Vakanssi blog

Job board or applicant tracking system: which do you need?

2026-11-07T00:00:00Z

This guide is for you if you run a WordPress site, you need to hire, and you went looking for a plugin. Half the results say "job board" and the other half say "applicant tracking system". The names sound alike, but the two do different jobs.

By the end you will know what each one does, which one fits your situation, and when you need neither. We make Vakanssi, an applicant tracking plugin, so we also say plainly where it fits and where it does not.

The short answer

A job board lists jobs. An applicant tracking system (ATS for short) manages the people who apply.

A job board gets the vacancy in front of people. An ATS is about what happens after someone clicks Apply: where their CV goes, who reads it, what stage they are at, and when their data is deleted.

Think of the job board as the shop window and the ATS as the back office.

Job board

The shop window

Lists your jobs
Search and filters
Gets the job seen

Applicant tracking

The back office

Every application in one list
Stages and emails
Who can see CVs

A job board gets the vacancy seen. An applicant tracking system handles what happens after someone clicks Apply.

What a job board does

"Job board" means two different things, which is part of the confusion.

The first is a job site: a big website where many employers post openings and job seekers search them. You post there to borrow its audience.

The second is a job board plugin, an add-on that turns your WordPress site into a list of jobs. Some are built for running a job site of your own, where other employers sign up and post their openings, sometimes for a fee.

Either way, a job board's main work is the listing: search, filters and categories. What happens to an application after it is sent varies a lot. In some setups it arrives as an email, and the rest is up to you.

What an applicant tracking system does

An applicant tracking system is software for the hiring itself. When someone applies, the ATS keeps their application and CV in one place, and your team works through them there.

In practice that means:

every application in one list, instead of scattered across inboxes
stages, the steps of your hiring such as New, Interview and Offer, often shown as a board where you drag a candidate from one column to the next
emails to candidates, such as "we got your application" or "we have decided not to move forward"
notes and interviews kept with the candidate, so a colleague can pick up where you left off
rules for who on your team can see CVs, and for deleting old applications

Many ATS products are online services you pay for every month. Some, like Vakanssi, run inside your own WordPress site instead.

Which one do you need?

Three questions sort out most cases.

Whose jobs are you listing? If other companies will post jobs on your site, you are running a job site, and you need a job board plugin. If every job is for your own organisation, you need a careers page and a way to handle applications.

How many people apply, and how many of you read them? If you hire once a year, five people apply and one person decides, a shared inbox can be enough. An ATS earns its place when you have several roles open at once, dozens of applicants, or more than one person reviewing.

Where would the CVs end up? CVs are personal data. In an email inbox they can get forwarded, downloaded and forgotten, with no date when they are deleted. If that worries you, you probably want an ATS even at low volume. The privacy guide in our docs shows what Vakanssi does about it.

What a small team actually needs

A small team hiring for itself usually needs these six things, not a job site:

A careers page on their own site that lists open jobs and updates itself.
An application form on each job that collects a CV and asks for consent.
One place where every application arrives, with a stage for each candidate.
Ready-made emails, so nobody waits weeks to hear back.
A way to let a colleague review candidates without giving them the keys to the whole website.
Old applications cleaned up on a schedule, not "when someone remembers".

You can usually skip employer accounts, paid listing packages and a CV database that employers search. Those are job site features, built for a problem you do not have.

Where Vakanssi fits

Vakanssi is an applicant tracking system with a careers page built in. Our WordPress.org FAQ calls it "a job board for your own organisation: your openings on a careers page on your own site, with the applications that come in managed in the same place."

It is not a multi-employer board where other companies sign up and post their own jobs.

The free plugin covers the list above: a careers page and application form, a pipeline board with stages, email templates, interview scheduling with calendar invites, and notes.

It also adds three hiring roles: Recruiter, Hiring Manager, and HR / Compliance. People with these roles can work with candidates but cannot edit your pages or plugins. Old applications are anonymised (the CV and personal details are wiped) automatically after a period you choose under Hiring, then Settings, then General.

It is the wrong tool for running a job site for other employers or charging for listings. A job board plugin is built for that.

The comparison on our home page shows the same split: plugins that only list jobs, and a full hiring system on your own site.

Do you still need outside job sites?

Often, yes. An ATS does not bring in applicants by itself, and big job sites have an audience your website lacks.

Your own job pages can also be shown in Google's job search, with no third-party board in between. Our guide to getting WordPress jobs into Google for Jobs explains how, and why being eligible is not a promise of being listed.

Summary

Listing other employers' jobs on your site: you need a job board plugin.
Hiring for your own organisation: you need a careers page and an applicant tracking system.
One role a year, a handful of applicants, one decision-maker: an inbox can do, as long as you delete CVs when you are done.
Several roles, several reviewers, or CVs you want out of email: use an ATS.

