Since building Pillar & Post, I've ended up looking at far more recruitment websites than I ever expected to. After a while you start spotting the same things over and over again.
Someone will have spent good time or money on a nice looking website, but the basics are missing. HTTPS hasn't been finished properly, which means browsers show visitors a "Not Secure" warning before they've even read a word, or in some cases refuse to load the page at all. There's no sitemap, so search engines have to find every page by following links around the site rather than being told directly what exists. Then you'll find another site built on exactly the same platform where everything's been done properly.
That was probably the biggest surprise, the platform is only part of the story.
Search for "recruitment website builder" and you'll find plenty of options. Wix, Squarespace, Framer and a growing number of AI builders can all produce a smart looking website in a surprisingly short amount of time.
The question isn't really whether they can build you a website, the question is whether they build you the right sort of website.
Looking nice isn't the difficult bit any more
A few years ago there was a huge difference between website builders. These days, not so much. Most of them can produce something that looks professional. AI has made that even easier, but what happens underneath can vary hugely.
Some sites are easy for search engines to crawl. Some aren't. Some create pages that Google can understand without much effort. Others rely heavily on JavaScript before the page really exists, so not every crawler sees what your visitors do.
You probably wouldn't notice any of that just by looking at the homepage, but it can make a real difference once the site's been live a few months.
It matters more when you're building your name
The smaller the agency, the more the website matters.
An established recruitment business already has a reputation. Clients have heard of them. Candidates know the name. Referrals keep coming in.
An independent recruiter doesn't get any of that easily.
Often the website is the first thing someone sees after they've found you on LinkedIn or searched for your sector. Sometimes it's the only thing they look at before deciding whether to get in touch.
That means all the little details start to become important. Can people find your site? Can search engines understand it? Does it look like a business that's actually placing people?
Your jobs page says lots
Recruiters often think their jobs page is there for candidates. It is, but it shows other things too
A current jobs page tells people the business is active. An empty one, or a contact form with "Current roles" written at the top, gives a very different impression.
So should you use a recruitment website builder?
There's nothing wrong with using Wix, Squarespace, Framer or any of the newer AI builders. They all have their place, and I've seen good recruitment websites built on all of them.
I'd just ask a few questions before deciding.
- Can people actually find your jobs?
- Is the site easy for Google to understand?
- If somebody asks ChatGPT to recommend recruiters in your sector, have you given it enough to work with?
- Does it actually look like an active business?
Why we built Pillar & Post
That was the thinking behind Pillar & Post.
We weren't trying to build another general website builder. We wanted to build something that already understood how recruitment websites work. Jobs become their own pages automatically, with the structured data already built in. The technical foundations are taken care of too, so you're not the one discovering problems six months in.
Most of our customers are on our £20 a month plan.
If you're curious how your current website stacks up, our free Website Health Check takes less than a minute. It checks the technical basics, recruitment specific features, and how well your site's set up for both search engines and AI tools. No sign up form, no sales call waiting at the end. Just a report showing what's working and what could be better.