Help job seekers understand your job postings by including a complete description

Monday, November 01, 2021

We've uncovered an opportunity to improve your job posting pages, and it only takes a few changes to the description field.

In the description section of a posting in the jobs experience on Google Search, we only present text that is included in the description property. That's why it's important to include information about job qualifications, skills, benefits, etc. in the description field.

The following screenshot illustates proper use of the description field, as the job posting includes all relevant data for the user to make a more informed decision on whether or not they'd be interested in applying for the job.

Here are two examples of both a complete and incomplete job posting markup implementation:

Here's an example of a complete description field. The job description field includes all of the relevant information about the job, including qualifications.

{
   {
    "@context" : "https://schema.org/",
    "@type" : "JobPosting",
    "title" : "Software Engineer",
    "description" : "Software Engineer responsible for creating web applications. Knowledge of HTML, Javascript, APIs, and relational databases. Must have 2-5 years of experience.", // this description was shortened for this example
    "qualifications": "Knowledge of HTML, Javascript, APIs, and relational databases. Must have 2-5 years of experience." // this is an optional property
    }
  }

Here is an example of an incomplete description field. The description only includes a brief description of the job, and the qualifications are only listed in the qualifications property. To correct this, include all information from the qualifications field in the description field.

{
  {
  "@context" : "https://schema.org/",
  "@type" : "JobPosting",
  "title" : "Software Engineer",
  "description" : "Software Engineer responsible for creating web applications",
  "qualifications": "Knowledge of HTML, Javascript, APIs, and relational databases. Must have 2-5 years of experience."
  }
}

To make sure users can view the full job description in the jobs experience on Google Search, review the description field and make sure it includes all information that you may have included only in specific fields (like the qualifications property). You don't need to remove the more specific fields; just make sure that you also include the same information in the description property itself.

If you have any questions, you can discuss with experts in the Search Central community, or get in touch with us on Twitter.

Posted by Bobby Panczer, Software Engineer