When someone searches Google for "warehouse jobs Rotterdam", a block of vacancies often appears above the normal results. That block is Google for Jobs. Candidates filter there on location, employment type and date, and click through from Google to the vacancy to apply. If your jobs are not in it, you miss a group of candidates who are actively looking right now.

Booston puts the data on every active job page in the form Google reads, and adds your jobs to your sitemap so Google finds them. How much Google understands of your vacancy partly depends on you: your attribute values have to be linked to the right Google value. The end goal of this article: every active vacancy is complete in Google for Jobs, with location, salary and employment type.

After this article you know what Booston passes on automatically, how to link an attribute value to Google, how to set up remote work and a required place of residence, and how to test whether Google reads your vacancy correctly. You set up the links under Menu → Settings → Attributes.

Before you start

• Google for Jobs is off by default. A Booston admin switches it on for you. Whether it is on, you can see under Settings → General, in the Indexing block. See What you cannot arrange yourself.
• Your site has to be open to search engines. The same block holds Active Robots. If that is off, your site keeps Google out and the Google for Jobs switch does nothing. On an environment that is still being built, it is off on purpose.
• You need access to Settings → Attributes. Which role may do what is explained in Users: giving access, choosing roles and signing in through your ATS.
• Google shows these jobs in a large part of the world, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Whether and when your vacancy appears is up to Google.

How Google for Jobs works, and what Booston does

Google does not build its job block from a form you fill in. It reads your job pages and looks for fixed data in them: the title, the text, the location, the salary, the employment type. That data has to sit on the page in a fixed format, invisible to the visitor. This is called structured data.

As soon as Google for Jobs is on, Booston does three things:

• Every active job page gets that data. If you change the vacancy, the data changes with it.
• Every published vacancy is in your sitemap. Google finds new vacancies through the sitemap at /sitemap.
• A vacancy that goes offline loses the data. If you pause it or its Publication end date has passed, the data is removed from the page and the vacancy drops out of the sitemap.

Google comes by on its own schedule. Booston does not actively notify Google of a new or changed vacancy. A new vacancy usually shows up in the block within a few days, but Google sets the pace. How to speed that up is in Checking that Google reads your vacancy correctly.

What Booston sends along automatically

Google requires five pieces of data: title, description, date posted, employer and location. Booston always fills those in. The rest is recommended, and that is exactly where the difference lies: a vacancy with salary and employment type shows up in Google's filters and stands out more.

Two things worth knowing. Google shows your vacancy under the company name of your environment. If you work as an agency for a client, your name is the one shown. Mention the client in the text if you want to. And the logo next to your vacancy usually comes from Google's own data about your company, not from Booston.

Linking your attribute values to Google

Google only knows its own fixed words. For an employment type that is, for example, FULL_TIME, for a country NL and for a salary period MONTH. Your values have other names: "Full time", "Netherlands", "Per month". So for each value you set once which Google word belongs to it. A value without a link is not sent to Google.

1. Go to Settings → Attributes and open the Job Attributes tab. The attributes are grouped in blocks: Title and description, General, Salary, Location, Media and Other.
2. Find the attribute and click the list icon in the Edit column. The Edit attribute values for: … screen opens.
3. Click the arrow to the right of a value to expand it.
4. Under Google for Jobs Attribute, choose the Google field, for example Country.
5. Under Google for Jobs Value, choose the Google value, for example NL. For a few fields you type the value yourself, see Optional fields: experience, education, industry and benefits.
6. Do the same for the other values and click Save & close.

A collapsed value shows its link as two labels, for example Country and NL. That way you see at a glance which values are still empty.

Which attributes to link

In a new environment the default values are already linked, such as Netherlands to NL, euro to EUR and per month to MONTH. Check it once anyway, especially if you have added values yourself. How to set up your attributes further after delivery is explained in Setting up after delivery: what you still fill in and why it pays off straight away.

If a value does not fit exactly, pick the closest one. "Every 4 weeks" is MONTH, an intern or trainee is INTERN and an on-call worker is PER_DIEM. Only leave a value empty if nothing fits at all.

Values that come from your ATS

If you work with an ATS integration, new values come in by themselves, for example a new country or a new contract type. They have no link to Google yet. So after a new value appears, take a quick look at the attribute and link it. A link you have set stays in place with every following import. How your ATS fills the attributes is explained in Managing attributes for jobs and candidates and in Connecting your ATS and Booston: which data goes back and forth.

Remote work and a required place of residence

Google can show two things about the workplace: that a job is fully remote, and in which country the candidate has to live. You pass that on with a choice field of your own, for example with the label Workplace. The link to Google works on any attribute, so you are free to choose the name and the values.

