The Ultimate Guide to Building a Job Board with Webflow and Memberstack

This post will discuss everything about building a job board with Webflow and Memberstack!  From what makes a successful job board, important tips and strategies, the step by step process of actually building job boards with and without templates and how to optimize and grow your job board.  

In today's fast-paced world, job boards have become essential for both job seekers and employers. They provide a convenient platform for individuals to search and apply for jobs while allowing companies to find the right talent to build their teams.

Things to consider:

• Design and layout of the site. Find job board design ideas here.  Aesthetics and Style matter!
• Features that enhance the user experience, such as detailed filters for quick job searches based on location, experience, salary, key words or skills, etc.
• Niche vs. general job boards. Niche platforms catering to specific sectors such as design, tech, or marketing are growing popular nowadays, but general job boards have advantages.
• Ways to monetize your job board through various plans such as tiered pricing, subscriptions, freemium models, etc.
• Memberstack has created a Premium Job Board template which includes all of these features and more, perfect for anyone looking to get started right away with little to no hassle. 

Part 1 - Before the build

Before you start building your job board, determine some important aspects of the job board, such as:

• Is it going to be a niche platform or a general job board? You must understand the pros, cons and challenges associated with both options.
  
  
• What features will the job board include? Since companies and job seekers interact with the platform differently, you must work on two full sets of features tailored to each group.
  
  
• For job seekers, some features such as search, filter, resume upload, and personal profiles are basic and essential. You can also work on additional features, such as resume builder, memberships, online career counseling services, and so on, to enhance user experience.
  
  
• For companies and businesses posting jobs, important features to consider include a company profile, quick job uploading options, access to candidate data and resumes, etc. More features can be added by monetizing your job board, such as sponsored job posts which will be featured at the top of job listings for a small fee.

There are lots of different platforms for you to build your project with, each with their own pros and cons.  Here at Memberstack, we’re big fans of Webflow so we’re going to be using that as our building tool! 

Part 2 - The Build 

Choose Your Starting Point 

Decide whether you want to start from scratch or use a template. Needless to say, using a template is a lot quicker and easier, and just as customizable with the right template! 

• If you’re starting without a template, start right here! 
• If you’re starting with a template, skip to Memberstack’s Premium Job Board Template

There are a whole bunch of great Webflow job board templates out there, if you need some help choosing which template to start with, check out this list we put together here.

Building a Job Board with Webflow – Without a Template

Before you start, have a rough layout of the job board site, different pages and categories, and any other relevant pages on the website. This initial draft itself will serve as guidelines for you to work upon. You can use online tools like figma, or a pen and paper to help visualize your ideas. 

Step 1: Blank Canvas 

Login to your Webflow account (or signup), create a new project and choose a blank canvas. 

Step 2: Design Tips

• Stick to clean and professional. Minimalist design works well with job boards.
• Keep consistent with your branding and colors. 
• Search features with filters and sorting options are necessary for a better user experience. Same goes with navigation, keep it straightforward and simple to follow. 
• Use colors and fonts to highlight important information so people can quickly find what they need.
• Create a quick and easy application process through sign-up forms.

Step 3: Job Listings

For job listings, you can use boxes or containers and grids to stylize your listings. You’ll have full control over how you want to display job posts in terms of appearance, alignment, font, colors, and style. You can display job postings in multiple ways, from simple list views to more appealing grid views or even carousels.

An advanced suggestion is to collect essential info related to job posts such as industry, position, experience required, salary, etc. This data can be automatically displayed in specific sections by assigning classes to each data point. 

Most job listings display - 

• Employer's name, website link, application form link 
• Contract, full-time, part-time, remote, hybrid, location 
• Job role description
• Employee requirements 
• How to apply 
• CTA 
• Compensation, Salary or Hourly wage, and/or benefits if any

Step 4: Search Functions 

Given the dynamic nature of job postings, we recommend adding a search feature with advanced filters such as: job titles, location, industry etc to help job seekers find relevant postings quickly. 

Step 5: Monetizing Your Job Board

Integrate payments into your job board using Memberstack to monetize your platform. You can offer premium job listings, subscriptions, or other paid services. You can signup and test with Memberstack for free until you're ready to go live! 

Step 6:  Dedicated Ares for Employers and Employees

‍You’ll have to break down your job board into two separate sections for employers and job seekers. You can create sign-up forms and profile pages for each group to onboard both types of users on your platform. Use Memberstack to manage user accounts, job listings and payments. 

