How to Set up Google for Jobs and Google Analytic

Set up your Google for Jobs integration, set up Google Analytics and learn more about how it benefits the adverts you post from Firefish

Here you'll learn about Google for Jobs and how to integrate it with your Firefish adverts.

Google for Jobs can be configured if you are an Enterprise or Professional user. If your are currently using Basic, Firefish relies on Google trawling the site directly and is not configurable by Firefish.

What is Google for Jobs?

Google for Jobs is a job-search feature that Google have added to their search engine.

 

Google scans the web for job ads and job pages, pulls all the the information it can gather from them and displays the jobs clearly at the top of a job-seeker's Google search.

 

For more information, download our Google for Jobs eBook using the button below:

 



How Firefish integrates with Google for Jobs

Firefish has optimised your adverts so Google will display your jobs in Google for Jobs searches.

 

Google recognises and crawls your adverts only when your adverts are structured in a format that's in line with the Google job-posting schema.

 

Firefish does this automatically so you can be sure that Google will recognise and pull out jobs you post through Firefish and presents them clearly in Google search results:

 

Firefish also has a Google Indexing API that notifies Google when a job advert has been created, updated or removed from your website.

 

This ensures Google For Jobs is displaying the most up-to-date version of your jobs. Once you have the API set up, Google will continue to add and remove jobs in line with the content of your jobs pages.


 

Setting up Google for Jobs

Setting up Google for Jobs will take around 10 - 20 minutes.

 

To set up Google For Jobs so that it displays your jobs in sync with how they appear on your website, you'll need to configure the following 2 items:

  • Google indexing API (so Google knows when a job has been created, updated or removed from your website).

  • Job-posting Properties (so Google understands which fields on your adverts to display in their search pages)

To edit these settings, Super Users can go to Settings>Integrations>Google Analytics

 

 

 


 

Google Indexing API

The Google Indexing API ensures Google For Jobs is displaying the most up-to-date version of your jobs.

 

To set up the Google Indexing API, you'll need access to the Google account that your company uses for your website’s Google analytics.

 

Once you have that, use the following steps to get set up.

 

You can also find more information and guidance in Google’s Help Guide.



Setting up Google Indexing API

Follow these 5 steps to enable the Indexing API between Google and Firefish:

 

 

1. Create a Google Service account and create a Google Indexing API Key

Go to the Google Service Account page - if you don’t have a project created, create one using the Create Account button to the right:

 

 

Add a name for your project, for example, “Firefish API”:

 

You can leave the organisation blank if you don’t have one, then hit Create.

 

Once you have created your project, you will be redirected to a page where you can create your service account:

 

Add your Google Service account details and press CREATE AND CONTINUE to proceed:

 

You will then be asked for service account permissions - select Basic and then Browser from the options available. Then, making sure Browser appears in the Role field, hit Continue:

 

On the 'Grant user’s access to this service account' section, leave the 2 fields blank and click Continue.

 

On the side menu, select Service Accounts , then click the Actions ellipsis on the account you have just created. Then select Manage keys from the options listed:

 

From the Keys screen, click the Add Key button and select Create new key:

 

Next, select JSON from the options in the pop-up:

 

 

The Key is automatically downloaded, however we suggest you keep this in a safe location as you will not be able to download the key again.

 

In the event that you see the following message "What app should we use to open this file with" we recommend using Notepad:

Once completed, hit Close.

Navigate back to the Details tab, and take a note of the email address listed on this page - you'll need it in Step 3!

 

Step 1 is now completed!



2. Switch on Google Indexing API for your project in the Google API Console

Go to Googles Developers Console. This will redirect you to your project’s (created in step one) APIs & Services page. If you have multiple projects, you need to choose the one you are using for your service account.

 

Click Enable API and Services where it appears at the top of the page:

 

 

Search for Indexing API in the search box and select it - once selected click Enable:

 

 

Step 2 is now completed!


 

3. Setting up Google Analytics to verify your site ownership

 

To complete this step, your website needs to be verified with Google.

To do this you'll need to set up Google Analytics.

Navigate to Google Search Console:


If Firefish provides your whole website then you'll need the URL prefix option.

 

URL prefix

Ensure that you have Firefish open on a separate tab as you will need to copy information into the system to verify.


You'll first need to enter your URL (site address) and click continue. You'll need to include the full URL including https://www.

This will open a pop up with several verification options. Select HTML tag copy the tag using the Copy button:

 

Then you will need to Paste this into the Google Page Tracking Script box within Firefish, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save:

Finally click VERIFY on the Google Search Console pop up, then click Done.

