Advantages & Disadvantages of Using Blogs for Recruitment

A comprehensive guide of using blogs for recruitment is available.

Advantages of Using Recruitment Blogs

• Enhancing employer brand and culture: Blogs allow companies to effectively showcase their work environment, ethos, and core values, helping jobseekers decide if they align with the organisation’s values and goals creating a more meaningful connection with prospective employees.
• Attracting passive jobseekers: Regular blogging keeps the company’s recruitment efforts in the public eye, nurturing interest from passive candidates. This means that when these individuals are ready to make a career move, the business is already on their radar.
• Transparency in the recruitment process: Blogs can demystify the recruitment process by outlining the steps involved, the skills and qualities sought, and offering application tips. 
• Long-term SEO benefits: Regularly updated and professionally written blogs can improve a company’s overall search engine rankings, making it more visible to jobseekers and customers.

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Disadvantages of Using Recruitment Blogs

• High risk of failure: If not done correctly, the time and money spent creating recruitment blogs may not yield the desired visibility or engagement.
• Resource-intensive: Creating and maintaining a quality blog requires significant time, money, and input. This includes creating consistent content, managing SEO, and possibly hiring professional writers and SEO experts, which is both costly and time-consuming.
• Slow return on investment: Unlike direct recruitment methods, blogs typically do not yield immediate results. Building a readership and seeing the impact on recruitment can take considerable time, making it a long-term investment rather than a quick solution.
• Difficult to measure effectiveness: It’s challenging to measure the direct impact of a recruitment blog on hiring. The journey from reading a blog post to applying for a job involves so many steps and touchpoints that a candidate might not even realise that the blog drew them to the business! Moreover, Google Analytics (aka GA4) now only shows last-touch-point data, making it more difficult to see a candidate’s journey.
• Potential for outdated or irrelevant content: Keeping the blog content current and relevant requires regular updates. Outdated content fails to attract readers and can negatively impact the employer’s brand.
• Dependence on SEO and algorithm changes: A blog’s visibility relies heavily on search engine algorithms, which are subject to change. Companies must continuously adapt their SEO strategies to these changes, which can be complex and require specific expertise.
• Limited reach to specific demographics: Blogs are more likely to attract white-collar professionals or individuals who regularly engage with online content. This means they may not be as effective in reaching other jobseekers, such as blue-collar workers or those who are less active online.
• Risk of negative comments or spam: Allowing comments on blog posts can lead to spam or negative comments, harming the company’s image if not correctly managed. Monitoring and moderating comments require additional resources and can be a potential risk area.
• Technical and creative challenges: Successfully running a blog requires technical know-how (like SEO and web management) and creative capabilities to produce engaging and relevant content. This can be challenging for some companies, especially smaller ones with limited resources.