In short: Yes, if you want to be found by clients searching in that sector. A single "what we do" page that lists your sectors is invisible to search engines, because dedicated sector pages are what allow specific client searches to land somewhere on your site.
A single "sectors we cover" page that lists your specialisms in bullet points won't get you found by hiring managers searching for exactly what you offer. A dedicated sector page gives a specific query somewhere to land - without it, you simply don't exist for that search.
Why a single "sectors we cover" page won't get you found
Think of your website like a set of filing cabinets. A hiring manager comes in looking for the "engineering recruitment" drawer. If all your sectors are crammed into one drawer labelled "what we do," they can't find what they need - and neither can Google.
Search engines work the same way. A page needs a clear, singular topic to rank well for a specific query. When your accountancy, legal, and HR recruitment are all described in a few sentences on one page, none of them has enough depth or relevance signal to compete for a real search term. You're spread thin everywhere and strong nowhere.
The practical effect is that your prospective clients - the hiring managers who are actively searching for a specialist - find one of your competitors instead, purely because they have the page you don't - whether or not they're the better agency.
What does a sector page do for recruitment agency SEO?
A well-built sector page does two things simultaneously, and they're equally important.
First, it gets you found. Each sector page targets a specific commercial keyword - the exact phrase a client types when they're looking for help. "Technology recruitment agency," "interim finance recruitment," "supply chain headhunter UK" - these are buyer-intent searches, and a dedicated page with real depth is the minimum requirement to show up for them. Beyond Google rankings, dedicated pages with clear structure and specific content are exactly what AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini pull from when someone asks "who are the best HR recruitment agencies in Manchester?"
Second, it makes you look like the credible choice. When a prospective client clicks through to your site and finds a page that talks specifically about hiring challenges in their sector - the salary benchmarks, the candidate shortage issues, the compliance considerations they're dealing with - they read it as expertise. A generic "we recruit across many sectors" paragraph reads like every other agency. A page that says "we know your world" closes the credibility gap before you've even spoken to them.
At recSEO, we call this the two-job rule: every post and page should get the agency found, and make it look like the right choice. A sector page is the clearest example of a piece of content that does both.
How many sector pages does a recruitment agency need?
This is where most agencies overcomplicate it, or get paralysed. The answer is simpler than you think.
Build a page for every sector where you want client enquiries. That's the only filter that matters - the sectors where a new client would make your year, rather than every sector you've ever placed in or every line on your pitch deck.
For most specialist agencies, that's between three and eight pages. For a larger multi-sector agency, it might be twelve to fifteen. The mistake to avoid is building a thin page for every sector you've touched, because thin pages - a few sentences, no real depth - don't rank and they don't persuade. A skeleton page with 150 words and a generic "get in touch" is worse than nothing, because it signals to Google that you're a shallow result and signals to a prospective client that you're not that serious.
A rough guide:
| Sector maturity | Recommended approach |
|---|---|
| Your primary specialism - the one you'd bet the business on | Full page, 800+ words, FAQ, salary insight, real market context |
| Strong secondary sectors where you actively win clients | Solid page, 500-800 words, specific to that sector's hiring challenges |
| Sectors you cover but rarely lead with | Consider a paragraph or mention on a more senior page, not a standalone weak page |
| Sectors you used to work in but no longer actively pursue | Don't build the page - it invites the wrong enquiries |
What should go on a sector page?
This is where the difference between a ranking page and a forgettable one lives.
The agencies whose sector pages work tend to include the same core ingredients:
A specific, benefit-led headline. Not "Finance Recruitment" as a heading with nothing underneath. Something like "Finance Recruitment for Growing Businesses in the Midlands" - that's specific enough to signal expertise and local relevance in one line.
A clear statement of who you place and for whom. For example:
> - Are you placing CFOs and FDs for PE-backed businesses?
> - Payroll managers for SMEs?
> - Audit seniors for Big Four spin-outs?
The more specific you are, the more a prospective client recognises their own situation.
An account of the hiring challenges in that sector. What makes this sector hard to hire in right now? For example:
> - Candidate scarcity?
> - Counter-offer inflation?
> - Niche technical requirements?
A hiring manager reading this should think "they get it" - not "this could be any agency's website."
Your process, briefly. How do you find candidates in this sector? Do you have a specific talent pool, a sector-specific network, a particular sourcing method? One paragraph here does real credibility work.
Proof. This doesn't have to be a case study, though case studies are powerful. A quoted outcome, a retained client, a role you placed that others couldn't, or a real testimonial from a hiring manager in the sector - any of these moves the page from a brochure to evidence.
