Expired Job Handling

Job boards constantly create and expire content. How you handle expired jobs significantly impacts your SEO and user experience.

The expired job challenge

Unlike blog posts that live forever, job listings have a lifecycle:

1. Posted: Job goes live, gets indexed
2. Active: Appears in search results, drives traffic
3. Expired: Position filled or deadline passed
4. Challenge: What happens to the URL?

Getting this wrong creates problems:

• Dead ends: Users land on "job not found" pages
• Crawl waste: Google spends time on useless pages
• Trust issues: Too many dead links hurts credibility
• Index bloat: Old pages dilute your site's quality signals

How Cavuno handles expired jobs

Automatic expiry

When a job reaches its expiry date:

1. Removed from listings: No longer appears in job searches
2. Removed from sitemap: Google stops crawling it
3. Page handled gracefully: No jarring error pages

User experience

When someone visits an expired job URL:

• They see a clear message that the job has expired
• Suggested similar jobs are displayed
• Easy navigation to find other opportunities
• No confusing error pages

SEO considerations

Cavuno balances user experience with SEO best practices:

• Soft 404 signals: Tells Google the content is gone
• Redirect candidates: High-traffic expired pages can redirect
• Crawl efficiency: Expired jobs removed from sitemap promptly

Best practices for job expiry

Set appropriate expiry dates

When posting jobs:

• Standard roles: 30 days (default)
• Hard-to-fill positions: 60-90 days
• Urgent hiring: 14-21 days
• Evergreen roles: 60+ days, but refresh regularly

Don't set excessive expiry dates

Avoid setting jobs to expire years in the future:

• Stale listings hurt credibility
• Job seekers distrust old postings
• Google may penalize sites with outdated content

Refresh rather than extend

Instead of extending expiry indefinitely: