What is a job post?
A job post is an advertisement for an open role. It’s also a jobseeker’s first impression of your company.
It often includes a summary of the role and company, an overview of duties and responsibilities, required qualifications (e.g. skills, education, years of experience), benefits/perks, whether it’s a full-time, part-time or contract position, and other important job details.
How to post a job on Indeed
Ready to get started? Here’s a quick step-by-step overview of how to post a job on Indeed:
Step 1: Click the Post a Job button to get started
You can start your first job post by clicking the button at indeed.com/hire, or by clicking here.
If you’ve already posted a job before, you can always click the Post a job button in your Employer Dashboard.
Step 2: enter your job details
Next you’ll be prompted to add in some basics that jobseekers are looking for. You might be tempted to skip certain job details, but you may reach great candidates by providing more info about the job.
Did you know that jobseekers typically look for jobs during breaks at work or after they get home? According to our research, jobseekers told us they search using preferences like skills, WFH/remote and commute to decide if they will apply. When you provide all the information a jobseeker needs, you can have a better chance of capturing the right person’s attention.
Some of the most important information to include is:
- Pay range
- Benefits
- Shift details
- Location
- Required qualifications and skills
- Type of job: full time or part-time
- Work from home/remote
The more information you provide, the better. All the details you include are used to show quality candidates your job post in the search results.
Step 3: add your job description
Need help writing your job description? Get started with our job description templates as a foundation for a job post of your own. We have job description templates available across hundreds of job titles so you never have to start from scratch.
Once your job description is ready, we’ll prompt you to add it to the job description section when you post your job.
We’ve done a lot of research and found that these qualities make a job description more successful:
- Starts with required qualifications
- Has small, easy-to-read paragraphs (not big blocks of text)
- Uses bullet points to break up text
- Has an accessible vocabulary anyone can understand
- Is written in an upbeat, conversational tone
Step 4: include applicant qualifications + assessments
Indeed’s free[1] applicant qualifications and assessment tools can help you zoom in on great applicants and decide who to contact for an interview.
At the Applicant Qualifications page, you can ask questions that immediately qualify or disqualify your applicants. Indeed has a number of pre-made questions to choose from based on your job title to get the information you need from applicants upfront, but you can also create your own questions and include as many as you need on the application. Learn more about How to Use Applicant Qualifications on Indeed.
Sending auto-rejections when an applicant does not meet your requirements helps you earn the Responsive Employer Badge, an icon that lets jobseekers know you’re more likely to respond as they decide which jobs to apply to.
You can also add an assessment if you want to put your applicants’ skills to the test. Choose from 135 pre-made topic-specific assessments from general skills to role specific tests. A pre-employment assessment both proves your candidates’ knowledge of a subject as well as demonstrates their level of interest in the job.
Adding skills tests to your job posts can be great for two reasons: (1) it helps you quickly prioritise which applicants to contact for interviews (2) it can show that a candidate is serious about the role if they take the time to complete a skills test.
Step 5: choose to sponsor or post for free
Most jobs on Indeed can be posted for free.[2] But if you want a larger number of applicants, sponsoring your job gives your job post better visibility to jobseekers.
You only pay for the performance of your Sponsored Job and there are no long-term contracts when you sponsor. You can also feel confident knowing you can start, stop or pause your job at any time, we know recruitment needs can change at the drop of a hat. Sponsoring makes a big difference for employers who are serious about hiring. In fact, our data shows us that employers are 5 times more likely to recruit a candidate when sponsoring.[3] Learn more about How pricing works on Indeed.
Sponsoring also unlocks Matched Candidates, a feature that lets you see the candidates on Indeed whose CVs fit your job description and then invite them to apply. Our data shows us that candidates you invite to apply through Matched Candidates are 29 times more likely to apply[4] to your job than those who only see it in search. It’s a huge perk of sponsoring.
Free vs Sponsored Jobs
Should you post for free or sponsor your job? Sponsoring may be right for you if:
- You need to recruit a person as soon as possible
- You need to find someone for a hard-to-fill position that requires specialised skills (e.g. nurses, software engineers, managers)
- You’re recruiting in a competitive market
- You have a good job description and title but aren’t attracting the right candidates
Step 6: Get feedback on your job description
Before posting your job, get it reviewed by your colleagues and hiring team. Consider getting feedback from people who will be working directly with the new employee or those who have worked in the role before. If you need help fine-tuning your job description, we share insights from an Indeed survey on what makes a job description great here.