Your next step: follow How to add a careers page to WordPress. It takes about half an hour and ends with a test application waiting in your applications list.

Frequently asked questions

Can an applicant tracking system show my jobs on my website?

Many can, and Vakanssi does. It adds a careers page that lists your open jobs, with a job page and application form for each one. It uses your theme, so it looks like the rest of your site.

Will other companies be able to post jobs on my site with Vakanssi?

No. Jobs are added in wp-admin (your site's dashboard) by your own signed-in team, and every job is listed under your organisation's name. If you need employer sign-ups, look at a job board plugin instead.

I already use a job board plugin. Can I switch?

Usually. Vakanssi's free Import tool, under Hiring, then Tools, then Import, copies jobs from three common job and recruitment plugins, and applications too from two of them. It never changes or deletes the originals. See Import for which plugins and what comes across.

How to add a careers page to WordPress: a beginner's guide

2026-11-07T00:00:00Z

This guide is for you if your business has a WordPress website and you want people to apply for jobs on it. You do not need any code or a developer.

By the end you will have a careers page with job listings that update themselves, a job application form that accepts a CV, and one place in WordPress where every application arrives. Plan on about half an hour, most of it spent writing your first job ad.

We use Vakanssi, a free plugin (an add-on for your WordPress site) that we make.

Before you start

Sign in to wp-admin, your site's private dashboard, usually at yoursite.com/wp-admin. You need an Administrator account; if Plugins is missing from the left menu, ask whoever runs the site. Your site needs WordPress 6.6 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer (check under Tools, then Site Health, then Info; your host can update either).

Your jobyou publish it
Careers pagelists it
Apply formname, email, CV
Applicationsin wp-admin

What you will set up: a job you publish, the careers page that lists it, its apply form, and the screen where every application arrives.

Step 1 of 6:Install the plugin

In the left menu, click Plugins, then Add Plugin (Add New Plugin on WordPress 6.6 and 6.7).
In the search box at the top right, type Vakanssi.
On the Vakanssi card, click Install Now, then Activate.

A Hiring item appears in the left menu, and a short setup wizard opens. If it does not, click Hiring, then Setup.

Step 2 of 6:Answer the setup wizard

The wizard takes about three minutes, and you can change every answer later. Three screens need your input:

Company: type your company name. Candidate emails come from this name.
Careers page: choose Create a new page, titled "Careers" unless you change it. If you already have a careers page, connect that one instead.
Emails: check the sender address candidates see, ideally one on your own domain so mail does not land in spam. Then enter the address that gets an alert for each new application.

The Finish screen says whether visitors can reach your careers page from your home page, and offers a way to add it to your menu if not. If it shows a Fix it link next to Protect candidate files, follow it before you go live. The setup wizard docs cover every screen.

Click Post a job to continue.

Step 3 of 6:Post your first job

Later, you reach this screen from Hiring, then Add New Job.

At the top, type the job title, for example "Office manager".
Below it, write the description: what the job involves, who you are looking for, and something about your team. Vakanssi needs at least 30 characters, and Google prefers real detail.
Optional: pick a team in the Departments panel on the right, so visitors can filter by team.

Below the description, the Job details box has three tabs:

Workplace & location: choose on-site, hybrid or remote, then the city and country. For a remote job, list the countries people may apply from.
Compensation: pay is hidden unless you choose to show it.
Employment & application: tick the employment type, such as full-time. A closing date is optional.

Click Publish at the top right, then Publish again to confirm. The job is now on your careers page, with its own page and an application form. More in Creating and publishing a job.

Step 4 of 6:Look at your careers page

Click Pages in the left menu, hover over Careers, and click View.

The page uses your theme's header and footer, so it looks like the rest of your site. New jobs appear when you publish them, and jobs past their closing date drop off by themselves. Visitors can search the list, filter by team and show remote jobs only.

View full size

A careers page on a demo site, inside that site's own theme.

The wizard put the list on the page for you.

In the block editor (WordPress's default editor, where a page is built from pieces called blocks) it is a Job Listings block. In the older classic editor it is a shortcode, a tag in square brackets: [vakanssi_jobs].

Add your own text and photos around it, but leave it in place. See Your careers page to show jobs on other pages too.

Step 5 of 6:Test the application form

Every job page ends with an application form. Candidates enter their name, email address and CV (PDF or Word, up to 5 MB by default), and tick a required consent box. They do not create an account, and after they click Submit they see a confirmation on the same page.

You do not need to set up spam protection. Vakanssi already runs checks against bots that real candidates never notice, such as a hidden field only bots fill in. If spam still gets through, the free plugin can add Cloudflare Turnstile, an extra check that tells people from bots. See Receiving applications.

