A rearview mirror is a handy monitoring tool. It can tell you when there is something behind you and, sometimes, how fast it is going. One would never use a rear-view mirror to tell which way to go. A map, common sense, reading signs or knowing the way are basic methods for figuring out direction. A rearview mirror is only useful for a small range of things. So it is with ROI.

We often hear that job boards are becoming "too expensive" compared to the cost of candidates who natively arrive at the company website. When we dig a little, we find that people who say this rarely know any of the underlying details. Rather, the idea that traffic can be cheaper, or more effective, requires a substantially different kind of measurement.

It is very clear that the value per candidate fluctuates wildly amongst varying companies. Those lucky enough to have one of the top 250 brand names receive much more native traffic than the other 7 million employers. In each case, however, the cost and value of an additional visitor to the website is quantitatively different for each unique website and industry.

The easiest and most cost effective method for driving traffic to a website involves advertising on job boards.

Search engine optimization is a close second but Provides an initial floor rather than a continuing boost (like job boards can).

Other methods include community building, referral systems (like jobster), direct marketing, non-job board advertising, niche board development, keyword acquisition and so on.

In the next articles, we'll look at building an investment case for traffic development.

John Sumser

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