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Careers Website GEO: How to Optimise Your Careers Website for AI Search
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Managing Director
AI search playbook
Careers website GEO in 12 tactics: let the right crawlers in, write content AI can quote, add the right structured data and measure it. With a free access file generator and a 12-point scorecard.
By the Happydance team. Updated November 2026.
What careers website GEO is
Careers website GEO is making your jobs and employer content easy for AI assistants to find, read, understand and quote accurately.
Definition: Generative engine optimisation (GEO)
The practice of making content easy for AI assistants and AI search features to access, understand and cite, so that answers about your company and jobs are accurate and come from your own pages.
Nobody can guarantee that an assistant will mention you. What you can control is whether it can reach your content, whether it can read it, and whether what it reads is clear, consistent and true. This guide is the how-to. For the explanation of what AI search is and why it matters, read our GEO and AEO guide for careers websites.
Why candidates now ask AI before they apply
Candidates used to start with a search box and ten blue links. Many now start with a question to an assistant: what is it like to work at this company, what do they pay, are they hiring near me? The answers are short, and they are built from pages the assistant could reach and trust.
Reality
Fewer clicks
An answer may satisfy a candidate without a visit to your website.
Risk
Your words, their summary
If your pages are unclear, the summary will be too.
Hygiene
Accuracy matters
Out-of-date pages produce out-of-date answers.
Opportunity
You can influence it
Access, clarity and structure are all in your control.
The 12 tactics, in the order to do them
Work through them in this order. The first two remove blockers. The next six make your content easy to quote. The last four extend and measure.
Let the right crawlers in
Why it matters Allow the search and user-initiated bots that decide whether you can be cited. Decide separately about training bots.
How to do it Open your robots.txt file today and read it line by line. Many careers websites block everything by accident after a security review.
Avoid A blanket block, or a rule written for one bot that quietly blocks others.
Make sure content renders without scripts
Why it matters Many crawlers read the HTML they are given and do not run your scripts.
How to do it View the page source. Is the job title, description and employer story in the HTML? If it only appears after scripts run, fix that first.
Avoid Jobs that load only after a search is typed.
Write an answer-first opening on every page
Why it matters Assistants quote the clearest sentence. Put the answer first.
How to do it Start each page and each section with a one or two sentence answer, then the detail.
Avoid Three paragraphs of context before the answer.
Name things plainly and consistently
Why it matters Models match your words to the question. Clear names make you easy to match.
How to do it Use the same employer name, role titles and place names everywhere. Say what you do in plain words.
Avoid Internal job titles and clever slogans.
Write job descriptions that stand alone
Why it matters A job description may be quoted without the rest of the page.
How to do it Cover role, location, pay where possible, key requirements and how to apply, in plain structure with real headings.
Avoid Descriptions that rely on the page around them.
Publish the facts candidates ask for
Why it matters People ask assistants about pay, flexibility, process and culture.
How to do it Create short pages for benefits, hiring process, working patterns and progression, with specifics and dates.
Avoid Vague claims with no detail.
Add Organization structured data
Why it matters It tells machines who you are and where else you appear.
How to do it Mark up your employer name, website, logo and official social profiles on the careers website.
Avoid Inconsistent names across profiles.
Add valid JobPosting structured data
Why it matters It tells machines the exact details of each job.
How to do it Fill the required properties, keep them in line with the visible text and remove or close expired jobs.
Avoid Markup that does not match the page.
Keep pages fast and accessible
Why it matters Fast, clean pages are easier to fetch, read and trust.
How to do it Test mobile speed and accessibility. Fix the heaviest pages first.
Avoid Large unoptimised images and script-heavy templates.
Offer a clear map of your content
Why it matters Sitemaps and a short summary file help crawlers find what matters.
How to do it Keep your sitemap up to date. Consider an llms.txt file that points to your key pages. It is a proposed convention, and no provider has promised to use it.
Avoid Expecting a file to change results on its own.
Earn mentions from places AI trusts
Why it matters Assistants draw on reviews, news, industry listings and social profiles, not only your website.
