SEO for Recruitment Agencies
Jobseeker searches dwarf employer searches several times over. Which is why so many recruitment websites are busy with candidates and quiet on fees. We build for both sides properly.
Recruitment is a two-sided market and the two sides search completely differently. Jobseekers search constantly and in enormous numbers. Employers search rarely, in far smaller numbers, using entirely different words. Most agency websites are built around jobs and vacancies, which fills them with candidates and leaves the fee-paying half of the market unserved.
Traffic is not the same as fee income
We mapped the whole sector and the split is stark. Candidate-side near me searches run into the hundreds of thousands each month. The employer-side equivalents are a small fraction of that. Both matter, because you cannot place people you do not have, though only one of them sends an invoice.
- Enormous volume, several times the employer side
- Employment agencies, staffing agencies, job agencies
- Fills your database and your inbox
- Necessary, since you cannot place nobody
- Produces no fee income on its own
- Far lower volume, far higher value
- Sector plus region, hiring, staffing solutions
- A hiring manager with roles to fill and a budget
- Almost no agency builds pages for them
- This is where the fees actually come from
The practical answer is a site that serves both deliberately rather than by accident. Set out in attracting employer clients through SEO and candidate content and recruitment SEO.
Specialism is how an independent wins
A general recruitment agency page competes against national networks and job boards. It loses. A page about tech recruitment in your region competes against a handful of agencies. Every one of these is a different search made by a different hiring manager.
Temporary and contract
The largest search area in recruitment by volume. Recurring, urgent and often the entry point into a client relationship that grows into permanent work.
See the guide → Higher feesPermanent recruitment
Larger fees per placement and a longer decision. The hiring manager researches properly before appointing an agency to a permanent brief.
See the guide → Highest valueExecutive and retained search
The premium end. Fewer searches, substantial retained fees and a client choosing entirely on credibility and track record.
See the guide → Biggest sectorTech recruitment
The largest specialist sector in the data by a distance, plus the one where employers are most likely to want a genuine specialist rather than a generalist.
See the guide → High valueFinance recruitment
Substantial search volume and high placement values, with employers who assess an agency on whether it understands the roles it is filling.
See the guide → Contract-ledHealthcare recruitment
A sector where framework and contract work changes the buying process entirely, plus where the client search is very different from the candidate one.
See the guide → Project-drivenConstruction recruitment
Demand tied to project starts, which makes timing and local presence matter more here than in most sectors.
See the guide → Everything elseYour specialist sector
Legal, engineering, education, logistics, hospitality. The approach is the same whatever the vertical: go narrow, go deep, own the sector.
See the guide →How many people search for an agency near you
These are real monthly search numbers for recruitment, employment and staffing agency terms across the UK. London dominates this sector more heavily than almost any other we work in, which is worth knowing whether you are in it or competing against firms who are.
Figures are rounded monthly UK search volumes for generic agency searches in each area. Job board and national network brands are excluded, plus pure jobseeker head terms, so these show open agency demand. Want your own patch pulled? We will do it free.
Where the demand actually sits
Two sectors worth flagging from the data: logistics at 47,040 and education at 22,110 both outrank several verticals that agencies commonly target. If either is yours, the competition is thinner than you would expect.
Salary guides are the strongest thing you can publish
If a recruitment agency builds one substantial piece of content, it should be a salary guide for its sector. Nothing else in this industry does as much work at once, plus very few independents do it properly.
It catches employers at the buying moment
A hiring manager benchmarking pay is about to open a role. That is as close to purchase intent as an employer search gets, plus it is a question they will ask before they ever contact an agency.
It works on the candidate side too
Jobseekers and people considering a move search salary data constantly, which means one asset serves both halves of a two-sided market.
It earns links, which recruitment content rarely does
Journalists, trade press and other sites cite salary data. Almost nothing else a recruitment agency publishes gets referenced by anybody.
It proves you actually know the sector
Real data from placements you have made is expertise a network branch page cannot fake, plus it is exactly what an employer is assessing.
Update it annually and it compounds. The full approach, including what data to use and how to structure it, is in salary guide content for recruitment SEO.
What is included
You do not need to buy SEO, a website person, a maps person and a social person separately. It is all one job to us, on one monthly fee. Tap through to see what each part does for an agency.
Client-side SEO
The half nobody builds. Pages aimed at hiring managers rather than jobseekers, covering how you work, what you charge, your process and your track record. This is where fee income comes from.
Sector pages
A page for each vertical you genuinely specialise in, only those. Going narrow is how an independent agency outranks a national network on the searches that matter.
Salary guide content
Researched, structured and updated annually. The strongest single asset in recruitment SEO because it attracts both sides of the market, earns links and demonstrates real sector knowledge.
Your consultants
Named consultants with their sectors, their experience and their track record. Employers appoint people rather than agencies. A network branch page almost never names anybody.
Website management
Your site looked after rather than left to the job board plugin. New sector pages built, case studies added as placements complete and the client-side journey kept obvious.
AI optimisation
Hiring managers now ask AI assistants which agencies specialise in a sector or region. We structure your content so those tools can read your specialism and recommend you accurately.
LinkedIn and social
Two posts a week. LinkedIn is where your consultants already work, so this runs alongside their outbound rather than replacing it, keeping the agency visible between conversations.
Four steps, then we keep going
We separate the two audiences
Work out what your site currently serves, which is almost always candidates, then map what the employer journey should look like alongside it.
We build the client side
Pages aimed at hiring managers, your recruitment types made distinct and your process and fees explained rather than hidden.
We go narrow on sectors
A page per specialism you genuinely own, plus the salary guide that proves you know it, with your consultants named and credited.
We keep at it
An update every three weeks and a full audit every quarter, including refreshing salary data annually so it keeps earning.
What would it take to cover the fee
Drag the sliders using your own placement fees. Recruitment has one of the most favourable ratios of any sector we work in, because a single placement often covers a year of marketing. This is a rough illustration to think with, not a promise of results.
Illustration only. Real results depend on your sector, your competition and your conversion. We do not guarantee figures or placements.
Three ways agencies win clients
LinkedIn and outbound only
- Works, since it is where recruiters already live
- Reaches people you approach
- Misses everybody already searching
- Effort resets to zero every month
- Consultants who leave take their network
The large networks
- Enormous domain authority and budget
- They own the broad generic terms
- Thin, templated pages on individual sectors
- Rarely name consultants or show real data
- Beatable on sector plus region
Owning your specialism
- Found by hiring managers already looking
- Sector pages a network cannot match on depth
- Salary data that proves you know the market
- Named consultants with real track records
- Compounds instead of resetting monthly
More in competing with large recruitment networks and SEO vs LinkedIn.
One clear monthly fee
No setup fee and nothing billed separately, including when you take on a new sector and need a page building.
- One location or sector
- Client-side pages built properly
- Type and sector pages
- Salary guide content
- Website management and AI optimisation
- Quarterly audits and monthly reporting
- Everything in Local SEO
- Multiple sectors or offices
- More competitive sector terms
- Wider content programme
- For agencies expanding specialisms
- Everything in Growth
- National reach
- Competing with the large networks
- Full executive search targeting
- Priority support
Worth comparing against what local SEO typically costs before you decide.
Get found by the half that pays.
We build the client side your website is missing, go narrow on the sectors you genuinely own and publish the salary data that proves it. One plan. One fee.
Everything included in your plan:
One clear retainer. No setup fee.