Step 7: Optimizing Your Job Board for Organic Traffic

‍Perform keyword research to see what queries people use to search for jobs, and integrate them into your web pages. Websites built with Webflow are responsive, improving your site’s SEO, which in turn improves your traffic!

Building a Job Board with Webflow – With a Template

At Memberstack, we have created the Premium Job Board template to help streamline the process of setting this all up. It includes templates and tutorials for:

• In-platform DMs/chats
• Custom member dashboards
• Job search (for applicants)
• Talent search (for companies)
• Featured applicants
• Automated job posting (with rich text)
• In-platform portfolio viewer

We have designed this template to be as comprehensive and user-friendly as possible. It includes all of the features customers and companies would expect of a job board, as well as other features you might not know you need. If you are looking to start a new job board, this is one of the best options available to speed up the setup process. 

Here is a brief summary of the steps you’d need to take to get this started: 

Step 1: Gaining Access to the Premium Job Board Template

Getting started with the Premium Job Board template is as easy as buying a new pair of pants. It is currently available for $55 for people with active Memberstack accounts or $135 for those without. While this cost may seem scary, we’ve included  several methods for fast monetization which should accelerate the rate at which you can start to recoup the costs (and more). 

Once your payment has processed, you’ll get access to:

• the full Webflow project
• all relevant Make.com scenarios
• a 15-part video tutorial series
• a Private Slack group
• Support from the Memberstack staff
• a Memberstack template ID

Step 2: Customizing the Template Design

Good news, this template is extremely customizable for any kind of job board you plan to create. This means the logo, included features, customer testimonials, focus areas, and search capabilities can all be modified for whatever purposes you want, along with every other aspect of the page as well!

Step 3: Setting Up User Profiles

Setting up user profiles is incredibly easy in this premium job template. Due to the integration with Memberstack, it is easy to create a profile with links to portfolios, countries of residence, as well as a selected skills for which the user would like to find jobs. Because this is an integrated platform, the inputs in this form can inform the way users appear to other candidates. 

Step 4: Managing Job Listings

‍Another benefit of using this template is that it comes with pre-made dynamic job listings so you don’t have to set too much up. You can set it up to display the jobs posted on your site. There are multiple customization options for this, so you can design the style and layout of the job listings as per your preference.

This is all managed in our pre-designed CMS collections. We’ve included template collections for skills, jobs, applicants, and companies – although this can be modified to meet the specific needs of your job board. With the exception of some essential fields, the collection fields within these CMS collections are completely customizable, allowing you to design the customer flow and UX with as much attention to detail as you would like! 

Step 5: Adding Job/Talent Search and Filter Functions

We’ve also included job and talent search for both job seekers and hiring companies in this template. This means that the two-sided platform makes it easier to connect people to the jobs they want and companies to top talent for the job. You can also customize the kinds of filters available on these search functions, making it easier to narrow down their search. A tutorial for accomplishing this is included in the template. 

Step 6: Setting Up the Customer Dashboard

One of the best parts of integrating your website with Memberstack’s user account features is the ability to create custom dashboards for job seekers or hiring companies on the site. This means that each customer will be able to keep track of the jobs they’ve applied for, their portfolio website, and any messages sent within the platform. This is a great way to set your website apart from competitors and encourage customers to purchase more premium features on the site. 

Step 7: Monetizing your Job Board

Integrate payments into your job board using Memberstack to monetize your platform. One of the easiest ways to quickly monetize your job board is to offer premium talent listings for job seekers or premium job posts for businesses. We have created an easy-to-understand template UI for this, which clearly demonstrates the value of promoted talent to everyone who visits the website. 

Step 8: Build a Chat Feature

‍The ability to chat with potential hires or companies is also a huge asset for any job board. We’ve included an easy way to include this feature on your site through an integration with TalkJS. TalkJS gives you highly customizable chat functionality via a bit of creatively applied Javascript. With our template, setting up this feature only requires you to connect the wires between the chat backend and the user/company dashboards. We’ve also included a tutorial on how to set this up, which should make it easy even for those without extensive experience with JS. 

You've Built a Job Board, What Next?

Now that your job board is live, focus on growth and maintenance. Check out these helpful blog posts for next steps:

• How to Price your Job Board