Search and Filter Page: Effective Navigation for Your Candidates

The search and filter page gives your candidates a user-friendly and intuitive way to quickly find the right job. The page is easy to set up and offers numerous features tailored specifically to the needs of your target groups.

This guide walks you through step by step how to set up the search and filter page and integrate it into your JobShop.

The search and filter page can only be activated and used if the new home page in your JobShop is already activated and in use. 

If you are not yet able to access the editor for the search and filter page, please feel free to contact your talentsconnect account manager. Your account manager will also be presenting the search and filter page to you shortly. 

Want to learn more about the search and filter module?

With the search and filter module, you can display pre-filtered jobs on your custom pages in the JobShop. This lets you target your audiences even more precisely and increases the application rate. Find out here how to set up and make the most of the module:

Search and Filter Module: Maximum Flexibility for Your Recruiting Strategy

Quick overview: Custom Pages & Search/Filter Page – with Pierre from Support

Benefits of the Search and Filter Page

The search and filter page makes job searching easier and more targeted:

• Direct overview of all job listings
  The page displays all jobs in a JobShop clearly at a glance – without navigating through categories.
  
  
• Lightning-fast search
  The free-text search allows candidates to find relevant jobs by job title using keywords.
  
  
• Flexible filter options
  Candidates can narrow down their job search using suitable filters.
  
  
• Relevance for your target groups
  You select exactly the filters that make sense for your candidates and your company.

Optimising the Candidate Journey

The search and filter page integrates seamlessly into the candidate journey of your JobShop. For example, it connects your home page directly to the job level and provides clear access to all relevant job listings – either pre-filtered by specific criteria or showing all jobs at a glance.

Want to try out the search and filter page yourself?

No problem. In our demo, we have set everything up as an example and you can click through the complete candidate journey here:

https://olsen-breuner.job-shop.com/demo/search

Editor for the Search and Filter Page

You can find the editor for setting up and editing the search and filter page for each individual JobShop in the page manager of the talentsconnect home.

Setup in Six Steps

Note:
If no jobs appear in the results list after opening the search and filter page in the editor, please contact your talentsconnect account manager.

Setting up the search and filter page is straightforward and takes place in five steps:

1. General settings
2. Configure layout
3. Select filters and display options
4. Define SEO settings and heading
5. Check preview and activate page
6. Link the search and filter page

Step 1: General Settings

In the general settings, you define the basic parameters for your search and filter page. Here you can:

• specify which JobShops are included in the search results
• edit the filters (see step 3)
• enable or disable the full-text search
• configure the map settings
• specify whether the full address and company logo should be displayed on the job cards

Full-text search

• The search now also takes into account the content of the job description: intro, task description, requirements, offer, company text, additional information and benefit texts.
• A search for "Spring Boot" or "health management" will also find jobs that do not mention these terms in the title.
• The feature is disabled by default and must be actively switched on.

Good to know

• Matches in the title continue to be ranked higher than matches in the description text, so that the most relevant results remain at the top.
• The results display remains unchanged: description texts are not shown as snippets, and the layout and card view stay identical.
• When typing, partial-word search still only works in the title (e.g. "Assis" finds the title "Assistant"). In the description text, only whole words are matched, so that the results list does not constantly jump around while typing.

Why this matters

• Applicants can find suitable positions even when the searched keyword only appears in the description.
• Search quality improves without degrading existing results that are already working well.
• Job Shops can test the new feature at their own pace, as it is activated individually per module.

Step 2: Configure Layout

The layout of your search and filter page should place the most important elements – search, filters and jobs – front and centre.

• Corporate design
  Logo, colours and other design elements are automatically taken from the base settings of your JobShop.
  
  
• Choose theme and background
  Choose between a light or dark design (recommendation: light). White works well as a background colour. The colours of the other elements adjust automatically to provide sufficient contrast. If you choose the dark theme, you should also use a dark background.
  
  
• Define accent colour
  This colour highlights selected filters and search results. Choose an accent colour that matches your call-to-actions on other pages. You can see how the accent colour is used in the preview, for example by selecting a filter or hovering your cursor over a job card in the results list.
  
  
• Design job cards
  Customise the design of the job cards – rounded or square, depending on your corporate design guidelines.
  
  

Step 3: Select Filters and Display Options

Note:
For some of the selected filters, data may not yet be available in your JobShop. This may be because the data has not yet been transferred via your applicant tracking system or has not yet been configured for that field. If you have any questions, our support team will be happy to help.

Select the filters that enable your candidates to search as precisely as possible. That is why we also recommend using a maximum of five to seven well-considered filters that are truly relevant to your target group – e.g. location, department, working hours or career level.