Step 6 of 6:Find the application

After your test, three things happen:

You get a confirmation email as the candidate.
The alert address from the wizard gets an email with a link to the application.
The application appears under Hiring, then Applications.

Click Hiring, then Applications. Pipeline view shows a board with one column per stage (a step in your hiring, such as Interview or Offer). Drag a card to move a candidate on, and click it to open their details and CV.

CVs do not go into your Media Library (where WordPress keeps your images and files, open to anyone with a link). They stay in a locked folder on your own server, and only signed-in team members with permission can download them.

Once you have seen it, delete the test: open it and click Delete in the candidate's panel. More in Working with applications.

Getting your jobs on Google

Google for Jobs is the panel of openings Google shows when someone searches for a role. Vakanssi adds the hidden job information Google reads (called structured data) to each job page for you. A Google for Jobs readiness banner in the job editor says Eligible, or names what is missing, such as a location.

Eligible does not mean listed: Google decides when to show a job, which can take days or weeks. To check a live job, paste its address into Google's Rich Results Test. See Google for Jobs.

Keeping candidate data tidy

Vakanssi clears out old applications by itself. By default, after 24 months it anonymises each one: it deletes the CV and anything that identifies the person, and keeps only the job, stage and dates for your numbers.

You can change the period under Hiring, then Settings, then General. If someone asks for their data or asks you to delete it, use Tools, then Export Personal Data or Erase Personal Data.

State your retention period in your privacy policy. This is not legal advice: check your own legal duties. See Privacy & GDPR.

Your careers page is live and in your site's menu.
At least one job is published, with a real description and a location.
That job's readiness banner says Eligible.
You applied with a test CV, found it under Hiring, then Applications, and deleted it.
Your privacy policy page is published and says how long you keep applications.

Then share your careers page link wherever you announce jobs.

Haven't installed it yet? Get Vakanssi free from WordPress.org and start with step 1.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a developer?

No. Everything here is clicks and typing in wp-admin with an Administrator account. If your WordPress or PHP is too old, your hosting company can update it. See Requirements & installation.

Does it work with my theme?

Yes, themes need nothing special. Sites built with Elementor or Divi also get a Vakanssi Jobs element. See Elementor, Divi, and block themes.

Where do the CVs go?

To a locked folder on your own server, not your Media Library or an outside service.

Is it really free?

Yes. Everything in this guide uses the free plugin from WordPress.org, and it stays free and fully working.

How WordPress job posts get into Google for Jobs

2026-11-07T00:00:00Z

This guide is for you if you post jobs on your WordPress site and want them to show up when people search Google for work. You do not need to write code or install an SEO plugin.

You will learn what Google needs from a job page, how to get your jobs ready, how to check them, and which part only Google controls.

What Google for Jobs is

Search Google for a role, such as "office manager jobs in Leeds", and you may see a box of job openings that people can filter by location or job title. That is Google's job search, usually called Google for Jobs. Each listing links to a page where people can apply, such as your own job page.

Google fills that box from job pages across the web, but only from pages that describe the job in a format it can read.

Structured data, in plain words

A person reading your job page sees a title, a description, a location and maybe a salary. A search engine reads the same text but has to guess which line is the salary and which is the city.

Structured data removes the guessing. It is a short summary hidden in the page's code that labels each fact: this is the job title, this is the city, this is the closing date. Visitors never see it. For jobs, the set of labels Google reads is called JobPosting.

What Google asks for

Google publishes its rules in its job posting structured data guide. For a beginner, they come down to two groups.

The facts every job must carry:

a job title and the full description: duties, qualifications, skills, working hours, education and experience
the date it was posted
the organisation that is hiring
where the job is, or for a fully remote job, the countries applicants can live in

The rules about the page itself:

One job per page: the structured data goes on the job's own page, never on a list of jobs.
There must be a way to apply.
No expired jobs. When a job closes, its page must carry a closing date in the past, lose its structured data, or be removed.
If you fill the job before its closing date, Google asks you to remove the posting.

Without the required facts, a job cannot appear in Google's job search. Break the page rules and Google can remove the job and take a "manual action" against the page, which means it ignores the page's structured data.

How Vakanssi handles it for you

If your jobs run on Vakanssi, our free hiring plugin, you never write structured data. Vakanssi builds it from the fields you fill in when you post a job: title, description, location, salary, employment type and closing date. The job page shows the same fields, so what Google reads matches what visitors see.

You fill inthe job fields
You publishthe job goes live
Vakanssiwrites the data
Googledecides when

The readiness banner can only read Eligible once the job is published. When to show it is Google's decision.

