Nowadays, Writing an SEO Optimized Resume is more important than having a well-written resume. With the increasing competition in the job market, it has become crucial to optimize your resume for search engines. This process is commonly referred to as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for resumes.
Just like websites and online content, resumes can also benefit from SEO techniques. By strategically meeting the SEO factors in your resume, you increase its visibility and chances of being discovered by potential employers or recruiters.
Why do you need SEO For Resume?
If you are an SEO Professional with a well-built resume, you would’ve known what an algorithm is. Job platforms like LinkedIn and Naukri have recognized this need and have implemented SEO algorithms to help job seekers increase their visibility to potential employers.
- Job portals and platforms use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan resumes for keywords that match the job description.
- The ATS algorithm will then rank your resume based on how well it matches the job requirements.
- The higher your resume is ranked, the more likely it is to be seen by a human recruiter.
The algorithms take into account factors such as skills, experience, education, and location. By aligning your resume with these criteria, you can enhance its visibility in search results and attract more attention from hiring managers.
If you have trouble in resume writing or profile updation, you can always rely on our Content Writing Services. We have SEO specialists and content writers to work and deliver the best written content for you!
Steps to Write an SEO Optimized Resume
If you want to write an SEO optimized resume, you must meet certain SEO factors. A SEO optimized resume should highlight your skills and experience, making it easier for search engines to find and recommend you for job opportunities.
Stuffing keywords alone won’t do the trick. An SEO optimized resume doesn’t manipulate a Job Platform’s algorithm but it provides exactly what it wants to consider our resume to be worth recommending. Here is how you write a successful resume,
1. No need to write more Pages
If you are a Fresher, don’t fall into this misconception that your resume needs to be lengthy in order to stand out.Try limiting your resume to keep under 2 Pages.
Recruiters appreciate concise and focused resumes that highlight the most relevant information. By keeping your resume to one page, you ensure that your key qualifications and achievements are easily accessible to the Job Platforms.
Hence, unless until you have years of experience to fill out the pages, you can always consider being minimalistic.
2. Start with a Precise Header
When making your resume more search engine friendly (like how Google finds things online), start it with a big title at the top. This title should have your full name and ways to contact you, like your phone number and email. You can also add where you live if you want.
Under your name, you can put other things like your job title (if you have one), links to your social media accounts, a link to your professional network page, or your own website if you have one. If you made a website to show off things you’ve done, like school projects, you can put a link to it too. This helps people who might want to hire you see the cool stuff you’ve worked on.
For Example,
👋 Alex Johnson!
📞 Phone: (123) 456-7890
📧 Email: [email protected]
🏠 Home: 1234 Sunny Street, Anytown, USA
🕵️♂️ SEO Analyst | 🌐 Tech Explorer
🔗 LinkedIn: (id)
🔗 Instagram: (id)
🌐 Website: (Domain name)
🎨 Check out my projects at: (Link to your Portfolio)
3. Write an attractive Summary
Writing an SEO optimized summary for your resume is like crafting a short and catchy introduction that uses important words related to the job you want. Since hardly recruiters read the summary, Try to keep it brief.
Include about 2-3 sentences, and highlight your skills, years of experience, goals, and what you’re great at, using action words. Be honest, unique, and error-free. This special summary helps your resume stand out in a crowd and gets noticed by employers looking for someone like you!
4. List Your Work Experience & Education Details
Listing work experience on your resume with SEO optimization is like making your job history shine so that computers (like search engines) and people can easily see how awesome you are. It’s a bit like telling a cool story. Here’s how you do it:
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- Add Job Titles that recruiters search (For eg: Instead of mentioning your role as “SEO”, write it as “SEO Specialist” or “SEO Analyst” or “SEO Expert”)
- Include Dates of joining and Ending your Previous Roles
- Say What you did throughout your work experience with related keywords
- Include Action Keywords like “helped,” “created,” or “managed.”
- Mention your target achievements
- Include bulletins for all these details
5. List Out your Skills
Listing skills on your resume with SEO optimization means making a special list of the things you’re really good at, using important words that match the job you want. Keep your list organized and include different skills, using exciting words to describe them.
To get a good skill list to add to your resume that can act as a great keyword, here is the trick
- Job platforms like LinkedIn and Naukri show analytics where it displays “Search Appearances for Keywords”. You can add those keywords to your list.
- You can surf for job postings that match your role and see the expected skill list in the description. Add those!
6. Add Certifications and Rewards
When mentioning certificates and rewards on your resume with SEO optimization, you’re essentially showcasing your special accomplishments in a way that both people and search engines can easily recognize. We recommend you highlight the related certifications that coincide with the job you are searching for.
The certification name having the related keyword is a great addition. For example, Diploma in Digital Marketing from xxx Institute.
Use strong words like “achieved” or “earned,” and briefly explain what you did to earn it in 1-2 lines.
7. Proofread and Export
Proofreading your resume after preparing it is crucial to catch and correct any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors that might have sneaked in.
To ensure a mistake-free, Optimized resume, take a break before proofreading, read it aloud, use computer tools, ask someone else for input, check each section carefully, and consider exporting it. Grammarly and Quillbot are some good tools to check your grammar and rephrase your content with a professional tone.
Pro Tip: Always export your resume in PDF format and upload it to your Job Profiles on Job Platforms.
Why should SEO Resumes be in PDF format?
SEO optimized resumes are often recommended to be in PDF format because it helps preserve the formatting, layout, and overall appearance of your document, ensuring that it looks the same across different devices and software.
Resumes are recommended to be in PDF Format since they are easily accessible for search engines. The search engines finds it less difficult in converting PDFs into HTML formats.
From the Recruiter’s perspective, Word documents take time to load and can have alignment issues whereas pdfs won’t differ irrespective of the device used.
Does design play a role in SEO Resumes?
Having a minimalistic design for your SEO optimized resumes will attract the recruiters in most effective way. The resume need not to have pictorial representation or graphs to showcase your design skills. However, for a portfolio, its a different scenario.
Another pro Tip: If you find it difficult to have a design template for your resume, use Canva, which is an online tool that has a range of Templates for resumes.
Wrapping Up
Crafting an SEO optimized resume isn’t just about words on paper – it’s about creating a captivating story of your skills and achievements that speaks directly not only to the recruiters but also the job platforms.
We have listed the best practices to write and upload a SEO optimized resume for your favorite job profile. Try them and give us feedback on your experience.