Important: the chosen filters should be clearly understandable, sensibly named and applicable to the majority of your job listings. This enables an intuitive, goal-oriented search – and therefore a better candidate experience.

How the filters work

The filters on the search and filter page are designed to work adaptively. This means that the available options in the filters automatically adjust to the selections already made. Candidates are therefore always shown only the options that match their previous input and for which results still exist. 

Candidates thus get a dynamic and intuitive user experience: every selection remains relevant and reduces the number of irrelevant options.

• Filters between each other are AND-linked:
  Combining different filters further narrows down the results.
  Example: If a candidate selects the location "Berlin" and additionally the department "Marketing", only marketing jobs in Berlin are displayed.
  
  

• Options within a filter are OR-linked:
  Selecting multiple options within a filter expands the results accordingly.
  Example: If a candidate selects "Berlin" and "Hamburg" in the "Location" filter, jobs from both cities are displayed.

Step 4: Define SEO Settings and Heading

In the "SEO" section of the JobShop settings for your search and filter page, you define how the page appears in search engines such as Google and which heading is displayed on the page itself.

• Page title
  Enter the SEO title for the search page here. This title is displayed as the page title in the browser tab as well as the clickable heading in Google search results – not the default label "Search".
  
  
• Description
  Enter the SEO description for the search page here. This meta description appears in Google directly below the page title and is intended to encourage candidates to click.
  
  
• Heading (H1)
  Unlike the page title and description, this heading is actually visible on the search and filter page itself, directly above the jobs.

Step 5: Check Preview and Activate Page

Before activating the search and filter page, you can check in the preview whether everything works as intended:

• Are data already displayed in the filters you have selected? (see note on filters in step 2)
• Are jobs and their data displayed correctly (check a random sample)?
• Does the display match your corporate design?

Activate

Once everything works as intended, you can publish the search and filter page via the editor with a single click on "Activate search and filter page". The search and filter page is then accessible via the link in the editor preview.

If you experience any problems during activation or if the search and filter page is not accessible via the link shown in the preview after activation, please contact our support team directly.

Note: 
When the search and filter page is activated, the sidebar on job detail pages is automatically hidden. Job detail pages always open in a new tab when clicked from the search and filter page – a proven pattern also used by many online shops and booking platforms.

Step 6: Link the Search and Filter Page

To make the search and filter page a permanent part of the candidate journey in your JobShop, you can simply copy the link from the top of the preview of your search and filter page.

The search and filter page is always accessible under the following path for each of your JobShops once it has been activated (example address):

1. First, copy the link to the search and filter page by clicking "Copy URL" in the bar above the preview.
   
   
2. Now open the editor of your home page in the talentsconnect home and insert the link to the new search and filter page for the central call-to-action in the navigation (at the top) and in your cover module (or start module).
   
   
3. In addition, you can of course also add the new link to further elements on the home page and on other pages. This is always useful wherever links currently point to the category overview.

Pre-filtering the Search and Filter Page

Tip: 
If you select filters or enter a search term in the preview, the link to your search and filter page is automatically extended with the selected filter options (or search terms). You can use this extended link, for example, to link a pre-filtered search – such as for a specific location – directly on your pages. This way you always guide your candidates individually to the right jobs and give them the best possible orientation. You can of course also apply this pre-filtering to your campaigns.

Example:

Free-text search

The free-text search on the search and filter page uses a semantic search algorithm and allows searching not only by job title but also by locations, postal codes, company names and external job IDs.

Semantic search is an intelligent search method that understands not only keywords but also the meaning and context of a query. It aims to deliver more relevant results to users by recognising synonyms, similar terms and contextual relationships. This makes searching in the JobShop more intuitive and effective.

Examples:

• Synonyms and related terms
  Terms such as "software developer" also return results like "programmer" or "app developer".
  
  
• Precise results
  Even with vague or general queries, the search delivers more precise results through semantic analysis. Typos are also recognised and still lead to matching search results.

Via semantic search, users reach the right jobs more quickly, even when the exact terms are not used.

Display options: Job details in search results

In addition to the job title, you can display up to three further pieces of job information on the job cards. Select the three most important pieces of information for your target group to direct your users' focus to the key decision criteria. In addition to the job title, we generally recommend always displaying the location as well.

Editing the Search and Filter Page

After successfully activating the search and filter page for your JobShop, you can of course edit or extend the page's features at any time. 

Note: 
Please be aware when editing that all changes to the search and filter page in the editor become immediately visible to your candidates in the JobShop without any further publishing step, if the page has already been activated and is in use.

Guide in the talentsconnect home

With the new search and filter page, you can guide your applicants in a targeted and effective way to the right jobs. Use the interactive guide in the editor of the search and filter page in the talentsconnect home and set up the page today to benefit from all its advantages.