Create a job board with SpreadSimple website builder

E-commerce Aug 22, 2024

Thanks to the convenience of the online world, the days of going door to door to sell products, get employment, or hire a service are gone. Everyone looks for their next posting online, especially on Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor. These types of platforms, or any other websites with a listing of work, are called job boards, where employers connect with their future potential hires.

According to Statista, the global job board market was valued at $22.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $31.5 billion by 2026. In other words, knowing how to create a job board website and learning how to monetize it can be a great business opportunity. So if you want to start a new project, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will help you create your job board website using SpreadSimple.

What is a job board website?

Before getting started, let us understand what kind of website we are referring to: it is an online platform where employers list job vacancies, and potential candidates apply for available positions. Unlike the company’s career web pages, on these platforms, employers can post open positions with the required qualifications and skills, for people to apply directly for roles they might be interested in.

Job board website example — This is how job board listing can look like

A database like Indeed is similar to a job board but constitutes a matching and hiring service, where a wide range of listings from different sources are posted. At the same time, a niche job board is industry-specific and pertains to a certain type of industry. This helps organizations find candidates with a specialized talent pool and match them to their open positions listings.

How to start a job board business, and how does it work?

Key steps need to be taken to start a job board business, such as identifying your niche, building your website, making a suitable pricing plan, and devising a marketing strategy. Let us understand how these work in detail.

1. Identifying a niche and your target audience.

There are many different fields and occupations in the world. Finding a niche market is an essential part of starting your new business. By doing so you can specialize and gain mastery in a specific area and create tailor-made marketing plans to reach your target audience. By focusing on a niche, you make yourself an authority figure for your industry, boosting your credibility and reputation in the long run. This in turn helps build long-term partnerships and collaborations with other companies, as well as reach a wider group of job seekers. Some of the key things to remember when selecting your niche are:

Choose a field you are associated with or have a background in
Do market research on your potential niche to better understand the demand in your field and the competition that exists.
Make sure the selected market aligns with your interests and goals.

Choosing a niche combines market research, strategic planning, and personal alignment. For instance, if you have working experience in the fashion and clothing industry, it will help you focus on finding job seekers and employers in that field, as you will have more connections in it.

By considering these three factors, businesses can select a niche that suits their target audience and increases their chances for growth and success.

2. Building a job board website

Any business requires a platform on which it operates. The same principle applies to job boards also. There are several options for creating a website, including using a no-code website builder, choosing a job board software, or hiring a development team. Each option has its pros and cons, so it is important to review your needs and goals to make an informed decision.

Using a job board software – this option is great for beginners as it is less time-consuming, not expensive, and offers built-in features and functional tools that are custom-made for job board business.
Choosing a no-code website builder – It is the most affordable alternative and gets you started right away. Many website builders like SpreadSimple, have pre-installed templates and features that help you customize your job board website and save you a lot of time.
Hiring a software development team – This is the most expensive and time-consuming option out of the three. But it gives a business owner the most control over their design and functionality. Startups and newcomers shouldn't go for this alternative as it requires a significant investment to hire a development team.

3. Making the right pricing model

Making the right pricing model for your business requires finding the perfect balance between revenue generation and remaining competitive in your niche market. Start by studying and analyzing the competitive landscape, especially the pricing models. Obviously, the cost-plus, hourly, performance-based, and equity models do not clearly apply here. So how do we define the service value?

Website features can be sold differently, including pricing individual job posts or offering package listings at discounted rates to employers. Additionally, providing resume and cover letter templates for job seekers to improve their application can be in high demand among potential users. If you are looking for a steady stream of finance, you can consider a subscription model for your services and products. This means offering employers the ability to purchase job posts, featured listings, and talent network access regularly – monthly or annually.

4. Creating a marketing strategy

Your last step is promoting your website and attracting customers for your listed employers. This step requires creating a marketing strategy for your job board platform. A comprehensive plan can help your company effectively reach your target audience, and develop a roadmap for generating revenue.

