In addition to the new direct apply property for job postings, Google also announced that new the company is adding new editorial content policy for job postings on Google Search. These new policies go into effect on October 1, 2021 and aim to improve the quality of search results and develop new functionality within the product, Google said.
Google said the new editorial content policy include "guidance around obstructive text and images, excessive and distractive ads, or content that doesn't add any value to the job posting." This also includes that the job listings content "should also follow basic grammar rules, such as proper capitalization."
Here is some of Google's overall guidance around these new policies:
- Verify that there are no scammy or spammy job posts on your site. These are job posts don't represent a real job opportunity. Make sure that you only markup pages with a single and actionable job opportunity.
- Ensure a good user experience. According to our users, sites with poor user experience are those that ask for user information when it is not necessary, have poor quality pages (for example, excessive or obstructive ads), and/or have complex application processes (for example, lead to many redirects). Poor user experience also reduces application completion rate.
- Remove expired job posts. Don't leave a job post open if it is no longer accepting new applications. Applying and not hearing back from the employer is a common complaint of job seekers. When you remove the job from your site, make sure to also remove the markup or update the validThrough property. We encourage the use of Indexing API to update us on the change. Landing on an expired job post, especially after a few redirects, is a very frustrating experience.
- Make sure that the job's posting date is genuine. Users use freshness as a signal to assess if a position accepts new applicants, chances to get hired, attractiveness of the position and more. Don't mask old jobs as new ones and don't update the DatePosted property if there was no change to the job post.
- Don't include wrong or misleading information in the job post or the markup. This includes incorrect salary, location, working hours, employment type, or other job specific details. To avoid this make sure that the job post describes the job correctly and that the markup is an accurate representation of the job post.
You have until October to prepare for these changes if you do post job posting schema on your site.
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