LinkedIn vs Indeed: Which platform is best for recruiters?
Wondering about the difference between Indeed and LinkedIn (and which is better)? You’ll find out below! In this quick LinkedIn vs Indeed overview, we compare both job platforms, so you can decide for yourself which is best for your recruiting and hiring needs. Here’s what’s included:
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At a glance: LinkedIn vs Indeed
Both LinkedIn and Indeed have become integral to recruitment strategies worldwide, with their distinct approaches to job placement and candidate sourcing. While both platforms serve the purpose of connecting employers with job seekers, they have distinct differences in their approach and functionality.
And so, the debate remains: LinkedIn vs Indeed – which is the best destination for recruiters aiming to fill positions with top-tier candidates?
Let’s find out!
LinkedIn, founded in 2002 and later acquired by Microsoft, has established itself as the world’s largest professional network. The platform recently announced its user base passed the mind-boggling number of 1 billion members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
It primarily functions as a social networking site, providing professionals a platform to showcase their skills, connect with colleagues, and build their brand. While LinkedIn does offer a job board feature, it is not the central focus of the platform.
Suggested read: How to post a job on LinkedIn
Indeed
Indeed, established in 2004, has emerged to become the most visited job site in the world. At the time of writing this article, the job site reports it has 350 million unique visitors each month. The site is available in more than 60 countries around the world.
Indeed is a job search engine. That means the website aggregates job listings from multiple sources, such as company career pages and other job boards. Job seekers can create a personal account on Indeed and apply for job postings.
Suggested read: How to post a job on Indeed
Main characteristics of LinkedIn and Indeed
| Indeed | ||
|---|---|---|
| Reach: | Global reach of 1 billion users in over 200 countries | Global reach of 350+ million unique monthly visitors in over 60 countries |
| Target group: | Professionals and job seekers focused on career growth and networking | Job seekers across various industries and experience levels |
| Cost: | Free job postings available, with different paid options to promote your job listings | Free job postings available, with the option to sponsor for increased visibility on a cost-per-click basis |
| User-friendliness: | Professional networking features, advanced search filters, and a robust candidate pool | Easy-to-use interface, screening questions, and a single dashboard for managing job postings |
| Advantages for companies: | Attracts passive candidates, long-term relationship building | Cost-effective, broad reach, and easy management of job postings |
Did you know you can use JOIN’s free recruitment software to easily post to these platforms? We partner with 10+ free and 250+ paid job boards to allow you to multipost your ad to dozens of job sites with just one click.
And through our partnerships, we can offer hefty discounts to promote your job ads on these websites! You can visit our detailed, separate pages for more information about combining JOIN with LinkedIn’s job platform and/or Indeed’s job platform.
Or, create a free JOIN account and visit our in-app store, where you can see all the discounts and job board bundles we offer:
Where to find the best candidates: Indeed or LinkedIn?
When considering which platform to use for your hiring needs, it’s essential to understand their target groups. After all, you want to maximise your chances of finding the best-qualified candidates for your open positions.
When it comes to these two specific platforms, the sheer size and popularity of both websites means they can both be used to find almost any type of job seeker. That’s because both of them are generalist job boards that don’t focus on a specific type of industry.
This is opposed to niche job boards, which are websites that focus on a particular industry or job type (like Remotive, which focuses on remote jobs).
Also read: The best free job boards for 2024
Further note that as Indeed and LinkedIn are both available across the world, chances are you can use both in your country. Also, both websites can be used when recruiting international talent.
As such, looking just in terms of job board functionality, chances are high that you can find equally qualified candidates for practically all your job openings on both platforms.
That said, there is a difference between Indeed and LinkedIn in terms of their purpose and function, which affects the type of candidates that you can find on each platform, and how to find them. That’s also why it’s difficult to just check Indeed vs LinkedIn market share, because it depends on what part of the market you’re after.
Who can I reach on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn caters to professionals and job seekers who are focused on building their careers, learning new skills, and expanding their professional networks.
It offers a range of features that allow users to showcase their skills while learning new ones (LinkedIn Learning), connect with industry peers, and engage in professional discussions. Which is part of the reason LinkedIn caters to a more professional demographic and is favoured for white-collar job recruitment.
For recruiters, LinkedIn provides a suite of tools, such as LinkedIn Recruiter, which allows for precise candidate searches using various filters.
Companies, in turn, have dedicated pages that contain much more than just their job listings. They use their pages for employer branding purposes and often actively post marketing materials or industry trends.
Also read: How to create a LinkedIn Business page
Due to all these social media functionalities, LinkedIn offers much more than traditional job boards. This means it has a much higher user activity than many other platforms, while much of the activity is not actively job search related.
This all makes Linkedin more suitable for recruiters who wish to actively seek out potential candidates rather than waiting for applicants to come to them.
Who can I reach on Indeed?
Indeed, on the other hand, targets a broader audience of job seekers across various industries and experience levels. It is perhaps the most inclusive platform, catering to job seekers of all levels and industries.
Unlike LinkedIn, Indeed’s purpose is not for professionals to build and engage with a professional network. Indeed emphasises simplicity and volume, making it ideal for filling positions quickly.
The audience on Indeed consists more of active job seekers compared to LinkedIn’s larger passive candidate base.
Deciding which is better for your business
There are a lot of similarities between LinkedIn and Indeed when it comes to potential reach and how their job board feature can help your business. You can post a job for free on each of them, and both offer further paid promotion options to ensure you get your job posting in front of the right people.
But there are some differences and specific characteristics in the way they function and the type of job seeker you might find on each platform.
Due to these differences in the way the websites are used, which of these two platforms is best ultimately boils down to your recruitment goals. If you’re looking to attract passive candidates and building long-term relationships, LinkedIn might be your best bet. For a wider range of applicants for certain industries or more time-pressing hiring needs, Indeed could be the answer.
In many cases, however, the best option might be to simply use both platforms simultaneously to maximise your reach and attract a diverse pool of candidates.
To do this, you can create separate accounts for each and manually add your job descriptions and other information to create your ads. Once you posted your ad to both LinkedIn and Indeed, you can check each platform’s pricing solutions to decide on whether and how to further promote each ad.
Alternatively, you can use JOIN’s dedicated job distribution software. Simply create your ad once, post it to both LinkedIn and Indeed at the same time, and benefit from unique JOIN discounts and job board bundles to save money on your sponsored jobs.
Plus, you can choose over 250 additional job sites to simultaneously post your ad to, saving you a lot of time and effort while strongly increasing your reach! Create your JOIN account in just a few minutes and start posting for free.
Alternatives to LinkedIn and Indeed
Remember, finding the right platform for your hiring needs is crucial for attracting qualified candidates and driving the success of your business. Evaluate your options carefully and leverage the strengths of each platform to make informed decisions that align with your hiring goals.
Looking for an alternative? Then check out these popular job sites:
Frans Lelivelt
Frans is JOIN's multilingual Senior Content Manager. His main topic of interest in the recruitment space is DEI and how companies can reduce their (unconscious) biases to make the world of work a fairer, kinder place for everyone. Outside of work, he tries to do the same for animals, spending much of his spare time in the kitchen preparing plant-based feasts.