One of the ideal ways to create a marketing plan is to understand the needs of your customer base, and research their preferences and behavior, to find the most effective marketing channel to reach them. Some of the most popular channels to use for a job board business are:

Content marketing – This is a powerful tool for promoting your job board business, as it establishes your brand as a thought leader in the industry and provides valuable and engaging information to job seekers and employers. It includes creating blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, and other types of content that are relevant to your target audience and are industry-specific.
Social media marketing – This promotion method is great for increasing brand awareness, attracting job seekers and employers, and driving traffic to your website. Social media marketing can help generate organic traffic for your online business to reach a wider audience.
Community-led marketing – In community-led marketing, the promotion of your business is specific to your industry and aids in attracting the right type of job seekers and employers. It includes sharing reviews, adding testimonials, sharing ideas, and collaborating with community members. This method can help you increase the credibility and trustworthiness of your job board.
Email marketing – This strategy is a cost-effective way to promote your business. It allows you to connect directly with customers and employers who have shown an interest in your platform. To use this method, business owners need to create an email list, make a template, send out emails, and monitor the effectiveness of their performance.
Paid Advertising – Paid advertising is the fastest way to reach a targeted audience base and increase your brand awareness. Though it can be an expensive endeavor, paid marketing helps you promote your business in the right places in record time.

What is a Job Aggregator?

Job aggregators can be best described as search engine platforms for work advertisements. They are platforms that gather listings or postings from job boards and other websites and consolidate them into a single interface. For instance, think of job aggregators like Google for job postings. Some of the popular and most common ones in the industry are Indeed, Creerjet, LinkedIn Jobs, LinkUp, and SImplyHired.

Most job board startups should try to optimize their website so that other companies list their postings. A few ways to achieve this are to make your website keyword-sensitive, provide the right information along with the location for the job, use a mass push function to advertise to other job board platforms, use an XML feed to connect to aggregators, and allow your content to be accessed by job aggregators.

How to Create a Job Board Website

Now that you have a firm understanding of this business, let us explore how to build a job board website in a few easy steps.

1. Choose the right type of job board for your business.

There are many types of job board websites in the market. As a startup, you need to decide on what platform you want to launch. By doing this, you can find the features your job board will need to reach its goals and help you choose the right tools for it. Let us explore in detail the six most common types of job boards along with their functionality.

A job board as a business – Most people assume that a job board would be an extension of a business. But as we have mentioned they are individual revenue generators as well. The majority of these types of businesses identify a niche in the market and create their platform around it. For instance, you can choose a niche based on your industry, geography, or demographics and target your audience accordingly. A great example would be F&B jobs, which are focused on the hospitality industry and have over 200k listings.
Job board for associations – This type of platform is launched or used for generating an additional source of income for your existing main business. This is achieved by advertising employment opportunities to your community members and collecting a fee for them to access your network. To maintain a steady income and improve your finances, associations can generate non-dues revenue, meaning money from every other source other than membership fees. To start this type of job board an organization needs a members’ database of their community.
Job board for recruitment agencies – For recruitment agencies, it is beneficial to host a job board website, as it can significantly boost the exposure of their clients’ open positions. This will help drive traffic of new potential candidates being added to their database. For this type of job board, companies need to have a few features like a resume database, email alerts, and customizable forms. This helps the recruiters collect specific information about employment seekers and modify it according to their preferences.
Job board for universities – Nowadays, colleges and universities have taken it upon themselves to create a job board to help their students find relevant internships and work opportunities. With advanced reporting, a detailed student database, and email alerts, such as the type of platform, can provide separate categories of employment opportunities for each of their provided programs.
Job board for UGC marketing – With the advent of SEO and digital promotion, user-generated content (UGC) marketing has made it increasingly easy to seek and target potential customers. By creating a job board, businesses can build a user base that matches their audience profile, and instead of monetizing by selling services to employers, they can generate revenue by marketing their products to them. This type of UGC marketing is used mostly by SaaS companies that target customers in the same industry.
Job board for venture capital (VC) firms – The workforce of an organization is a crucial element for its success. Having the right team, especially for startups, can be the difference between success and failure. For this reason, many VC firms make sure to support their portfolio companies on the talent acquisition front. Hence a job board for a VC firm can have a collective platform that hosts listings for all its businesses and boosts awareness of their vacancies.

