Recruitment website design that gets the CV uploaded and the role briefed

Recruitment agency websites have a structural problem most agency-led briefs miss. The site has to convince two distinct audiences, candidates uploading CVs and clients writing briefs, without either feeling like the page was written for the other. The win is treating the site as a two-sided marketplace front-end, not a brand brochure.

The recruitment clients I take on tend to fit one of these three shapes:

• Boutique recruitment agencies (5-30 consultants) competing on niche specialism, fintech, life sciences, climate, AI engineering
• Executive search firms needing credibility content alongside discreet candidate-handling for senior roles
• Mid-size staffing firms needing volume-job-board UX with proper ATS integration (Bullhorn, Vincere, JobAdder)

ATS integration is the build, not the bolt-on

Most recruitment sites either run their own jobs database (slow, stale) or iframe-embed the ATS job board (kills SEO, ugly UX). The right answer is a real-time API integration with the ATS, Bullhorn, Vincere, JobAdder, Workable, that pulls jobs into the site as native pages with proper schema markup. Each job becomes an indexable page on its own URL, with structured data Google reads. Static-site generation with on-demand revalidation is the modern stack pattern that makes this fast and scalable.

Candidate-first vs client-first navigation is a brand call

The first menu decision on a recruitment site is whether the primary nav is candidate-led ('Find a job', 'Upload your CV') or client-led ('Hire talent', 'Submit a brief'). Most agencies fudge this and ship a homepage with both fighting for visual weight. The agencies that convert better pick a primary audience for the homepage and treat the other audience as the secondary nav path, typically candidate-first for high-volume staffing, client-first for executive search.

JobPosting schema is the SEO multiplier most agencies miss

Google has a dedicated jobs vertical (Google for Jobs) that requires JobPosting structured data. Agencies that ship JobPosting schema on every job page get included in Google for Jobs search results, often above traditional SERP listings. Most agency-built recruitment sites do not ship this schema; the agencies that do see meaningful organic-traffic uplift from candidates who would never have found the site otherwise.

1. Every vacancy on its own indexable page Pull jobs from your ATS (Bullhorn, Vincere, JobAdder) by API and publish them as native pages with clean URLs. No iframe, no widget. Hays, Robert Half, Aerotek and Motion Recruitment all do this.
2. Complete JobPosting markup Include datePosted, validThrough, employmentType, baseSalary, jobLocation and directApply, with the currency and figures matching the page. That is what makes a role eligible for Google's job listings. Expired roles should come off automatically.
3. Specialism and location landing pages A page for each sector you recruit in and each city you cover, with live roles on it. Michael Page's town and title pages and Hudson Shribman's sector pages show the pattern to copy.
4. Apply in one step Put CV upload and an email address on the job page itself, and collect the rest later. Every extra form field before the CV loses candidates, especially on a phone.
5. Salary data people come back for A salary guide or checker by role and region. Hays, Michael Page, Robert Half and Motion Recruitment all publish one. It earns links, return visits and employer enquiries at the same time.
6. A clear route for employers A separate hire-talent area with a short vacancy brief form and a call-back option. Clients then never have to dig through the candidate journey to reach you.

No affiliation with any of these businesses. They are here because each one gets a specific part of the job right, and that part is worth copying.

• Hays UK

  Each vacancy sits on its own crawlable page, marked up in full as JobPosting, with pay, closing date and map coordinates included. Roles can then appear in Google's job listings. A free salary checker, job alerts and a nearest-office finder give candidates reasons to return before they apply.

• Michael Page UK

  Landing pages for towns and job titles, such as Bristol jobs or accountant jobs, catch local and role searches before a candidate reaches the main search. Sector salary surveys help too. And a CV upload that matches people to live roles keeps candidates and hiring managers on the site.

• Hudson Shribman UK

  As an engineering and technical specialist, it gives each sector, from aerospace to marine, its own recruitment page. That suits a boutique wanting to rank for niche terms. Job pages carry JobPosting markup and an on-page CV upload form, so candidates apply without leaving the listing.

• Robert Half US

  Live job pages carry JobPosting markup for pay range and closing date, and role pages publish salary bands as Occupation data. Employers get a separate hire-talent area with its own enquiry form. The salary guide gives both audiences a reason to visit.

• Aerotek US

  Job search runs on a dedicated jobs subdomain. Each role has a clean URL and JobPosting markup covering pay, working hours, location and direct apply. A location directory then links candidates and clients to local offices.

• Motion Recruitment US

  The site is organised around tech disciplines and city office pages, so a search like Chicago IT staffing lands on a page written for that market. Job URLs include the city, contract type and role. Each one carries JobPosting markup with salary, closing date and remote location requirements.

I am the senior on every engagement, with twelve years and more than five thousand sites of practice behind the process. The build runs on Next.js, Astro or headless WordPress depending on who edits the site, and if you are replacing an existing site, the redirects, metadata and schema move across with it so the rankings do too.

Book a 30-minute call. No slide deck, no qualification screen. You describe the recruitment business, the brief, the timeline. I tell you whether I am the right person, and by the end of the call you have a stack pick, a price range, and a realistic delivery window.