1. In the General block, pick an attribute you do not use and switch it on in the Status column. If there is no free field left, the helpdesk sets one up for you.
2. Use the pencil to give it a Label your visitor understands, for example Workplace.
3. Open the values with the list icon and add your values with Add new value, for example "Fully remote" and "Living in the Netherlands". A new value also needs a Slug: the same name in lower case with hyphens, such as living-in-the-netherlands.
4. Link "Fully remote" to Job location type with the value TELECOMMUTE.
5. Link "Living in the Netherlands" to Applicant location requirements and type the country: Netherlands.
6. Click Save & close. You then choose the value in the vacancy, on the Salary & attributes step.

If you work with an ATS integration, record it in your ATS. Then nobody has to choose it per vacancy in Booston. We link the field from your ATS to your attribute, and you link the values that come in to Google, as in Values that come from your ATS.

Optional fields: experience, education, industry and benefits

Four Google fields have no fixed list. You type the value under Google for Jobs Value yourself:

• Experience requirements: the level of experience, for example Junior, Medior or Senior.
• Education requirements: the level of education, for example a bachelor's or master's degree.
• Industry: the sector.
• Job benefits: a benefit, for example a pension or a company car.

They are not required. Google still uses experience and education on a trial basis, so the effect is not always visible right away. Link them if you already have the attributes.

Making your vacancies as complete as possible

The links are in place. Now it is about the vacancies themselves. Google ranks a vacancy higher when it is complete and matches what someone is looking for.

1. Go to Menu → Recruitment → Jobs and open a vacancy.
2. On the Setup step, check the title and the Publication end date.
3. On the Salary & attributes step, fill in the choice fields and the salary.
4. On the Location step, check the address and the country.
5. Save the vacancy.

What to watch:

• A concrete title. Nobody searches for "commercial all-rounder", plenty of people search for "inside sales representative". Not sure which title candidates use? Look it up in Google Trends.
• Strong opening lines. Google shows the start of your text and puts the rest behind a button. Those first lines decide whether someone reads on.
• A salary with a minimum and a maximum. Candidates filter on it, and a vacancy with a salary stands out in the list.
• A complete address. Google uses the location for searches like "near me". A vacancy without a country or city does not get in properly.

More about the job editor in Creating and optimising jobs with AI. How your findability works beyond this is explained in Assessing SEO advice: what really determines your findability.

Checking that Google reads your vacancy correctly

You do not have to wait for your vacancy to turn up in Google. Google has a free test that reads your job page the way Google does.

1. Open Google's Rich Results Test.
2. Paste the URL of an active vacancy and run the test.
3. Check whether Google finds a job posting, and which remarks come with it.

Warnings about missing optional fields, such as a salary, do not hold your vacancy back. They do show where there is still something to gain. An error does hold your vacancy back. In that case, see Solving problems.

What you cannot arrange yourself

You can see the Google for Jobs and Active Robots switches under Settings → General and the company name of your environment, but you cannot change them yourself. They affect your whole website, and switching them on comes with a few details that have to be right. A Booston admin switches it on for you and checks straight away whether your site is open to search engines, whether your company name is correct and whether your countries, currencies and salary periods are linked.

Solving problems

My vacancy is not in Google for Jobs

Go through these points. Is Google for Jobs on, and Active Robots too? Is the vacancy active, and does today fall between its publication dates? Then run the test from Checking that Google reads your vacancy correctly. If the test finds a valid job posting, the rest is up to Google: how often it comes by and whether the job block appears for a search.

The salary is missing

The vacancy is missing a minimum or maximum, or the currency or salary period of that vacancy is not linked. Check under Currency and Unit whether the chosen value has two labels.

Google is missing the employment type or the country

The value on the vacancy has no link. Open the attribute, expand the value and link it. A country without a link is not sent at all, and then Google is missing part of the location.

The test says the data cannot be read

Then something is wrong in the code on the page. Usually that comes from characters in the job text, for example from your ATS. That is not something you fix in the text. Email the URL of the vacancy to support@booston.io and we will look into it.

A vacancy that is offline still shows in Google

Google removes it on its next visit to the page. That can take a few days. URL inspection in Search Console speeds it up.

Frequently asked questions

Does a place in Google for Jobs cost money?

No. Google charges nothing for a vacancy in the job block. It is a normal search result, not an ad.

Can I decide how high my vacancy ranks?

Not directly. Google looks at how well your vacancy matches the search and how complete it is. A concrete title, a salary and a complete address help most.

Does it also work if my site has several languages?

Yes. Every language version of a vacancy has its own page with the data in that language.

My vacancies are also on job sites through the Jobboard network. Will they show up twice in Google?

Google usually merges the same vacancy from different sites and lets the candidate choose where to apply. Your own job page is one of the options, if it is in Google. More about the network in Jobboard network.

Which texts of my vacancy go to Google?

The fields Text 1 to Text 8, in that order, with the label of each field as a subheading. Text in other fields is not sent.

Need help?

Stuck, or not sure which Google value fits your attribute value? Email support@booston.io or call 085 0044 215 and mention:

• the name of your environment;
• what you want to achieve;
• the URL of the vacancy, and the message you see if there is an error.

Would you rather go through the settings together? Book a free 30 minute online demo, and we will go through it with you. Job Done!