Expanding Resources with Help from Keywords

Keywords play an important role in the Online Marketing process. As an employee who works for a search engine marketing company, I hear this word often throughout the day by my fellow colleagues and coworkers. We offer Keyword Research & Analysis to our clients as a means to attract targeted traffic to their website, in addition to marketing their service or product to generate potential revenue.

Over the last few years, I have found that not only are keywords important in search engine optimization and marketing, but also hold value in relation to employment. Not that I’ve stood in long lines at the unemployment office or found this information on the tongues of those looking for the “perfect” job; I’ve learned this from my own experience as a human resources professional.

For example, Wayne State University allows its students and alumni members to post resumes on its website for potential employers to peruse. If that resume does not include those specific keywords that employers select as job qualifications and skills in a query, it’s very likely that resume will be overlooked by the “perfect” company. Of course, we can equate this with a company that forgets to include the right keywords in its website copy, thus making it difficult for search engines to position the website for specific search queries.

Michigan Works, also known as Michigan Talent Bank, which is the State of Michigan’s Unemployment Office, offers resources to both employers and job seekers to assist them in expediting the employment process. Unemployed workers are now required to post their resume on the Michigan Works website to be eligible for benefits, in addition to using many available resources offered in various Michigan Works locations.

Over the last several years, technology has changed the face of employment search. The days of filling out an application in person, on site and in the human resources department is virtually non-existent. We have ventured upon an era where speed, efficiency and response are in the forefront of every industry. For those who are in the job seek mode, having company data at your fingertips has become an important tool in deciding whether a company is a good fit or not. It’s common practice for company websites to include “Career Opportunities” with alluring and brief descriptions of pending job vacancies within the company. It’s as easy as 1-2-3 for an employee-to-be to submit a cover letter, resume and level of interest through the company’s website, only to be successfully retrieved within a few short moments.

So the next time you update your resume, make sure that you have included those keywords that will draw the eyes of a potential employer. And yes, please remember that the standard rule of one page for a resume still applies, so you may want to change your font size if necessary! But then again, sometimes less is more.