Careers Site Teardown: A 14-Point Audit That Lifts Conversion

If your careers site has not been audited in the last 12 months, it is leaking qualified applicants in three predictable places. The fix is not a redesign; the fix is a teardown — a structured walk-through of the funnel with conversion data in hand. The best in-house teams run this teardown every quarter and ship two to three improvements off the back of it.

The funnel and where it leaks

If your numbers are far below these benchmarks, the diagnosis is usually different at each stage: homepage → role list is a content and search problem; role page → apply is a job-description problem; apply → submit is a form problem. Fix in that order, but do not skip the diagnostic step.

The 14-point audit

1. Above-the-fold answers 'what is it like to work here?' in one sentence, not 'about us' boilerplate.
2. Role search returns sensible results for misspellings and synonyms (e.g. 'eng manager' = 'engineering manager').
3. Filters exist for location, team, level, and employment type — not just function.
4. Each role page has a 90-second video or a strong photo, not a stock-image header.
5. Role title matches what candidates search on LinkedIn — not internal jargon.
6. Job description is structured: who you'll work with, what you'll do in 90 days, must-haves, nice-to-haves, comp range.
7. Comp range is published (or you have a documented reason not to, with the reason explained).
8. Apply form has ≤8 fields. Each extra field above 8 drops completion ~5%.
9. No required cover letter for IC roles. Optional only.
10. Mobile completion is tested end-to-end; one-handed thumb test passes.
11. Confirmation page tells candidates what happens next and when.
12. 404 from a closed-role URL redirects to a related search, not a generic page.
13. Glassdoor and team-blog links open in new tabs, not pulled-in widgets that slow load.
14. Load time on 4G is under 3 seconds; LCP under 2.5s.

Job descriptions: the biggest lever

Across most audits, rewriting job descriptions produces 2–4× the lift of any other change. Three rules: lead with what the person will do in the first 90 days (concrete, not vague), separate must-haves from nice-to-haves brutally (a 12-bullet must-have list is a 4-bullet must-have list with 8 nice-to-haves), and remove anything that screams 'we copy-pasted this' — bias language, exhaustive disclaimers, and the same 'about us' paragraph on every role.

The apply form

• Required fields: name, email, role, CV upload. Anything else is optional or removed.
• Resume parsing fills the form; candidate confirms in 30 seconds, not retypes for 8 minutes.
• No account creation required to apply. Account creation kills 30–50% of completions.
• Optional EEO/diversity questions come AFTER submission, not before.
• Show progress (1 of 2, 2 of 2) — not a 6-page wizard.

What to instrument