An FAQ section. Three to five questions that a hiring manager in that sector would ask before picking up the phone. "How long does it typically take to fill a senior finance role?" or "Do you work on retained or contingency basis?" These questions double as SEO signals and as honest sales content. Done well, they're also what AI tools lift directly when someone asks a relevant question.
Does it matter how the page is structured for SEO?
Yes, but not in an overly technical way. The structural decisions that most directly affect search performance for recruitment agency sector pages are:
- Use the sector keyword in the page title, H1, and first paragraph. If you're targeting "HR recruitment agency UK," those words need to appear naturally in all three places - not stuffed in ten times, but present and clear.
- One primary topic per page. Don't try to combine "finance and accountancy recruitment" on a single page if they're different enough to attract different searchers. Split them if there's real search volume for each.
- Answer questions explicitly. AI tools and featured snippets both favour content that asks a question and answers it directly in the next sentence or paragraph. That's why FAQs on sector pages earn disproportionate visibility relative to the effort involved.
- Internal links. Each sector page should link to relevant blog posts, case studies, or other content on your site. This signals to Google that your site has real depth on this topic, not just a single page.
- Don't neglect the meta description. It doesn't directly affect rankings, but it's what a prospective client reads before deciding whether to click. Write it like a one-sentence pitch to a hiring manager rather than a keyword list.
What about local SEO - should sector pages also target a location?
Often, yes. "Finance recruitment agency" is a competitive national search term. "Finance recruitment agency Manchester" or "finance recruitment Birmingham" is a more winnable, and often more commercially relevant, term for an agency that works primarily in a specific geography.
The cleanest approach is to decide first: are you positioned nationally in this sector, or are you strongest in a specific region? If you're strongest regionally, build sector pages with location signals woven in naturally - not as separate "finance recruitment London | Birmingham | Manchester" doorway pages, which look thin and often read as spam. One well-written regional sector page beats five thin location variants every time.
If you operate nationally at scale in a sector, build the national page well, and consider location-specific blog content (salary guides, hiring market updates by region) that can feed traffic to the main sector page.
How does this connect to what AI tools cite?
This is increasingly relevant. When a hiring manager asks ChatGPT "which recruitment agencies specialise in interim finance roles in the North West?", the AI is pulling from the same signals that good SEO builds on: clear, specific, well-structured content on a dedicated page.
The agencies that get cited by AI tend to have a few things in common. Their sector pages are specific and depth-led. They have FAQ-style content that directly answers buyer questions. And they don't hide their specialisms behind vague "we work across multiple sectors" language.
Should small or newer agencies still build sector pages?
Yes - and arguably they should prioritise it more urgently than established agencies. A newer agency with a thin website has very little content competing for any search query. A single well-built sector page targeting a specific niche can punch significantly above the agency's perceived size in search results and in AI citations, because it's competing on relevance and depth, not on domain age or link volume.
The objection we hear most often is "we don't have time to write them." That's fair. A sector page that's good takes real work - it needs market knowledge, honest sector insight, and writing that reads like a credible specialist wrote it, not like it was generated and published in five minutes. That's exactly the kind of content that doesn't work, and the market has plenty of it already.
A better frame: one strong sector page, written properly, is worth more than six thin ones. If you've only got bandwidth for one right now, pick your primary sector and do it right.
Should every recruitment agency sector get its own page?
How long should a recruitment sector page be?
What is the difference between a sector page and a blog post about that sector?
Do sector pages help with AI search tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity?
Can I have too many sector pages?
Does sector page content go out of date?
The bottom line
A recruitment agency that covers five sectors and has one "what we do" page is invisible for four of them on search. Each sector page you build is, in effect, a new front door that's open specifically for the clients you most want to walk through.
The agencies winning new client enquiries through their websites in 2025 and 2026 have built dedicated expert pages for the sectors they specialise in, structured them clearly, and written them to read like specialists rather than generalists.
If you're not sure whether your existing sector pages are working - or whether what you have counts as a sector page at all - the clearest test is to Google your own sector and location and see whether you appear. If you don't, the page either doesn't exist, doesn't have enough depth, or isn't structured clearly enough for search to understand it. Any of those is fixable.
recSEO writes SEO, GEO, and AEO blog content built specifically for recruitment agencies, so you get found by hiring managers in your niche and look like the credible choice when they check you out. If you want to see what that looks like for your agency, reach out to Toni or book a call.