2. Selecting the right job board builder

As we have mentioned, there are three major ways to build a job board website: using specific software, hiring a development team, or creating a platform using a no-code website developer. Let us understand these in more detail.

Job board software

This is the most common practice when starting a job board business. These are customized software used to set up and get your job board ready in record time. They contain features and functions that you will need, including job scraping, SEO tools, resume database, job seeker accounts, etc.

It is quick to use as they are designed specifically for job boards and only needs to be configured based on your industry. Overall, it is a good option for people who do not want to waste time and wish to get started quickly. There are only two drawbacks to this option: they provide limited customization for design and are expensive as compared to a website builder.

Hiring a development team

If money is not a limitation, then you can hire a software development team and start your money-making job board platform from scratch. Though it is a very lucrative option, you need to have some coding knowledge and experience in hiring the right team. Besides the huge influx of money, this step is time-consuming and requires constant updates to add new features to your website. So if you are planning to take this route, make sure you have a resourceful team in place and are comfortable with spending a lot at the start for a long-term benefit in the future.

Website Builder

By using a no-code website builder like SpreadSimple, you can have your website up and running in no time. Unlike job board software, builders do not offer specific functionality for posting jobs. Instead, they feature templates and customization options to fit your brand. It is the best option for startups and new entrepreneurs who do not possess technical knowledge. Website builders handle all the hosting, maintenance, and security of your job board platform and are the most cost-effective solution to starting this type of business.

3. Define your niche

As we have discussed, job boards can apply to a wide variety of industries. So it is crucial to specify your niche to best serve your target audience. So the next step requires finding your niche based on industry and role. Some job boards are grouped by market, like healthcare, technology, aviation, finance, or sales. While others might focus on specific types of roles, such as contractual, remote, entry-level, or specialization.

4. Fill your Job Board with jobs

The main objective of any website is to generate traffic which is directly dependent on your content. For a job board platform, content primarily means filling your web page with listings and job posts. The two ideal ways to find quality listings are: to connect with all your contacts and the industry community you have chosen and ask them to post their job openings on your domain; the other way is to import jobs from career pages or white-label job board providers who allow access to their network of employers.

This is a great strategy, especially if you are starting in this business as it helps quickly generate traffic for your website. Let us look at a situation, where you enter a car accessories shop, but find that everything in the store is for bicycles. If that is not what you are looking for, then you are bound to leave the store. The same thing applies to an online business, so to avoid losing traffic because of irrelevant postings, make sure you import job listings mainly related to your niche.

5. Optimize for SEO

As we have mentioned multiple times before, the best kind of traffic for an online business is organic. Now that you have imported jobs on your platform, it is time to optimize your website to increase its traffic. Using SEO strategy, you can organize and tag your web pages based on job type, categories, location, etc. Make sure to include keyword-specific content so that your website is picked by search engines like Google. For a complete and step-by-step guide to increasing your SERP ranking, learn the basics of SEO maintenance on your website.

6. Launch your job board and market it.

Now that you have completed the above steps, your job board website is ready to be launched. But this is not the end of your work, but only the beginning. To get the desired traffic and grow your platform, you will need to market it with a comprehensive strategy that will generate traffic for you. Some of the ways to promote your platform are:

Press releases
Email campaigns
Blog or social media posts
Digital advertising channels
Linking your job board to your website’s navigation menu

The job board platform is a great way to connect with your customers and help them navigate opportunities in the market. It is great for building credibility, trust, and loyalty with your current and prospective clients. Make sure to constantly keep updating job posts on your website and also find ways to promote your brand online. For a deeper understanding please refer to our articles: Ways to Find Customers for Your Product and 10 Free Advertising Platforms to Promote Your Website Online

How Do Job Boards Make Money?

Based on the latest numbers the job board industry in the United States of America alone is worth around $14.7 billion. The major chunk of this business belongs to significant names like Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter, etc. But you must be wondering how niche job boards make money to capture such a big market. There are multiple options for platforms to generate revenue, including placing advertisements, paid listings, subscriptions, and premium services. So let us explore these in further detail.

