How to optimize your job board profile for better visibility

If every time you open a job board you see the same listings, or roles that have nothing to do with you, or you’ve been applying for weeks and nobody calls you back, there’s a good chance your job board profile isn’t sending the right signals to the algorithms.

Job boards work like search engines and, increasingly, like recommendation systems. If the algorithm can’t clearly understand who you are or what type of roles you’re targeting, it won’t show you relevant openings, and it won’t rank you well when employers search for candidates like you.

The good news is that you can fix all of this.

Most candidates miss out on great opportunities simply because their job board profiles aren’t optimized and they haven’t uploaded a strong, up-to-date resume to reinforce those signals.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

Optimize your Indeed profile so the algorithm recommends roles that actually fit.
See more relevant openings on LinkedIn Jobs without touching your public profile.
Get better recommendations on Google Jobs based on your skills and searches.
Avoid the mistakes that bury your profile in job board rankings.
Use titles, skills and keywords strategically so recruiters find you faster.
Configure your preferences and activity so algorithms understand what you’re really looking for.

Optimizing your profile does stop job boards from ignoring you and finally gets them working with you instead of against you.

How to optimize your Indeed profile to get better job matches and be found by more recruiters

Indeed isn’t just a job board. It’s a job search engine that aggregates listings from thousands of websites. It also has its own resume database (Indeed Resume) that recruiters use to find candidates.

On Indeed, your profile is a dataset the platform builds about you, based on four separate layers:

Your basic profile information (location, work authorization, availability, job preferences, and similar settings).
Your Indeed Resume, the “native” resume stored inside Indeed’s database. This is the core of your profile. It’s essentially a structured version of your resume that includes your work history, education, skills, and more.
The PDF resume you upload. Only companies you apply to can see it. Indeed may use it to recommend jobs and to prefill your Indeed Resume.
Your activity on the platform. Indeed tracks which jobs you view, save, apply to, or ignore. These behavioral signals help the system recommend roles you might like and surface your profile to employers when you’ve applied to similar jobs before.

If your profile is poorly defined, or your behavior is random because you’re applying to anything and everything, the system receives mixed signals and starts showing you irrelevant jobs. Consequently, you’ll get fewer callbacks.

From your side, optimizing your Indeed profile means two things:

Helping the algorithm correctly interpret your Indeed Resume, your PDF resume and your preferences, so it recommends more relevant jobs.
Making sure your Indeed Resume is optimized for recruiter searches inside Indeed’s database.

How Indeed decides which jobs to show you

Every time you search on Indeed, you’re not seeing every open role, you’re seeing what the search engine and recommendation systems consider most relevant to you at that moment. This is important, because the algorithm isn’t showing you everything you could fit; it’s showing you everything it thinks fits your profile.

There are three main layers at play

1. What you explicitly search for

This is the text you enter in the search bar and the filters you choose:

Job title or keywords (“data analyst”, “junior product manager”, “warehouse associate”).
Location (city, country, remote).
Filters like salary, contract type, schedule, etc.

This defines the “universe of results” Indeed will search in.

2. How your profile matches those jobs

Indeed doesn’t just run a simple filter. It also compares your Indeed Resume and profile information with each job description:

Years of experience in similar roles.
Education and certifications.
Skills and tools you list.
Industries you’ve worked in.
Location and job type preferences.

Indeed has also confirmed that it uses Indeed has also confirmed that it uses AI models (including GPT models from OpenAI) to analyze resumes and personalize job recommendations.

The clearer and more up to date your Indeed Resume is, the easier it is for the algorithm to detect “this job looks like you.”

3. Context and activity signals

Indeed also considers your interaction with jobs (it may show employers whether you’ve viewed, saved or started applying to similar roles when your profile is visible).

In other words: the jobs you see first are the result of what you search for, what your profile says, and what the system believes is the best match for you.

If your Indeed Resume is outdated or poorly configured, even if you filter correctly, the quality of jobs you see will drop.

How to optimize your Indeed Resume to increase your visibility

Your Indeed Resume is your actual resume inside the platform. It’s what recruiters see when they search the database, and it’s the primary reference point for the algorithm.

So it’s worth taking the time to get it right.

1. A clear headline focused on the role you want now

Indeed recommends using a short headline centered on one role that summarizes who you are professionally. For example:

“Junior data analyst with experience in SQL and Power BI.”
“IT recruiter with 3 years hiring tech profiles.”
“Waiter with experience in 4-star hotels and events.”

