How to post a job on Indeed: Step by step guide

Indeed is one of the most popular job boards for small businesses and large corporations alike. The career site is one of the most popular places for professionals to find a new job, and posting a job on Indeed is an excellent way to get your open positions in front of a wide audience. It’s also one of the most affordable job posting platforms and has minimal limitations on free job postings. Many other job boards only allow one free job post or do not allow free posts at all, but Indeed allows most jobs to be posted for free and does not set a specific limit on free job ads (as long as you are not spamming or otherwise violating Indeed’s posting guidelines).

If you’re currently hiring for your small business and want to post a job on Indeed, there are a few key things to keep in mind, including Indeed’s job posting requirements and pricing. To help you get your first job posting up on Indeed, we’ve compiled a step-by-step guide on how to post a job on Indeed. The job posting site is thankfully very beginner-friendly for small business owners that are new to using job sites and hiring platforms.

Free vs sponsored jobs on Indeed

One major benefit of posting jobs on Indeed is that most jobs can be posted for free. This is a huge help for small businesses with small recruiting budgets.

Free jobs on Indeed still have a fairly large reach and include comprehensive tools including:

• Job listings appear in candidate job searches.

• Ability to add screener questions and candidate skills assessments.

• Virtual Interviewing tools.

• Job performance data and hiring trends reporting.

• Access to a user-friendly employer dashboard.

• Integration with popular applicant tracking systems.

Sponsored jobs are also available for employers that want increased visibility or need to post the same role in multiple locations.

Added benefits of sponsored job postings on Indeed include:

• Better visibility in search results.

• Access to Indeed’s Instant Match feature.

• Ability to cross-post the job across several regions.

• No time limit on job postings (jobs stay live until paused).

Sponsored job pricing

Indeed’s pricing is very flexible. Employers that choose to sponsor their job ad are charged a fixed price per application. The exact price is calculated based on factors such as the job title, location, and number of job seekers actively looking for jobs in that area. Typically roles that are easier to fill will have lower sponsorship costs, while hard-to-fill jobs that require specialized skills or are located in areas without a large number of active candidates will cost more to sponsor. Indeed will display the cost per application before you commit to sponsoring a job.

One nice aspect of Indeed’s pricing model is that employers only pay for quality candidates. Employers have 72 hours to reject applicants that do not meet their requirements, and Indeed will not charge for these applications. Indeed also does not require any long-term contracts for job posting, and employers may stop or pause a sponsored job at any time. Employers can also set an application limit or a spending limit to ensure that they don’t go over budget.

How to post a job on Indeed

Follow this step-by-step guide to post your first job on Indeed.

Navigate to Indeed and select “Post a Job button”

Go to Indeed.com and look for the “Employers/Post Job” button in the top right corner. Alternatively, you can go directly to indeed.com/hire and sign in to your employer account or go to the post a new job selection on your employer dashboard.

If you haven’t posted a job on Indeed before, you may need to create an employer account. This may be linked to an existing personal/job seeker account or you can create a new Indeed account. You’ll also need a company profile set up for the business. If the company already has a profile, you’ll want to ask for admin access to post jobs on behalf of the company from your account.

Fill in the job details

To start, Indeed will prompt you to enter some basic details about the job that you would like to post.

The requested information will include:

• Salary or pay range

• Benefits offered

• Work locations

• Expected work hours or shift type

• Qualifications and skills

• Employment type (full-time, part-time, contract, etc)

• Remote or hybrid work options

Enter as much of this information as possible for the best results as many job seekers filter their search by pay range, remote work options, employment type, and location. Indeed will also provide estimated pay ranges for the job title and location that you specified. This can be helpful in verifying whether your expected pay rate is competitive with the current market rates.

Add your job description

Next, add the job description. You can paste or write it in the provided text box or upload a PDF or DocX file containing a job description.

Job descriptions on Indeed should be accurate and informative with key details such as job duties, qualifications, company information, and preferably salary information. If you need help creating a job description for your open role, explore Business Management Daily’s job description library and Indeed’s own job description examples.

Set application and communication preferences

After you enter a job description, you’ll be taken to the “Set Preferences” page where you can set your communication preferences. In the first section, you’ll be asked where you’d like to receive application notifications and how frequently you’d like to be alerted to new applicants. You can include multiple email addresses if several people will be reviewing applications.

Then, there is a box that you can check if you’d like to receive emails each time someone applies. If this is not selected, you’ll just receive daily update emails.

You can also select whether applicants can contact you via email or phone regarding the job. You do not need to allow either form of communication if you don’t want candidates to reach out beyond Indeed applications. There is also an option to allow in-platform messaging from candidates who have applied for a role.

Lastly, you can decide whether or not to request a resume from applicants. Resumes may be required, set as optional, or not requested. Most employers at least provide the option to include a resume. You’ll notice that some applicants submit their Indeed resume while others upload a standard resume in a PDF or other format that you may need to download.

Add applicant qualifications or candidate assessments

If desired, add required applicant qualifications or select candidate assessments to help narrow in on the right candidates. Since Indeed job postings often result in a huge number of job applications (even when you don’t sponsor the job), adding qualifications or assessments can be helpful in narrowing down the candidates and speeding up the hiring process.

On the Applicant Qualifications page, you can add questions that will help qualify or disqualify applicants. You can choose pre-built questions from Indeed or create your own custom qualifications. These questions are typically used to verify that an applicant has a key skill or certification for the role or meets the minimum years of experience to be considered for the opening. Businesses can also elect to send auto-rejections to candidates that do not meet the set qualifications.

You can also add a skills assessment for candidates to complete. Indeed offers 135 topic-specific candidate assessments that test common job skills like communication as well as a variety of job-specific skills. Applicants can complete the assessments at the time of application or can apply without completing the assessments and come back later to complete them (Indeed will also send the pending assessments via email to candidates). Keep in mind that these assessments do take a bit of time to complete, so it’s best to just select one or two of the most relevant assessments.

Post your job for free or enter sponsorship details

If you don’t want to sponsor, simply review the job details and settings that you entered and confirm your free job posting. If you would like to pay to sponsor a job, you can set your budget, application limits, and payment information.

Indeed job posting requirements

Indeed has a small set of guidelines in place to ensure that jobs posted on its site are legitimate and appropriate. Here are some key guidelines to keep in mind when crafting your Indeed job post.

Language guidelines

Employers may not post jobs that contain offensive language, misleading language, or plagiarized content. There are plenty of job description templates available online, but you should make necessary adjustments to make the job posting fit your role and ensure that you are not republishing other organization’s content without permission.

Job posting titles

While it’s understandable that employers may want to create eye-catching titles to get more attention on their job openings, Indeed prefers for employers to keep it simple. Indeed states that job titles should be listed just as they would be listed on a business card with no extra information or clickbait. Indeed avises employers to save additional information like required degrees and special company perks for the job description rather than the post/job title.

Jobs must be legitimate and actively available

Jobs posted on Indeed must be real, actively available jobs. Indeed emphasizes that job postings should be created to fill a currently open role rather than to build a candidate pipeline for potential future openings. Some companies do post more general job ads on LinkedIn or their own career sites that allow job seekers to express interest in being considered for future opportunities even if the company’s current openings don’t fit their backgrounds, but this is not allowed on Indeed.

Types of jobs allowed

Posts advertising job fairs, franchise opportunities, training programs, and multi-level marketing are typically not permitted on Indeed and may be removed. Indeed also states that there can not be any cost to the applicant in order to apply, interview, or begin work. Unpaid internships or other unpaid opportunities (including those that provide training, room and board, or other perks in lieu of payment) may not be posted either.