You should design your resume to meet the needs of the Web search engines because recruiters DO search the Web for resumes (it's free vs. Web job sites), and, in some ways, it's more effective for them than posting a job opportunity.

When Webmasters design a Web site to be found by the search engines, they call the process (science? art? skill?) "search engine optimization." Appropriate placement of the "right" words is critical to search engine placement. Those words are called "keywords." They are the words searchers type into search engines to find want they want.

[If you need help defining YOUR keywords, see Job-Hunt's keyword resume section - Resume Keywords.]

After you have defined the appropriate keywords for your resume, do your own search optimization:

1)   Use Your Keywords INconsistently.

Different recruiters will type the keywords into their searches differently, so use common variations of the keywords in your resume. For example, if you want a job in Massachusetts, use the word "Massachusetts," the abbreviation "Mass" and the postal code "MA" on your resume. They are each a different way to type the same state name. A recruiter could type any of those variations into his/her search to find someone for a job in Massachusetts.

2)   Put the Word "Resume" on Your Resume.

On the Web, many recruiters search for resumes using the keyword "resume," so at the top of your resume, type the words "Resume of [your name]" on a line.

3)   Put Keywords in Your Resume's File Name.

Name your resume's file something that has both marketing and identification qualities, a combination of keywords and your name, like "IEEE_MJSmith_resume.html." (Note: don't leave blank spaces, or use punctuation other than a hyphen or underscore in the file name to maximize the probability that a computer will read the file name easily.)

4)   Optimize the Top of Your Web Page.

Search engines "read" the HTML behind your resume. They don't look at the pictures or read the text on graphics.

MOST search engines view the text at the top of the page as "important," so don't waste it. Put as many keywords there as you can, in an objective and skill summary, perhaps.

For help with HTML and adding keyword Meta tags to your resume, check out Job-Hunt's Internet Resume section.

5)   Register a Personal Domain Name.

If you decide to do a personal resume Web page, go first class, and register a domain name for yourself. They are inexpensive, and usually give you much better search engine positioning than a free site which will have a complicated URL (e.g. www.bigISP.com/~users/yournaume.html.). Register [yourname].com, [yourname].net, or [your name]-resume.com.

6)   Add "Meta" Tags, if You Want.

They may help with search results placement with some search engines, but they don't help as much as they did a couple of years ago. If you have the time and inclination, you can add these "invisible" collection of relevant keywords to your resume's HTML file. See Job-Hunt's section on Meta tags for your resume.

7)   Register Your Personal Resume Web Page.

If you go to the effort to transform your resume into a Web page, register it with Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project. Look for an appropriate "individual resumes" sub-category, and follow the submission directions very carefully.

Yahoo's expedited review will get you listed, or rejected, within 7 days at a cost of $299/year (or, for free, you can wait for them to get around to your resume, which may happen some day - but don't hold you breath). Yahoo! will send you an email when your Web site is accepted. Your resume is "in" the Yahoo! directory when you can find it IN A YAHOO SUB-CATEGORY, not just in a search of Web pages.

After it has been accepted by Yahoo, register it with Google (free!). The Open Directory Project is also free, and will positively impact your resume's placement in Google search results.

USABILITY HINT: It's easy and fun to play with the colors on a Web page, but resist temptation. Don't have a dark background with light-colored letters! Your resume may be printed by someone, and light letters on a dark background is a disastrous combination for most printers.

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About the author...

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

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