It’s one of the first fields recruiters see, and one of the first signals the search engine uses to classify your profile.

2. A short professional summary

This short paragraph gives context about your experience, industries, types of companies you’ve worked for, and the tools or technologies most relevant to the role you want.

Example:

“Junior data analyst with 1 year of experience in B2C digital product. Daily work with SQL, advanced Excel and Power BI to produce business insights and identify improvement opportunities. Looking for a data analyst role in product or marketing, remote or hybrid.”

This text helps both recruiters and the algorithm “place” you correctly.

3. Experience: standard job titles and meaningful descriptions

In the work experience section of your Indeed Resume:

Use standard job titles (as they appear in job postings).
Write 4-6 lines describing key responsibilities, tools and outcomes.
Mention the industry or type of client if relevant.

Look at the roles you’re targeting and check which tools and keywords keep repeating. Those are the ones the algorithm should also find in your experience (as long as they’re true, obviously).

4. Skills and certifications: fewer, but better selected

Indeed lets you add skills and certifications in structured fields.

Choose 8-12 relevant skills (hard and soft). These can be technologies, tools or core competencies.
Avoid vague mixes (like “teamwork”) next to absurdly broad things like “Office” or “internet.”

Here’s a guide on how to choose and demonstrate your skills effectively on your resume.

These skills and certifications show up in recruiter searches and help the algorithm recommend better matches.

5. Education and additional training

In the education section:

Use the official degree or course name.
Add bootcamps or relevant training when applicable.

It doesn’t outweigh your experience, but it helps with filtering and profiling.

Settings that make you appear in more relevant searches in Indeed

Once your Indeed Resume is in good shape, there are three profile settings that can take you from “Indeed sends me junk” to “I’m finally getting decent roles.”

1. Visibility: searchable or hidden

Indeed lets you choose:

Searchable profile: employers can find you in the database and view your Indeed Resume.
Private profile: employers only see your résumé when you apply.

If you want to be found, you need your profile set to searchable and a minimally polished Indeed Resume (since it’s what they’ll see first).

It sounds obvious, but many people complain that “no one finds me” and their profile is set to private.

2. Location, work authorization and job type

In your profile settings you can define:

your location (city/country);
whether you’re open to relocation;
schedule (full-time, part-time);
contract type;
work mode (remote, hybrid, on-site);
work authorization.

These fields are used both to:

filter candidates when companies search, and
decide which roles Indeed recommends to you.

If you set something unrealistic (e.g., you mark “on-site only in Madrid” but you live in Valencia and won’t relocate), the system will either exclude you from many searches or recommend roles you’ll never accept.

On the other hand, setting your location too narrowly (e.g., only your city) can also limit you. If you can commute, it’s better to use your region or province.

3. Consistency between what you search and what you apply to

Indeed acknowledges that when your profile is visible, it may show employers whether you’ve viewed, saved or started applying to similar roles.

They don’t detail everything they do with this data, but one thing is obvious:

If you apply to everything without criteria, you create a messy, noisy preference signal.
If you’re more selective and focus on roles that actually fit your profile, the system gets a much clearer sense of what you want.

No need to obsess, just avoid the “apply to everything” strategy out of desperation. Algorithmically, it doesn’t help you.

How to get better job matches on LinkedIn Jobs

When I say “LinkedIn Jobs,” I’m referring strictly to LinkedIn’s internal job search engine (the Jobs section), not your public profile. The goal here is to optimize for search visibility in job listings and applications, not for social branding.

With that focus, these are the levers you can actually control.

What signals LinkedIn Jobs uses to prioritize candidates

LinkedIn doesn’t publish a precise list of ranking factors, but its public job-ranking model gives clear clues, backed by independent analysis and data-driven research in recruiting. These include:

Profile-to-job matching (titles, experience, skills, location). Many recruiter searches mix keywords, skills, technical terms, location and industry. If your profile aligns with a job’s requirements, you show up more often.
Your activity inside LinkedIn Jobs: recent searches, saved roles, applications, and interactions. Research on job-recommendation systems shows that user behavior signals can influence internal ranking.
Recency signals: dynamic ranking systems tend to prioritize active candidates or profiles updated recently.
Semantic clarity and relevant keywords: using standard job titles and skills (the ones companies use in postings) improves matching. Unusual jargon or vague descriptions make the algorithm less certain about your profile.

LinkedIn’s recommendation systems also combine deep learning models with “explore/exploit” strategies. In practice, the algorithm mixes what it knows about you with what the platform needs to optimize when deciding which candidates to show first.

