Many standard job boards are populated with job postings by using a client job posting API. They can simply upload a list of job postings in the form of XML files or other databases. However, using a client job posting API is not the best approach towards filling your job board with postings if your objective is to post a large volume of jobs in a quick time. That is why job boards use job posting aggregator.
Because of the sheer volume of job postings they can serve up for a single search term, job posting aggregators are among the most commonly used tools by job seekers. And as a job board owner, you may be tempted to use the job posting aggregator because of the advantages it can bring in the form of high traffic and, possibly, higher ad revenue. But along with these potential advantages, using a job posting aggregator also comes with a few challenges that you should be aware of.
Keyword dependency
Job posting aggregators are essentially search engines for job postings. As such, they are heavily reliant on keywords and tags used in job postings. This dependency on keywords offers a few benefits but also impacts the quality of job postings when they are posted on the job board. That’s because most job postings are tagged differently by different employers and recruitment agencies.
As a result, the job site aggregator can categorize similar kinds of jobs under different categories or can do the opposite. This can make specific job postings hard to find for candidates. Job seekers will end up finding fewer job postings than are available for their search terms. Or, they may find a lot of job postings that do not actually match their preferences but are only displayed because their tags match the search query.
Duplicate postings
Most job site aggregators are not intelligent enough to identify job postings that are repeated across different sources online. This leads to there being multiple job postings on the job board for the same job. If job seekers come to your job board and come across repeated job postings, again and again, they will eventually have a less-than-good impression of you. And showing duplicate job postings to a large number of job seekers can, over time, ruin the reputation of your job board in an irreparable way.
Moreover, there are other problems with using job posting aggregators, such as invalid or outdated jobs being listed on your job board, that can severely hamper your job boards’ business prospects. Hence, it is important for you to rely on smarter tools for job aggregation. Tools like Propellum’s EasyPost can automate the process of job aggregation and provide a high volume of high-quality job postings while saving a lot of time and resources.
