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“Follow the plan outlined here and you can create your own website from scratch without writing any code for less than $300.”
Dating is hard.
And so is finding a new employer.
It’s a lot like dating. You interview with multiple employers and try to find a company that will be a good match for you. Overall, the process is time-consuming and pretty stressful.
If you’re launching a website to assist people in finding employment, you can help alleviate some of this stress. You can provide relevant options and filtering tools to help them narrow their search to just a few prime candidates and quickly find employment with a great company.
On the other hand, you’re also aiding businesses who need help with the very expensive process of hiring quality new employees.
So, how can you make your own website like this?
A quick preview
Here’s a quick look at the amazing site you’ll have after following this tutorial.
Looks great, doesn’t it?
There’s a ton of functionality included that you can’t see that will allow you to make a fully functional job portal, but more on that later!
For now, let’s get into the actual steps required to build the site.
How to make a job board website
There are really just five major steps to creating a website like this:
- Pick a domain name
- Get hosting
- Install WordPress on your site
- Install & configure a WordPress theme
- Launch your site
I’ll walk you through the first four steps and leave it to you to come up with a marketing plan and launch your site. If you’re not sure how to actually make the site or what tools you’ll need, you’ve come to the right place!
Let’s get started with step 1 now.
Pick a domain name
The key to finding a good domain name is to come up with a lot of potential names.
Don’t romanticize the process!
If you come up with “the perfect name” and then try to buy it, it will probably be taken already or cost thousands of dollars to purchase if it’s for sale.
A more practical approach is to come up with a long list of potential names and check the availability of all of them. Then you can narrow your list down to a smaller set of available names that will only cost about $10 to register for a year.
If you’re having trouble finding good domains, check out my guide on how to find available domain names. That will give you some great tips and tricks for hunting down an excellent domain.
Get hosting for your site
When a visitor arrives at your domain, a server will deliver your site’s files to the visitor’s browser, which will then render the webpage.
Nobody purchases and maintains their own servers. No, instead, we all rent space on servers owned by a company that specializes in that hardware, and we refer to this as “hosting.” You need to purchase hosting to store your site on someone’s server. Without hosting, there’s no website.
The good news is that hosting services are as old as the web, so there are plenty of great options. For new webmasters, I recommend Nexcess above all others.
Nexcess has an excellent WordPress hosting plan that includes automatic plugin updates, daily backups, and other site administration services included for free.
You get fast performance and reliable uptime as well, without the cost of the more expensive “premium” managed WordPress hosts.
Install WordPress
Installing WordPress is a fairly simple process and most web hosts have an auto-installer you can use to make it even simpler.
If you signup with Nexcess, they’ll actually prepare your WordPress site for you when you create your account.
At this point, you will have a functioning website online that people can visit by typing in your domain name. Now, it’s time for the fun part.
Transform your website with a theme
While getting your site online is no small feat, it may seem like you’re still so far from creating a job portal website, but that’s not true!
Themes are the tool used to redesign your website when using WordPress and many themes come with a ton of functionality included.
The WorkScout theme stands out as an excellent choice for creating a job board website.
Believe it or not, there are quite a few good options for making a job portal with WordPress, but here’s why I recommend WorkScout above all others.
Why WorkScout?
First of all, the design is gorgeous. I would be proud to show off that site to my peers and constituents.
Second, it is extremely customizable. When viewing the demo website, don’t think that every page has to look exactly like what you see in the demo. You can change the layout of the listing page, the individual jobs, and more. You can even switch the fonts, colors, and filters included in the job search.
The next reason for selecting this theme is that the developers have taken great care to keep it up-to-date and consistently add new features.
The final reason I recommend this theme first is because of how the actual job portal functionality has been included.
WP Job Manager integration
Some themes include all of the functionality needed, but I think it’s smarter for the theme developers to stick to what they know best and integrate with a plugin for added functionality. This is exactly what WorkScout does with the extremely successful (and free) WP Job Manager plugin.
WP Job Manager will allow employers to register and list available positions. Visitors will be able to explore the jobs listed and apply for positions. Employers even have a complete dashboard where they can review all applications submitted through the site.
WP Job Manager also has a number of premium add-ons for further extending its functionality, and all of these add-ons are compatible with the WorkScout theme.
Other alternatives
While I believe the WorkScout and WP Job Manager combo is great, there are certainly some other solid alternatives. And I’ve already reviewed most of these other solutions!
First, take a look at this collection of job board WordPress themes.
Themes tend to provide a complete solution either on their own or via an integration with a popular plugin.
Second, it’s also worthwhile to browse this collection of the top job portal WordPress plugins.
After taking a look through those posts, you should have a pretty good idea of all the options at your disposal. There’s no right or wrong way to build the site, so I’ll leave it to you to ultimately decide what will work best for you.
Launch your job portal
With your site online and your theme/plugin installed and configured, you’ll be nearly ready for launch!
You’ll need to get your marketing materials together and start attracting companies to list their job openings, and then you can begin advertising to excited future applicants.
To review the steps one last time:
- Find a great domain name
- Signup with Nexcess to get your site online
- Install WordPress on your site
- Pick a job board theme (I recommend WorkScout)
- Launch!
Two-sided websites like a job portal are always hard to get off the ground, but ultimately they’re extremely profitable. You can charge both parties to join and/or maintain their accounts.
I hope you’re excited to get started with these site building tools. With some persistence and hard work, you can have your site online and ready to go in just a few hours.
