Even for the big branded job boards the majority of traffic is driven through short term advertising and not long term branding. Monster, etc spend a lot on Sup

Even for the big branded job boards the majority of traffic is driven through short term advertising and not long term branding. Monster, etc spend a lot on Super Bowl advertising and most of the effect from that comes within a couple of weeks after the advert. Especially if you're talking about professional jobs, generally most talented professional are rarely actively looking for a new job, so it doesn't matter how powerful your brand is, you still need to be actively pushing them to look for a new job. There are very few niche players who succeed on organic SEO, certainly in the tech sector, most of the successful non-ad-buying job boards are run by sites which already have targeted organic traffic.