JobClayGuide
How to create a job board
Building a job portal and running it is harder than it looks. People who know a hiring niche do best at recruiting, not at software. This guide covers what a board needs, the two ways to get one, and how to launch yours.
Free plan, no card needed.
What a job board needs
Four things, whatever software you use.
A niche
A board for everyone competes with the giants. A board for Boston nurses, Rust developers or Sydney hospitality has a reason to exist.
Jobs
Visitors come for jobs, and employers pay for visitors. A board needs listings before anyone has paid.
Employers who will pay
Most boards earn by charging employers to post and to feature a job. That means prices, a checkout and invoices.
Visitors
Most come from search, so job pages need the data Google reads, sitemaps and pages for the places and skills people search for.
Build it yourself, or use a platform
Building your own fits when you have developers to keep it running, or you need something no platform does. You then own the feeds that fill it, the payments and invoices, the search markup, the security and the updates, and they never stop. The work around the software is ongoing, not a one-off.
A platform fits when you would rather spend your time on employers, jobs and your niche. That is why we built JobClay: it does the software, and you do the recruiting.
How to create a job board on JobClay
- 1
Name your board
Sign up and pick a name and an address. The Free plan gives you a working board on a yourname.jobclay.app address, with no card needed.
Make it yours: logo, colour, pages and domain - 2
Add jobs
Choose job sources, such as companies from the library, hiring systems, XML feeds and careers pages, and decide which jobs go live. Employers can post their own too.
Fill the board with job sources - 3
Set packages and prices
Create the packages employers buy, at your prices. They pay into your Stripe account or by bank transfer, and get an invoice.
Sell job posts and get paid - 4
Connect a domain
Move the board to your own domain on any paid plan. Until then it lives at its jobclay.app address.
Your brand, your domain - 5
Get found
Every job page carries job data for Google, and search engines are told when a job opens or closes. Visitors can sign up for job alerts to come back.
Get your jobs found on Google
Every plan, with its price and limits, is on the pricing page.
If you are a recruiter
A recruiter who wants a portal of their own is in the same position as any niche board owner, and the steps above are the same. Pick the sector you recruit in, fill the board with jobs, and let employers pay you to post on a board under your own name. Employers get their own area, with company profiles, applicants and teams, so you do not build any of it.
Questions
More detail on everything JobClay does, or write to us.
How do I create a job board?
Choose a niche, then either build the software yourself or use a platform. On JobClay you sign up, name your board, add jobs from job sources or by hand, set the packages employers can buy, and share the address. The Free plan gives you a working board on a yourname.jobclay.app address with no card needed.
How much does it cost to start a job board?
Starting on JobClay costs nothing: the Free plan needs no card. You pay for a plan when you want your own domain or a bigger board, and the pricing page shows each plan’s price and limits. If you build the board yourself instead, the cost is developer time, hosting and upkeep, which keep coming after launch.
How do job boards make money?
Mostly by charging employers to post jobs, and to feature them above the rest. On JobClay you create packages, set your own prices, and employers pay you by card into your own Stripe account or by bank transfer. JobClay takes no share of what employers pay.
Do I need to know how to code to start a job board?
Not on JobClay. You set the board up from a console: its name, logo and colour, its pages, its job sources and its packages. Hosting, search markup, sitemaps, invoices and updates are done for you.
How do I get jobs on a new job board?
Employers rarely pay a board that has no jobs, so fill it first. JobClay reads jobs from companies you pick from its library, from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable and SmartRecruiters job boards, from XML feeds and from careers pages, and you choose which of them go live. Each plan sets how many job sources a board can have.
How do I get visitors to a job board?
Most come from search. JobClay gives every job page the data Google reads, builds sitemaps, tells search engines when a job opens or closes, and makes landing pages for the places and remote work you have live jobs in. Rankings also depend on real, fresh jobs and on your niche, and no one can promise them.
Should I build my own job board or use a platform?
Build your own if you have developers to keep it running and you need something a platform cannot do. Use a platform if you would rather spend your time on employers, jobs and your niche, which is where a job board is won.
Start your job board today
Free plan, no card needed.