LinkedIn Jobs ranks candidates using a blend of profile match, recent activity, and strong semantic signals.

How to increase your visibility in LinkedIn Jobs without changing your public profile

Inside the Jobs section, you can improve your visibility without touching your public profile by adjusting job preferences, refining your searches, saving or dismissing relevant roles, applying consistently and configuring alerts and the private Open to Work option.

The algorithm uses all these internal signals to decide both which jobs to show you and where to place you when you apply:

1. Set your Job Preferences inside LinkedIn Jobs

Under Jobs → Preferences, LinkedIn lets you define:

Roles you’re targeting.
Preferred locations (multiple cities, remote, hybrid).
Contract type (full-time, part-time).
Desired seniority level.
Availability date.

These preferences directly shape:

The jobs the system recommends to you.
How LinkedIn interprets your intent.
Whether your application looks coherent for a specific role.

2. Choose the right visibility setting

You don’t need to wear the green Open to Work banner if you don’t want to, but you do need to tell recruiters you’re job-searching.

Go to Jobs → Preferences → Visibility and select the option that shows your job-seeking status only to recruiters.

Your current employer won’t see it, but recruiters searching in LinkedIn Recruiter will (if you match their query).

3. Be consistent with your filters and searches in Jobs

LinkedIn Jobs uses your recent filters to refine recommendations and candidate ranking.

If you frequently search “data analyst, Barcelona, remote,” the system builds a clear preference profile. If one day you search “data analyst” and the next “sales rep,” the signals become noisy.

4. Save roles that fit and dismiss the ones that don’t

LinkedIn uses saves and dismissals as signals of affinity. It’s not stated explicitly, but it’s evident from how the recommendation system behaves:

Saving a job reinforces your fit for that type of role or industry.
Dismissing a job helps clean up your feed (and stops similar roles from appearing).

5. Adjust job alerts and their frequency

Setting targeted alerts (by title, location, filters) helps the system understand your direction. LinkedIn gives more weight to candidates whose activity aligns with the role and alerts act as a way of “authorizing” the algorithm to follow that line.

6. Apply consistently, not to everything you see

LinkedIn tracks the relationship between what you apply to, what you save and what you search.

If you “apply to everything,” recommendations worsen and your visibility for relevant roles drops, because the system sees your professional area as extremely broad or undefined.

If you apply with a clear focus, LinkedIn identifies your area and prioritizes similar roles.

7. Use the “I’m interested” button on relevant jobs

This signal (without sending a full application) does influence the internal recommendation model. It tells LinkedIn your intent without altering your public profile.

None of these steps require posting content, networking or building a personal brand. They’re tactical adjustments inside the job-search engine. Still, all of this works better when paired with a well-defined public profile. Here’s a guide to optimize your social LinkedIn profile so you maximize every opportunity.

How to use Google Jobs to find better opportunities

Google Jobs doesn’t have its own candidate database or application system. It’s an aggregation layer that indexes job postings from thousands of different sources (job boards, corporate ATS systems, company websites, universities and public institutions).

That’s why it’s so powerful for finding openings you won’t see on LinkedIn or Indeed, but also very easy to use poorly if you don’t understand how it interprets your searches.

Here’s how Google Jobs works and how to use it effectively.

How Google Jobs interprets your searches and history

Google Jobs follows the same principles as Google Search: it learns what you’re looking for in real time and adjusts results based on your query, your context and your recent activity. These are the signals it uses:

1. Your exact query (keywords)

Google Jobs isn’t a separate app, it triggers automatically when you type something that looks like a job search in Google. It interprets:

The job title you type.
Skills (“SQL”, “Excel”, “Figma”).
Modifiers (“remote jobs”, “no experience”).
Levels (“junior”, “senior”).
Conditions (“temporary”, “internship”, “weekend”).

The semantic matching is extremely advanced: “junior data analyst remote” ≠ “data analyst” ≠ “data entry”.

2. Your location

If you don’t specify a location, Google Jobs uses your approximate position, your location search history and your browser language. This heavily influences what you see.

3. Your recent search history

Google Jobs doesn’t maintain a “candidate profile,” but Google has full context about your search activity. If you’ve repeatedly searched for job-related topics, training or specific titles, Google Jobs adjusts results accordingly.

4. Your behavior inside the module

Google also tracks which postings you click, how long you spend on them, which filters you use and whether you save them.