Considerations before posting a job
Before you post your next job, it’s also worth having conversations with your recruitment team and preparing a few things beforehand.
Align on required vs nice-to-have qualifications
When multiple people are responsible for determining if a candidate is a good match for a given role, it’s important to be on the same page about which skills and qualifications are ‘deal breakers’ and which are just nice-to-have.
In your job description, clearly label which qualifications are required and which are preferred. Doing so can encourage the right people to apply. You can also use this criteria to decide if completing an assessment is required for the role, and which questions on the application to mark as ‘deal breakers’.
Confirm a pay range for the job
Jobseekers look for opportunities that meet their salary needs. Make sure you and your recruitment team are aligned on salary or a salary range before adding it to your job post. You can come up with a fair salary range with the salary recommendation tool on the Job Details page when posting a job. You can also take a look at Indeed Salaries to see average pay for a given job title based on your location and data collected from Indeed users.
Read more on how to offer a competitive salary.
Decide who will be receiving applications
When applications start rolling in, you’ll get an email of all the people who’ve applied to your job each day. This email will be sent to the Indeed account owner’s email address by default, but you can enter your colleague’s email if you’d prefer them to receive applications.
You can also specify different email addresses for different jobs depending on who the recruitment manager or recruiter is for that particular role.
If you want to receive a separate email for each individual candidate who applies, click on Company Settings in your Employer Dashboard and select Email Preferences.
Decide on cover letter requirements
If you’d like applicants to submit a cover letter with their application, mention this requirement in the body of your job posting.
Job posting language requirements
To create the best possible experience for jobseekers, it’s important to adhere to Indeed’s job posting language requirements. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind as you write your job posting:
- Don’t use offensive language
- Avoid using ‘clickbait’ or misleading language in job titles
- Use your own original content (i.e. no plagiarising)
- Don’t discriminate; jobs on Indeed must be made available to qualified candidates regardless of age, race, gender and sexual orientation
- Adhere to all local and national legislation
Read more about Indeed’s job posting guidelines here.
Our top takeaways for posting your job on Indeed are:
- Write your job post so it’s simple and easy to understand
- Include a pay range and location in your job description
- Answer as many of Indeed’s prompts as you can when posting
- Start your job post with must-have skills and qualifications
- Add screener questions and skills tests to find responsive, quality candidates
- Sponsor your job to increase your odds of recruting a candidate
- Reach out to our Customer Success team if you ever need help
Indeed job posting FAQs
Can I post a job for free?
Yes, most jobs on Indeed can be posted for free.* Free postings lose visibility over time, but they can be a great option if you’re on a budget.
*Terms, conditions, quality standards and usage limits apply
Can I post a job without listing the salary?
Yes. It’s completely optional to post a job with salary details on Indeed. However, almost one out of every four jobseekers (24%) say that compensation is the most important part of a job description.[5] Including salary or a salary range upfront can help you stand out to the right candidates.
How long does it take for Indeed to post a job?
In most cases, our review process takes between 24 and 48 hours.
How long do Indeed job postings stay up?
Job postings on Indeed will remain active until you pause, close or remove the job yourself. However, if you post your job for free, it will be most visible to jobseekers for the first 2 or 3 days after posting. After that, it will start to fall back in the search results.
How do I cancel my job posting?
You can pause, close or remove your job posting at any time. Just click Edit job in the Employer Dashboard. From there, you have the ability to change your budget, pause your job or close it. We know that recruitment needs can quickly change, which is why Indeed gives you complete control of your spend.
Does Indeed remove job postings?
According to our job posting guidelines, Indeed may reject or remove any job and may disable any company’s account, for any or no reason. We cannot give every reason why a job or a company may be removed, and we always retain the right to undertake such removal of any job, organic or sponsored, if we feel it is in our interest or our users’ interest.
Why do I see my job posting when I didn’t post it on Indeed?
You may see your job post on Indeed even though you didn’t directly post it. That’s because Indeed aggregates job posts from places like career sites and other job boards.
Back to Hiring with Indeed
- Terms, conditions, quality standards and usage limits apply↩
- Terms, conditions, quality standards and usage limits apply↩
- Indeed data (UK)↩
- Indeed data (UK)↩
- Indeed survey, n=2,091↩
