Your career site isn’t just another webpage. It’s often the first destination job seekers visit to get a sense of who you are as an employer. That first visit can make or break a potential connection with great talent. Think of your career site as the front porch of your employer brand. It sets the tone, offers a first impression, and determines whether candidates feel welcome enough to step through the door. Whether you’re trying to attract Gen Z talent, nurture passive candidates, or scale high-volume hiring, optimizing your career page is a high-impact step. That’s why we’ve created a free career page audit checklist to help you spot opportunities, improve candidate experience, and strengthen your recruitment marketing strategy.
Why Your Career Site Matters More Than Ever
Candidate expectations have changed. They’re not just looking for a list of job openings, they want to know who you are, what your values are, and how they’ll grow once they join your team.
A poorly optimized career site can sabotage even the best employer branding campaigns. On the flip side, an effective one becomes the engine behind your entire recruitment marketing strategy.
Ready to give your career page a proper health check? Let’s dive in.
Your Free Career Page Audit Checklist
We’ve broken this down into six key sections that align with today’s best practices in career site optimization and recruitment marketing.
1. First Impressions: Design and UX
You’ve got about seven seconds to capture a candidate’s attention. That means your career site’s visual design and user experience need to work fast and flawlessly. From mobile responsiveness to page load speed and easy navigation, everything should be frictionless. Candidates should be able to find what they’re looking for (open roles, benefits, and team insights) within a couple of clicks. A clean, uncluttered design and on-brand visuals go a long way in creating an experience that feels both modern and trustworthy.
2. Your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) in Action
Your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is the foundation of your employer brand, but it needs to show up in more than just words. The best career pages don’t just tell candidates why the company is a great place to work; they show it. A strong EVP should be visible above the fold and echoed through the site’s tone, visuals, and employee voices. Whether it’s through real stories, videos, or testimonials, your site should help every candidate, whether they’re Gen Z, remote-first, or internationally based, see themselves thriving with you.
Tip: Don’t just say “We’re a diverse, inclusive team.” Show clips of ERG events or spotlight diversity stats that prove the point.
3. Content & Storytelling
Candidates trust stories more than slogans. Great career pages give the spotlight to employees, not just leadership or HR. Featuring authentic voices helps create emotional connection and builds credibility. Instead of relying on buzzwords, aim for clear, human language that feels real. Your job descriptions should follow the same principle: focus on what the candidate will do, learn, and contribute, not just a list of requirements. The best content is engaging, inclusive, and reflective of your real culture.
4. Recruitment Funnel Functionality
Your career site isn’t just a brochure, it’s the top of your recruitment funnel. To perform well, it must convert. That means job postings should link directly to your ATS or application portal with minimal friction. Application processes should be fast and intuitive, with the option to sign up for job alerts or join a talent community. Bonus points if you give candidates clarity on what comes next in the hiring process. Tools like chatbots or embedded widgets can also help you connect with passive talent in a low-pressure way.
Pro tip: Use programmatic widgets like chatbots or “Get Job Alerts” buttons to keep things interactive and low-pressure.
5. Inclusive & Accessible Content
Accessibility and DEI aren’t checkboxes. They’re expectations. Be sure your web content reflects both. Your career page should work seamlessly for all users, including those with disabilities. That means ensuring compatibility with screen readers, using descriptive alt text, and avoiding language that unintentionally excludes. Your visuals should also reflect the real diversity of your team, not just stock imagery. When you say you’re committed to equity and belonging, your site needs to reflect that promise from the very first click.
Modern candidates are especially tuned into authenticity. If you say “belonging,” they expect to feel it from the moment they land on your page.
6. Performance Tracking & Iteration
You can’t improve what you can’t measure. An optimized career page should incorporate some basic analytics into traffic sources, bounce rates, and application conversions. With basic analytics tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar, you can gather data to guide smarter decisions. A/B testing headlines or CTAs can help you learn what resonates most. And don’t forget the value of direct feedback, ask new hires or candidates how they experienced your site and use that input to iterate.
Download the Free Career Page Audit Checklist
If your career site hasn’t had a refresh in a while, you’re not alone. Many talent teams invest heavily in job ads and paid campaigns, but overlook the very destination where those efforts land: the career page.
That’s why we created a downloadable version of this Career Page Audit Checklist, a simple, editable document you can use to review your current setup, identify quick wins, and prioritize improvements. Use it during a team sprint, a recruitment review, or even as a quarterly pulse check on your employer brand performance.
Final Thoughts
Your career site isn’t just a recruitment tool, it’s a storytelling platform, a conversion engine, and one of the richest sources of insight into how your employer brand is really performing.
So go ahead, grab the checklist, schedule a 30-minute review with your team, and find 2–3 small things to improve this quarter. Sometimes, shifting just one thing like updating your EVP intro or adding a few employee quotes can make all the difference.
After all, great talent isn’t lost. They’re just looking for a place that feels right. Let your career site show them they’ve found it.
Download the full Career Page Audit Checklist now and start building a better candidate experience today.
Need a Hand With a Full Audit?
If you’re looking for support on a full career site audit, we’ve got you. Reach out to us or explore more tools in the Templates & Tools section of our Resources hub.
