When it comes to hiring, not all applicants are the same.
Across many large employers, one trend consistently stands out: candidates who apply through an employer’s own career site are, on average, three times more likely to be hired than candidates from job boards.
That’s a meaningful difference — and it’s one way employers could think about prioritizing their recruitment marketing efforts.
Why Career Site Applicants Are Often Higher Intent
There are a few common reasons this gap exists:
Higher intent: People who come to your career site are actively interested in your brand, not just casting a wide net across multiple employers.Better fit: They’re taken the time to learn about your company, your culture, and your open roles.Lower competition: Job board applicants often apply to many companies at once, while career site visitors tend to be more focused on yours.
The bottom line: Career site applicants are typically the highest intent candidates from external sources.
The Problem: Most Career Site Visitors Don’t Take Action
Even with this quality advantage, most employers aren’t fully capturing the potential of their career site traffic. In many cases, the majority of visitors leave without even starting an application, signing up for a talent network, and engaging a chat bot.
That means the majority of high-intent visitors slip away without engaging — and without being part of your talent pipeline.
How Employers Can Capture More Career Site Value
Organizations that get the most from their career site traffic focus on three key areas:
Personalize the experience
Make it easy for visitors to quickly see jobs that are relevant to them — ideally without requiring them to run a search.Offer low-friction ways to stay in touch
Give visitors an easy, one-click way to join your talent network or sign up for job alerts if they’re not ready to apply.Follow up and re-engage quickly
Don’t wait weeks to reach out. The highest engagement happens when you follow up within days — or even hours — of someone showing interest. Share only the most relevant opportunities or updates based on the role types they viewed.
A monthly newsletter sent weeks after sign-up is unlikely to move the needle.
The Impact of Better Career Site Conversion
When employers focus on converting more career site visitors into engaged candidates, they often see:
More high-quality applicants without increasing advertising spend.A stronger long-term talent pipeline for hard-to-fill roles.Reduced dependence on external job boards for applicant volume.
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Reduce job board dependence by converting career site visitors into applicants.