SEO for Drupal: Top 5 Mistakes Recruiters Should Never Make

Are you using Drupal to manage your recruitment site? If you are, kudos to you. Thanks to its reliability, Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world. More than a million site owners are using it to manage their web content. 

However, Drupal is not perfect. Recruitment sites made with this CMS can still experience hiccups from time to time. This is why you should be familiar with the best practices for SEO for Drupal to avoid making mistakes that can hurt your recruitment site. 

Avoid Making These Common Drupal SEO Mistakes

To help you boost your site’s performance, our team at Recruitment Traffic has compiled a list of some of the most common mistakes Drupal site owners often make. Take a look at these common SEO and site issues so you’ll know how to solve them. 

1. Having too many content types

Search engines use web content to determine a site’s ranking. This is why providing your visitors with high-quality content regularly should be part of your game plan. That being said, you should avoid using content types that you don’t actually need. Having too many of them can use up valuable resources and slow down your site. 

To prevent your content types from becoming a burden, you should: 

• Remove content types that are too identical to each other, such as news and articles.
• Avoid adding a new field type whenever uploading new web content.
• Plan your content structure to streamline your web content. 

2. Failing to improve site security

Improving site security can benefit your recruitment business in two ways. First, it contributes to SEO since site security is a crucial ranking factor. Second, it helps you gain your prospects’ trust since 82% of web visitors are more likely to leave a site if it isn’t secure. 

Because employers and candidates will share with you some vital information about themselves, it makes sense to improve your web security. This will help protect their data and give them peace of mind. Here’s how you can do it: 

• Update your site frequently, including its core and contributor modules.
• Consider installing the “Update Manager” module. This tool will alert you whenever there’s a security update you need to install.
• Prevent unwanted access to your servers by ensuring that they are properly configured.
• Use strong passwords to protect your recruitment site and ensure that only authorised people can access and modify it.
• Update your SSL certificate.
• If your recruitment site is still on HTTP, switch to HTTPS. 

3. Targeting the wrong keywords

This is a no-brainer, but it bears repeating. Make sure you’re optimising your site for the right keywords. Always remember that SEO for Drupal hinges on the search terms you want to rank for. Therefore, you must ensure that the keywords you’re using on your recruitment site are relevant to your business, including your goals and objectives. 

Conducting keyword research can help you identify the keywords you should incorporate into your website. To make your job much easier, you can use Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and other research tools. 

4. Failing to address sitemap issues

A sitemap lets Google know which part of your site it should crawl and index. It also contains essential information about your site’s infrastructure. Because the sitemap is a vital part of your recruitment site, you should keep an eye out for potential sitemap issues and fix them as soon as you can. 

If you haven’t generated a sitemap for your site, you can use Drupal’s XML sitemap module. After creating one, you should: 

• Use a content hierarchy and a site structure that search bots can understand easily.
• Optimise your Robot.txt file. 

5. Providing poor user experience

Providing visitors with an excellent user experience is a crucial aspect of SEO. If employers and candidates find it easy to use and navigate your site, they are more likely to come back and sign up for your services. Therefore, make sure to: 

a. Create a mobile-friendly site

Because most people browse the internet with mobile devices these days, having a mobile-friendly recruitment site is a must. Mobile-friendliness is a Google ranking factor. It also enables you to generate more traffic and leads. Therefore, talk to your web developers and make sure that your site is optimised for mobile devices. Also, ensure that your site’s mobile version comes with all the vital navigational elements its desktop version has. 

b. Speed up your site

Fast page loading speeds contribute to SEO for Drupal. It helps you rank higher and convinces visitors to stay longer. To ensure quick loading times, avoid using flashy or “heavy” themes. Instead, opt for more intuitive and streamlined themes. You should also consider getting a faster hosting service. 

c. Manage your file cache

An overloaded file cache can slow down your recruitment site. Therefore, consider using optimised Drupal themes. These themes usually have cache modules that automatically empty overloaded file caches to prevent site issues. Besides using such themes, it’s also a good idea to deactivate plugins you don’t need or use. 

Take Good Care of Your Drupal Recruitment Site

While Drupal websites are known for being trustworthy and reliable, they are far from perfect. They can still experience issues, especially if site owners fail to maintain and optimise them properly. This is why you should take a proactive approach to maintaining your recruitment site so you can avoid problems that could affect its SEO and performance. 

If you require help optimising your Drupal recruitment site, our team at Recruitment Traffic are happy to assist you. Get in touch with us today, and let us show you how our award-winning SEO solutions can help you meet your business goals.