Paid Listings – The number one way to generate revenue for a job board website is to charge employers to post their job openings. The more qualified leads you provide them, the higher revenue you can generate. There are multiple ways in which a business can divide their payment options – they can take a one-time fee for each posting, charge for displaying the listing for a specific period, and charge the employer based on the number of applicants you provide them.
Upselling – In this method, you can promote your employer's job postings and make them more visible on your website for an additional fee. This helps generate additional revenue from companies willing to pay to get more applicants and fill their gaps faster. Some of the common ways to boost a job are highlighting it to grab the audience's attention, promoting listings through social media platforms, and sending email alerts to potential candidates who fit the profile of the offer.
Resume Database – The job board platform is not just for posting jobs. Your website can collect and store resumes in a database and for a fee, give limited access to employers so that they can find candidates themselves. You can include this charge in a subscription plan or bill the organization based on a monthly or yearly bill. Most companies are happy to get access to this feature as they can find suitable people for the jobs by vetting the resumes themselves.
Pre-screening applicants – If you can expand your team and offer to handle the recruitment process for companies, then it can help generate additional income. Services can range from conducting surface-level screening of candidates to going all the way and providing a short list of applicants to interview. Since you are reducing the time and effort of the employers, they will be happy to compensate you for your services.
Sell advertising space – A job board is a website, so just like other platforms, owners can sell advertising space on their web pages to Google Advertisers. Though this is not the main business model of job boards, it is considered an additional source of revenue for startups. If you are just starting and having difficulty generating traffic, then using Google Adsense can be valuable for your website.
Employer branding services – In today’s highly competitive world, businesses will do everything to promote their brand name so they can reach their potential customers. By charging an additional income, you can help employers brand their services on your platform. These services can range from writing blogs and editing videos to making social media posts for companies. For this method to work, you need to have a big target audience.
Subscription – The final way to monetize your website is through subscriptions. The idea entails combining the different revenue generation models discussed above in multiple plans and offering them to employers. This works best for organizations that have a continuous hiring need and are looking for favorable packages.

Development of a Job Posting Website on SpreadSimple – Pros and Cons

SpreadSimple provides a quick and cost-effective way to start a job board website – it is easy to set up, thanks to its in-built readymade templates. The multiple integrations provided with online tools can help automate many processes and simplify your work at a minimal maintenance cost. SpreadSimple offers an intuitive no-code building process, so users do not need technical experience to create their platform. With Google Sheets as CMS, business owners can add, edit, and delete content on their website without the need for a developer. Since there is an experienced backend team handling all your hosting, maintenance, and security needs, such as bug fixes, compatibility checks, and updates, you can completely focus on revenue generation and the growth of your project.

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SpreadSimple is no doubt an excellent fast option to help you get started on your job board journey. But if you plan to build a large and complex platform like Glassdoor, then it makes more sense to take the assistance of a development team and prepare for a costly and complex process ahead. Since SpreadSimple caters to a wide range of websites, it might not provide some niche-specific features like job scraping, job seeker profiles, targeted job alerts, etc.

What features does the SpreadSimple website builder provide for job boards?

Using a website builder like SpreadSimple is the most cost-effective option for developing a job listing with filters and categories that are easy to manage or can be embedded into your larger website, especially for new businesses. So let us highlight the main features and benefits you get from SpreadSimple:

Easy and quick setup – With just a click of a few buttons your website will be up and running in a matter of minutes.
User-friendly interface – Unlike other options, website builders offer an easy creation pathway, so users do not need any coding experience to build their platform and manage it. With a little understanding of the SpreadSimple application users can figure out the interface easily and build their job board business.
CMS – SpreadSimple uses your Google Sheets as its content management system(CMS), which enables business owners to easily add, edit, and delete content on their website without the need for a developer.
In-built templates – The platform offers different layouts, and design choices that allow you to choose templates that match your brand identity. SpreadSimple also provides design elements, such as buttons, and image galleries, that you can easily incorporate into your website.
Multiple integrations – SpreadSimple provides easy integration with online tools, which means your platform can work with different web analytical tools for SEO, add PayPal, Stripe, etc., as well as automate processes using webhooks.
Free SSL certificate – SpreadSimple handles all your hosting, maintenance, and security needs, as well as provides free SSL certification so you do not have to worry about the technical aspect of your platform and can focus your attention on revenue generation.
No maintenance costs – Most self hosted websites like WordPress often require ongoing maintenance, such as security updates, bug fixes, and compatibility checks. With the use of builders like SpreadSimple, these tasks are taken care of by the platform backend team, which further reduces your headaches and expenses.