 

2nd part:

 

Go to settings > Users and Permissions (top left hand corner menu and choose the link to the website)

Take email from service account:

 

 

Click the 3 dots to the right and choose Manage property Owners:


Add the email previously copied into the owner:

 

 

 

 

Step 3 is now completed!

 


4. Add Google Indexing API key in Firefish

Copy the contents of the JSON file that you have created in step 1.


Tip: To open the JSON file, right click and select 'Open With' then choose 'Notepad'.

 

Paste the full script in Firefish within Settings>Integrations>Google Analytics>Google Service Account Key:

 

 

Test that you can get a token back from Google by clicking on 'Test Google service key'.

 

Finally, go to Website >Web Settings>Tracking Codes in Firefish and ensure the checkbox for Enable search engines is ticked:

 

Step 4 is now completed!


 

5. Test the API

First you'll need to choose an advert to post or repost from Firefish.

 

Once this is done, you'll need to copy the advert URL.

You can find the advert URL in the top right-hand corner of the advert header within Firefish; click the copy icon to copy the URL:

Once this is done, open Google's API Testing Tool.

In the URL box, paste the advert URL that you have just copied from the advert in Firefish and click Execute.

You should see a 200 response code which means the posting has been successful and giving you information regarding when Google was last updated regarding your advert.

 

Step 5 is now completed and your Google Indexing API is all set up!


 

Updating your Job-posting Properties

Firefish allows you to choose what information Google picks up from your adverts.

 

Super Users can select the info by going to Settings >Integrations>Google Analytics and scroll down to the Job Posting Properties section

 

Firefish displays all of the required fields by default and next to each field you'll see a brief description.

 

Simply tick or un-tick the fields to choose what you want to display.

 

 

Please note: Certain fields are mandatory and/or recommended.

 

A red warning will appear if a field is mandatory and an orange warning if a field is recommended.

 

Here is a list of the kind of information you can choose to display to Google:

Property

Description

Required/Recommended

datePosted

This will use the most recent date that the advert is posted on.

Required

description

The full description of the advert will be visible here.

Required

employmentType

This will specify whether the advert is Permanent (FULL_TIME) or Contract (CONTRACTOR).

Recommended

title

The title of the advert.

Required

validThrough

This will use the closed date of the advert.

Required

url

The URL of the advert.

Recommended

jobLocationType

This adds a checkbox option to your adverts to mark them as Working from Home

Recommended

baseSalary

 

 

currency

Using the currency from your system settings.

Recommended

minValue

This will use the minimum value of the advert salary/rate range (ex. 10000)

Recommended

maxValue

This will use the maximum value of the advert salary/rate range (ex. 30000).

Recommended

unitText

This will use per year, per day or per hour.

Recommended

hiringOrganization (at least 1 of the following fields required)

 

 

name

The name of your company.

Recommended

sameAs

Your website address.

Recommended

logo

The URL of your social sharing logo.

Recommended

jobLocation (at least 1 of the following fields required)

 

 

streetAddress

The street address of the company associated wit the advert.

Recommended

addressLocality

The town of the company associated with the advert.

Recommended

addressRegion

The country of the company associated with the advert.

Recommended

postalCode

The post code of the company associated with the advert.

Recommended


How to test your adverts

Once you've decided which properties should be included in your adverts on Google, you can use Google's Testing Tool to test that all the fields are getting picked up correctly and preview how it will look on Google for Jobs listings.

 


 

Google For Jobs FAQs and Troubleshooting

While we try to provide Google with the most accurate information possible, there are some things we don't have full control over.

 

These are...

  • The order in which your adverts appear on Google for Jobs

  • The 'Apply On' button on the Google job page

When selecting your salary range for your advert, make sure that the maximum value isn't set to the very maximum on the salary slider range.

 

When at the maximum a + symbol will appear after the salary value; Google for Jobs won't always recognise this and your salary range may not appear on the Google for Jobs advert

 

Closed Adverts

Firefish follows Google’s recommendation (Learn About Job Posting Schema Markup | Google Search Central) on what should happen when an advert expires to avoid Google downgrading the website. When an advert expires or is closed, we update the validThrough job posting property to the closing date of the advert - this is what informs Google that the advert is no longer live.

 

Candidates may still click through to a closed advert via Google, whilst the advert is being updated. In this scenario, the candidate will be directed to the advert page however the 'Apply' button will be disabled and a Closed Advert message will be displayed to inform the candidate that the advert is closed and to direct them to view other live adverts. By doing this, Firefish attempts to convert the traffic to your jobs page, even when a candidate lands on a closed advert.

 

You can also edit the Closed Advert message via your Web Messages settings.