How to do it Keep your profiles accurate. Give journalists and employees good facts. Encourage honest reviews.
Avoid Ignoring what is said about you elsewhere.
Measure it and repeat monthly
Why it matters You cannot control answers, but you can watch them.
How to do it Keep a fixed list of prompts. Test them monthly. Record whether you are mentioned, cited or described correctly.
Avoid Testing once and forgetting.
Let the right AI crawlers in: the access file generator
Different crawlers do different jobs. Some fetch pages so an assistant can search and cite them. Some fetch a page when a person asks an assistant about it. Some collect content that may be used to train models. They can be managed separately in robots.txt, and a sensible policy treats them separately too.
| Type | Examples | Allow? |
|---|---|---|
| Search and citation | OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, Bingbot | Usually yes, so you can be found and cited |
| User-initiated | ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User | Usually yes. Some providers say robots.txt may not apply |
| Training | GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot | Your decision. Blocking is a policy choice, not a search tactic |
Use the generator to draft a robots.txt that matches your choices, and a llms.txt that points to your key pages. Both are drafts for your web team to review. Everything runs in your browser.
Free tool
robots.txt generator for AI crawlers
Choose what to allow. The file updates as you go. Copy it or download it.
| Crawler type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Search and citation | OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot |
| User-initiated | ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User |
| Training | GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot |
This is the printable version. Switch on JavaScript to use the live calculator in your browser.
Free tool
llms.txt generator
llms.txt is a proposed convention for pointing assistants at your most useful pages. No provider has promised to use it, so treat it as low-cost tidiness, not a ranking tactic.
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Name | Your employer name |
| Summary | One or two sentences |
| Key pages | Title | address | description |
This is the printable version. Switch on JavaScript to use the live calculator in your browser.
Write job and employer content AI can quote
Assistants quote clear sentences. The easiest way to be quoted accurately is to write the sentence you want quoted, and put it first. Here is the difference.
Before: buried
"We are a dynamic, fast-moving organisation on an exciting journey, and we believe our people are our greatest asset. Over the years we have grown. One of the things candidates ask is about flexibility. We offer a range of options."
After: answer first
"Example Company offers hybrid working: most teams work three days a week in the office and two from home. Teams that need to be on site, such as laboratory staff, work on site. Ask about your team at interview."
- Start each page with a one or two sentence answer.
- Use headings that are questions people actually ask.
- State numbers and dates, and keep them up to date.
- Use the same names for roles, places and benefits everywhere.
- Put the apply route in plain words.
Our design best practices cover structure and clarity, and the Happydance Academy employer brand strategy course helps you decide what to say.
Structured data that AI systems read
Structured data is a labelled summary of the page that machines can read directly. Two types matter most: Organization for who you are, and JobPosting for each job. Keep the markup in line with the visible text, and never mark up what the page does not say.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Example Company",
"url": "https://example.com",
"logo": "https://example.com/logo.png",
"sameAs": ["https://www.linkedin.com/company/example", "https://www.youtube.com/@example"]
}
The example is illustrative. Read the JobPosting schema guide for every job field, and our Google for Jobs optimisation checklist for the step-by-step.
Speed, accessibility and rendering: why they matter to AI
Assistants and crawlers fetch millions of pages. A page that is slow, heavy or dependent on scripts is harder to fetch and read. The same work that helps candidates helps machines. The leaderboard shows how careers websites perform on speed and accessibility today.
723.0average leaderboard score of the 61 Happydance customer sites
618.6average score of the 40 other sites (38 Fortune 100 companies and 2 wild cards)
41sites at the top of the leaderboard are all Happydance customers
Sample disclosure: 101 careers websites, of which 61 are Happydance customers, 38 are Fortune 100 companies and 2 are wild cards. Scores are Lighthouse results for mobile and desktop, out of 800. It compares customers with large-company careers websites, not the whole market. See the careers website performance leaderboard.
72.5mean mobile Lighthouse performance, customer sites
41.9other sites in the leaderboard
96.1mean mobile accessibility, customer sites
Sample disclosure: 101 careers websites, of which 61 are Happydance customers, 38 are Fortune 100 companies and 2 are wild cards. Scores are Lighthouse results for mobile and desktop, out of 800. It compares customers with large-company careers websites, not the whole market.