Now let us focus specifically on the benefits it offers for job seekers and employers.

For job seekers

1. Job search

Searching for a job is the core of any job board platform. The search functionality feature offered is easy to spot and intuitive in function. There is a filtering option available that can be used for advanced searches.

2. View profiles of companies

SpreadSimple lets applicants see details of the company they are considering. It is displayed in a shortened format with all the necessary parameters visible at one glance.

3. Apply for a vacancy and/or contact the company

Once a user has found an organization he would like to apply to, it should be convenient for them to contact the business right away. SpreadSimple offers a click-to-apply button that directs you to the company website without any extra steps.

For employers

1. Vacancies

SpreadSimple offers easy integration with third-party service providers like Google Forms to help you embed a form onto your job board website. If you sync this form with your Google Sheet, every time an applicant fills it out, there will be a new submission on your website. Its templates also compile the data logically and simply and display important information, such as job description, salary range, skills required, website link, etc.

2. Search for applicants

SpreadSimple provides similar search functionality to companies that are looking to seek potential applicants. This allows employers to use filters and search for profiles of users that they might think fit their listings.

Create a Job Board Website With SpreadSimple

SpreadSimple is an easy-to-use no-code website builder that converts your Google Sheets into a modern feature-rich job board platform without a single line of code. The best part of this software is that the spreadsheet document will become your site’s content management system(CMS), so you will be able to update your job board content just by editing your Google Sheet. SpreadSimple also provides its users with the following features:

Taxes, fees
Filters, sorting, search
Company profile information page
Custom domain

To create your job board website with SpreadSimple use the following steps:

Step 1 – Pick one of the available templates to start building your website. You can choose any that you like and adjust its settings to fit your business needs as the templates are easily customizable and flexible.

Step 2 – Add the employer job data to a Google Sheet and paste your spreadsheet link on the SpreadSimple platform. Users can add job descriptions, images, categories, and configure the way their content will be displayed on the website. There is also on option to generate the website first and then update the employer information later.

Step 3 – Publish your job board website and connect it to your custom domain name. Try and test the platform by clicking on a few jobs and making sure they are functioning properly. And just like that your website is ready for business.

Your job board website can have:

Intro section
Text description block
List-style cards layout
Filters
Search
Sorting
Content Pages (FAQs, About Us, etc.)

If you need more customization then choose any new design template in a few clicks or translate your online job board website for your visitors by selecting one of the 30 languages available in the settings.

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Job Board Website?

Several factors influence the total cost of your job board website. The first and foremost one is your development approach, whether you want to use ready-made software, a no-code website builder, or opt for a custom software development team. The next factor that will impact your cost is the functionality of the platform and the selected niche. And the last thing that changes your cost is the region in which you are developing the website.

For instance, a development team in the USA will be expensive compared to a team hired in India. Based on our estimates, the cost of creating a job board website can range from $200 to $50,000. But the most cost effective way would be to take the SpreadSimple starter pack at $12.90 per month and eventually move onto the mega bulk offer of $39 per month for scalability.

What you need to pay attention to when creating a job posting website

No matter what development method you choose for your job board website, it is important to have a design that is user-friendly and professional-looking. Additionally, you will want to pay attention to some of the features below when creating your platform.

