The job market is a competitive place, and it gets no more competitive than among the many online job search websites available for job seekers.
In Atlantic Canada, a clear frontrunner has emerged as the place to go if you’re searching for a new career.
Careerbeacon.com, a job search website owned by Brunswick News Inc., has come out on top this year in all major criteria for job search sites in Atlantic Canada according to independent data, including number of unique site visitors, frequency of visits and loyalty to the site.
“Atlantic Canadian employers can rely on the largest amount of eyeballs to recruit candidates (with Careerbeacon),” says Jean Nadeau, general manager of Brunswick News Interactive Media Group, the parent company of Careerbeacon.com
Last year, based on a variety of categories, including total unique site views, viewer website loyalty and amount of time spent browsing a website, Careerbeacon ranked third amongst job search websites.
This year, the site is ranked number one in Atlantic Canada and it’s leading nationally in terms of site loyalty as well, based on information provided by Bristol Group.
In the past, Careerbeacon has hit the top spot in a number of categories, but in the last several months, it has sustained its number-one ranking.
To use an example of the site’s success, in July, it had 195,000 unique visitors in Atlantic Canada. The site that ranked second had 139,000, with 56,000 less visitors than Careerbeacon.
Another factor the site is leading in, not only in the Atlantic region, but also nationally, is with what Nadeau calls “site stickiness.”
It refers to how the website resonates with viewers and how often they come back to the site.
In July, the average Careerbeacon viewer visited the site 4.4 times that month, with its closest competitor in the region averaging 1.9 views, and nationally, 3.3 views.
Nadeau cautions that looking at one month doesn’t necessarily give the big picture.
“What happens one month, you don’t make a big fuss,” Nadeau says.
“But now we’ve been number one for a while.”
He says many factors combine to make Careerbeacon such a successful business model, including its attention to the local market.
While Careerbeacon has some penetration nationally, with offices in Moncton, Halifax and St. John’s, N.L., Nadeau says the site’s main focus is on the Atlantic Canadian job market.
There are a variety of other reasons the site stays on top as well.
“It’s a combination of the technology we use, our marketing strategies online and our offline marketing strategies and how we handle content,” Nadeau says.
As with any website, accessibility and ease of use are key, he notes.
Careerbeacon.com began in 1996 with a few hundred jobs posted online by a group of headhunters in Halifax. Their former partners Brunswick News Inc. purchased it outright in the fall of 2003, and Nadeau says the site has been booming since and continues to grow.
By Eric Lewis
September 26, 2009
source: nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com