See the best SEO careers websites, the fastest careers websites and the full leaderboard. The platform is mobile-first, with images generated dynamically for each device. Learn more about careers website SEO built in.
Measure it: prompts to test and a monthly routine
You cannot control answers, but you can watch them. Choose a fixed list of prompts and test them on the same day each month.
| Prompt type | Example | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | "What is it like to work at [your company]?" | Is it accurate? Which sources are cited? |
| Jobs | "Is [your company] hiring [role] in [city]?" | Are your jobs mentioned? Is the apply link right? |
| Benefits | "What benefits does [your company] offer?" | Does it match your page? |
| Comparison | "Best employers for [role] in [city]" | Are you mentioned at all? |
- Choose promptsTen to twenty questions candidates really ask.
- Test monthlySame assistants, same wording, same day.
- RecordMentioned? Cited? Accurate?
- Fix the sourceChange the page, not the prompt.
- RepeatCompare with last month.
Pair this with the wider measures in our employer branding metrics guide, and look up unfamiliar words in the careers website glossary.
The AI readiness scorecard
Tick what is true today. Be strict. The score shows where to start.
Free tool
AI readiness scorecard: 12 points
Tick each statement that is true today. Nothing leaves your browser.
| Area | Checks |
|---|---|
| Crawler access | 2 |
| Rendering | 2 |
| Content | 3 |
| Structured data | 2 |
| Technical | 2 |
| Measurement | 1 |
This is the printable version. Switch on JavaScript to use the live calculator in your browser.
How Happydance does it
Customers manage everything themselves, including multilingual content, favicons and basic standard graphics, with no developer needed. We believe that is what a careers website CMS should mean.
Also read how this connects to Google for Jobs, and see the Happydance platform and the careers website CMS.
A 90-day plan for AI search visibility
| Days | Focus | Outputs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 30 | Baseline and access | Prompt test results, crawler access decision, list of pages that answer candidate questions |
| 31 to 60 | Content and structure | Employer pages rewritten as clear answers, structured data checked on job and company pages |
| 61 to 90 | Measure and refine | Second prompt test, comparison with baseline, next quarter priorities |
Ten prompts every employer should test
- What is it like to work at our company?
- What are the benefits at our company?
- Does our company hire graduates, and how?
- What jobs does our company have in a named city?
- What is the interview process at our company?
- How does our company support flexible working?
- What does our company do to support inclusion?
- What do employees say about our company?
- Is our company a good place for a named career?
- How do I apply to our company?
Record the answer, the sources the answer cites and whether it is accurate. Fix what is wrong by improving your own pages, because that is the only part you control.
What is careers website GEO?
Making your jobs and employer content easy for AI assistants to find, read, understand and quote accurately.
Can I guarantee that ChatGPT will cite my jobs?
No. Nobody can. You can control access, clarity, structure and accuracy, which are what make citation possible.
Should I allow AI crawlers in robots.txt?
Usually allow the search and user-initiated ones so you can be found and cited. Training crawlers are a policy decision for your business.
What is llms.txt?
A proposed convention for a file that points assistants at your most useful pages. No provider has promised to use it, so treat it as low-cost tidiness.
Does structured data help AI search?
It gives machines a clear, labelled summary of your organisation and jobs. Keep it accurate and in line with the visible page.
Does page speed matter for AI search?
Fast, clean pages are easier to fetch and read. It also helps candidates, which is reason enough.
How do I measure whether it is working?
Test a fixed list of prompts monthly and record whether you are mentioned, cited and described correctly.
How is this different from the GEO and AEO guide?
That guide explains what AI search is and why it matters. This page is the step-by-step playbook.
How do I measure AI search visibility?
Run the same prompts monthly, record whether your employer is mentioned and whether the answer is accurate, and compare against the previous month.
GEO and AEO guideGoogle for Jobs checklistJobPosting schema guideCareers website SEOCareers website CMSGlossaryBest SEO careers websitesFastest careers websites
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