SEO and Google for jobs integration – A job board website should have easy integration with search engine platforms like Google. It needs to have robust search engine optimization (SEO) so that they are easily discoverable in SERPs. This increases the job board website's visibility and reach. By optimizing your online business with relevant keywords and phrases, you can improve its ranking and generate a lot of organic traffic. This can attract more job seekers and employers to your platform. Integration with Google Jobs and a good SEO strategy is a must for job boards as they can improve engagement and retention on the platform, and ultimately drive more success and revenue for your business.
Providing filters and job categories – You should make sure your job board includes options for categorizing listings based on location, type, salary, and other relevant factors. It helps job seekers quickly find relevant postings and listings that fit their preferences and qualifications as well as assists employers with finding the right candidates who are a good fit for their requirements. Overall, this meets the growing demand for flexible and remote work opportunities in the market.
Detailed description of vacancies/resumes – One vital element that helps aid in the success of a job board website is convenience for work seekers. If a user has many actions to perform, then they will be less likely to complete the application process. By providing a detailed description of the vacancies, explaining the roles and responsibilities for the job, giving a brief format of the required CV, and including informative hard and soft skills needed, business owners can make the application process very streamlined. This in turn will provide the platform with more applications in the database and more completion of job posts.
Sophisticated monetization capabilities – The point of every business is to maximize your revenue and upsell high-margin products. For a job board website, this means selling recurring products to employers. These can include offering sponsored job listings, as well as premium features and services that companies can purchase to enhance their postings and attract more qualified candidates. By offering high-margin recurring revenue products, you can create a steady stream of income for your platform that guarantees financial stability and growth for you.

Examples of Popular and Successful Job Boards

Job boards are a great way for employers and candidates to communicate with each other online. There are many types to choose from, including general boards where any vacancy might be posted, narrowly focused niche boards that cater to specific industries and jobs, and big search engines that dominate the market. This business is constantly changing, with many old platforms being phased out or bought by competitors, and new ones coming up and ruling the market. Here are a few popular and successful job board websites you can research and learn from.

Indeed – Indeed is the market leader in the job board market. If you ask any person to name a job-seeking company, it is more than likely they will mention Indeed to you. It started as a job search engine and aggregator and soon became the biggest and most popular platform worldwide.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the social media network for professionals. Every working person in the world happens to have a LinkedIn profile which helps them connect with employers and companies on a day-to-day basis. Today, it has also transformed into a place to post vacancies, owing to its massive reach and growth in active users. It is a great platform for social recruiting and fulfilling a prominent role.
Monster – Though not as big as its competitor, Monster is a wonderful job board website that offers a wide range of listings in over 50 countries in the world. It features one of the best resume databases in the industry and offers great subscription plans, as well as a pay-per-click posting option.
Google For Jobs – It is an embedded feature of the normal Google search engine. Here users can enter terms like "jobs near me" or "sales associate jobs", and they will see a list of postings curated for them. Though it is not technically a job board platform, Google is still a very popular place for candidates and employers to connect.
Glassdoor – Glassdoor is one of the most popular job board websites in the US and the world. It is estimated to have over 65 million unique monthly visitors and approximately a million employers listing jobs. Its greatest feature is that it offers anonymous reviews of companies that post jobs on the platform. This helps employment seekers review some inside information about the organization they are eyeing, which is always appreciated by those seeking long-term employment.

Frequently asked questions

How to create a niche job board website?

To create a niche job board website you can follow these steps:

1. Choose the right type of job board for your business.

2. Select the right job board builder.

3. Define your niche and choose a domain name.

4. Fill your platform with job postings.

5. Optimize for SEO

6. Launch and market your job board.

How to build a job search engine?

Follow the steps below to a job search engine website that will bring value to both employers and job seekers:

Conduct market research and choose the most suitable business model.
Select the must-have functionality.
Add some features that will distinguish your platform from the competitors.
Build an MVP of a job site aggregator
Develop a fully-fledged job search website.
Choose the right development team.
Estimate the cost of starting a job board website and scaling it.

Is it possible to create a job board website for free?

Yes, this is possible if you use a free website builder and do not involve additional resources, like hiring employees and marketing costs, to develop and fill out your listing. There will still be some minimal costs associated in the long run, but you can easily get started for free.

Is it possible to make a website like Indeed using the SpreadSimple website builder?

No. But SpreadSimple is an amazing tool to get started with your job board as it helps you to create a website quickly and with a minimum amount of effort, cost, and time. Eventually, you can move to larger platforms once your online business starts growing and expanding.