To see where a job stands, go to Hiring, then All Jobs, and click the job title. At the top of the Job details box is a banner headed Google for Jobs readiness, with a checklist under it. It shows one of two states:

Eligible: every required check passes, and Vakanssi will publish the structured data for this job.
Not eligible yet: something is missing, and the checklist says what. If the field to fix is on one of the box's tabs, click the item to jump to it.

The checklist updates as you type. One check, Published, only passes after you publish, so a draft always reads Not eligible yet. Fill in everything else, then publish.

For example, the checklist asks for a description of at least 30 characters, a city and country (or at least one country for a remote job), and a currency for any salary you show. Until the checks pass, Vakanssi holds the structured data back. The page still works for visitors in the meantime.

When a job's closing date passes, Vakanssi takes it out of Google for you. It removes the structured data, adds a noindex tag (which tells search engines to drop the page from results) and takes the job out of your sitemap.

If you fill a role early, change the job's status from Published to Draft. The page then returns "not found", which Google accepts as a removed posting.

If you also run an SEO plugin, go to Hiring, then Settings, then Jobs & Careers, and find JobPosting structured data under Job search & SEO. Leave it on the default, Vakanssi owns it. Vakanssi then removes job markup from the SEO plugins it supports, so each page carries one copy. The Google for Jobs docs explain the other choices.

Eligible does not mean listed

Eligible means your page gives Google everything it asks for. It does not mean Google will show the job.

Google's guide says it "does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results." Its page on recrawling adds: "Crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks."

So publish, check the page (next section), and give it time. Nobody outside Google can promise your job a place there.

How to check a job with the Rich Results Test

Google's free Rich Results Test reads a page the way Google does and lists the structured data it finds.

Open a published job on your site and copy its address.
Go to the Rich Results Test, paste the full address and run the test.
In the results, look for a job posting among the items detected.
Click the item for details. An item "with warnings" is still valid; warnings only suggest improvements. An invalid item has a problem that stops it appearing, so fix it.

Do this once after your first job goes live. After that, the readiness banner is your everyday check.

To see whether Google has added a job page to its index (the pages it can show in results), use Google Search Console, Google's free tool for site owners. Once you have verified your site there, its URL Inspection tool shows whether a page is indexed and lets you request indexing for a new one.

Google says a request "does not guarantee that inclusion in search results will happen instantly or even at all."

If a job still does not appear

Work through it in order:

Is the banner on Eligible? If not, fix what it lists and save the job.
Does the Rich Results Test find a job posting on the live page?
Has it been more than a few weeks? Then check the page with URL Inspection in Search Console.

The troubleshooting guide has more detail for each step.

Checklist

Each job has a full description, a location (or remote countries) and a way to apply.
The readiness banner says Eligible once the job is published.
The Rich Results Test finds a job posting on your first live job.
Closing dates are set where you know them, and filled jobs go back to Draft.
Whoever is waiting knows that a listing is Google's decision and can take weeks.

Your next step: if your jobs are not on your site yet, start with How to add a careers page to WordPress.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an SEO plugin for Google for Jobs?

No. Vakanssi adds the job structured data itself. If you already have an SEO plugin, keep it. On the default setting, Vakanssi removes job markup from the SEO plugins it supports, so a job page carries one copy.

Do remote jobs work?

Yes. Set Workplace type to Remote and list the countries people may work from under Eligible countries (remote). Google needs at least one country for a fully remote job, and the readiness checklist asks for it.

How long until my job shows up?

There is no fixed time. Google says crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks, and showing a job is always Google's decision. Eligible is the part you control.

Vakanssi blog

Job board or applicant tracking system: which do you need?

The short answer

What a job board does

What an applicant tracking system does

Which one do you need?

What a small team actually needs

Where Vakanssi fits

Do you still need outside job sites?

Summary

Frequently asked questions

Can an applicant tracking system show my jobs on my website?

Will other companies be able to post jobs on my site with Vakanssi?

I already use a job board plugin. Can I switch?

How to add a careers page to WordPress: a beginner's guide

Before you start

Step 1 of 6:Install the plugin

Step 2 of 6:Answer the setup wizard

Step 3 of 6:Post your first job

Step 4 of 6:Look at your careers page

Step 5 of 6:Test the application form

Step 6 of 6:Find the application

Getting your jobs on Google

Keeping candidate data tidy

Checklist before you share the link

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a developer?

Does it work with my theme?

Where do the CVs go?

Is it really free?

How WordPress job posts get into Google for Jobs

What Google for Jobs is

Structured data, in plain words

What Google asks for

How Vakanssi handles it for you

Eligible does not mean listed

How to check a job with the Rich Results Test

If a job still does not appear

Checklist

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an SEO plugin for Google for Jobs?

Do remote jobs work?

How long until my job shows up?