The following employment ad appeared in my local Cleveland newspaper today:



Now, I have nothing against an employer using the newspaper as long as they're tracking the return on investment. I do, however, question an SEO firm using print, while missing the boat on exactly what keeps them in business.

Here's what I mean: Fathom SEO fails to use pay-per-click advertising in their recruitment efforts. A search on Google for "cleveland seo jobs" gives me nothing promoting jobs at Fathom, who could most likely always use a steady stream of potential SEO talent in Cleveland, their headquarters.

Organically, Fathom SEO has a page dedicated to openings, but guess what? The term "jobs" isn't anywhere on the page. Even the title tag fails to be unique to employment. As a result, they obviously fail to rank competitively against the competition.

Lastly, the reply mechanism on the print ad is an e-mail address that looks pretty generic. Careers@fathomseo.com? Do they know responses coming to that address are from this newspaper ad? Shouldn't they use something like newspaperad@fathomseo.com?

When a hospital fails to utilize search engines for employment effectively, it's forgivable. When an SEO firm fails to utilize search while dumping big bucks in print, not so much.