This feeds its recommendation system, just like YouTube or Google Discover.

How to find opportunities on Google Jobs that don’t appear on other job boards

This is one of Google Jobs’ biggest strengths: it picks up postings that the job boards don’t list, because they come from:

corporate ATS systems,
small business websites,
public institutions, universities and associations.

Traditional job boards appear first because they carry strong authority, but if you want to uncover roles outside them (and apply to jobs with far less competition) here’s how:

1. Search for jobs that come directly from ATS platforms

Google Jobs lets you surface ATS-sourced jobs using keywords tied to the ATS origin, even if it doesn’t show that filter explicitly. In the Google search bar, try combinations like:

“teamtailor” + your role
“smartrecruiters” + skill

Even better, use advanced search operators:

site:teamtailor.com/jobs “data” “barcelona” “SQL”

site:smartrecruiters.com “customer support” “remote”

(“teamtailor” OR “smartrecruiters”) “marketing” “Figma” “junior”

After you click any of these results, Google Jobs will load its interface and show related listings from that same ATS in your region or industry.

This is the fastest way to “unlock” hidden sources.

Here’s a guide with the guide with the main operators for job searching on Google, including an advanced-query template.

2. Search companies directly

Type “jobs + company name + city” into Google. Google Jobs will pick it up and show you all their open positions, even if they aren’t on major job boards or indexed in generic searches.

3. Repeat searches while changing just one parameter

The Google Jobs algorithm “opens up” when you make micro-adjustments:

Switching language.
Changing location from “Valencia” to “Spain.”
Adding or removing modifiers (e.g., “junior”).
Adding skills to the query.

Suddenly, new postings appear that weren’t visible in your original search.

The more precise your search, the better the recommendations. With advanced search queries, you can uncover listings that never appear on the main job boards.

Job boards need to understand who you are and where you fit

Most people use job boards as if they were simple notice boards, when they’re actually search-and-recommendation systems driven by signals. If those signals are wrong, you get buried. If they’re clear, you get visibility.

That’s why it’s worth spending a few minutes adjusting your profile on each platform so they can understand who you are and what you’re looking for. Once they do, your chances of landing a job quickly increase substantially.

At CandyCV, that’s exactly what we help you do: communicate what you can do clearly, credibly and in a way that aligns with how modern hiring algorithms work. If you want to go further and build a résumé that sends the right signals (the ones these systems need to rank you higher), we offer guides, examples and templates designed for that.

Frequently asked questions about job boards

What do employers see on Indeed: my resume or my profile?

If your profile is set to visible / “Employers can find you”, companies see your Indeed Resume (the resume you built inside Indeed). If you’ve applied to a job, they’ll also see the PDF resume you attached.

Why isn’t Indeed recommending relevant jobs to me?

Because the algorithm relies on your Indeed Resume, location, job preferences AND recent behavior on the platform.

If your Indeed Resume says one thing, your searches another, and you apply to roles at random, the system receives contradictory signals, and starts showing you everything except what you want.

Does LinkedIn Jobs use my public profile to rank me?

Yes, but not only your public profile. LinkedIn states that job recommendations are based on:

your job searches and alerts,
your profile details (headline, location, skills),
and your activity on LinkedIn (jobs you view, save or apply to).

This means:

Your public profile does influence which jobs you’re recommended and which recruiter searches you appear in.
But LinkedIn Jobs also uses its own signals (Job Alerts, Open to Work settings, activity in the Jobs section). Without those, your visibility is weaker even if your profile is good.

Why am I not seeing good job listings on LinkedIn Jobs?

Most people run into issues because of:

Outdated Job Alerts or Open to Work settings. They still signal interest in roles they no longer want.
Inconsistent searches (one day “data analyst,” next day “sales rep”).
Mass-applying to unrelated roles, which makes your interest area look vague.

If you align three things (profile, preferences and behavior in Jobs) for a few days, the feed improves quite noticeably.

Does Google Jobs have a candidate profile, or does it only use my searches?

Google Jobs does not have a candidate profile. It uses your query, location, filters, search history, and interactions(clicks, saves).

That’s why the quality of results depends so much on how you structure your search.

How can I find job postings that don’t appear on other job portals or LinkedIn?

This is where Google Jobs shines. It indexes roles from corporate ATS systems, company websites, universities, public institutions and niche job boards.

The fastest way to access them is with advanced search operators. You’ll find a guide with the most useful operators (including examples and templates) on the CandyCV blog.