page via the Job Experience on Google Jobs even if the job is expired. Due to the following reasons:

  1. ValidThrough property is not available or is missing.
  2. The said page is still alive
  3. The job posting’s apply option directly leads to the expired posting page.
  4. JobPosting Structured data is present on the page even though the Job Posting is expired.

You must have received the search console message stating the same.

How Do I Fix The Issue?

Ensure to remove the expired job using the following options:

  1. Make Sure the ValidProperty is populated.
  2.  Remove the entire page.
  3.  Remove JobPosting structured data off the page.

Ensure that Google is informed by making use of indexing API. Submit a sitemap if not using the indexingAPI. Do so by sending a GET request to the below-said URL:

Submit your site for reconsideration after resolving the issue.

If the Apply Option Is Missing:

There is no way for users to apply for the job on the job posting page. You will receive a search console message for the same.

How Do I Fix The Issue?

  1. Ensure that there is a way for users to apply for the job.
  2. Submit your site for reconsideration after resolving the issue.

If The Logo Is Incorrect

 If your site does not have a knowledge card or the knowledge Graph shows the incorrect logo of your site. Google will always use the same logo for the job posting similar to the image displayed in your company’s knowledge graph card.

How Do I Fix The Issue?