Several times a week, I visti online job databases to search for home-based jobs for posting here at WAHS and in the WAHS newsletter. For the most part, I stick with two job search keyword phrases, but the truth is, there are a variety of keywords that can bring up legitimate work-at-home jobs. Here are keyword suggestions and tips when doing your own work-at-home job search.
Where to Use Work-At-Home Keywords for Job Search
It’s important that you use these keywords on job search sites, not search engines, if you’re looking for home-based jobs. Using these terms on search engines may bring up jobs, but they will also give you home business ops and scams. Check out my list of top sites to check daily for work-at-home jobs.
The keyword terms provided are for use on generic job search sites such as Indeed Jobs and CareerBuilder etc. If you use a telecommuting database, such as FlexJobs or a freelance site, you can expect that most of the jobs will be home-based (although read the descriptions to be sure), and instead you can go straight to searching for jobs based on your skills.
Best Work At Home Job Search Keywords
If a job database does haven’t results using one keyword term or phrase, try a different one. I’ve done searches on a job site using “work at home” that yielded no results, but when I used the term “virtual” I was given many listings. Further, each term may bring up different results. Over at CareerBuilder, “work at home” brings up a whole different list of jobs than using the word “telecommute.” So don’t be afraid to try a couple of terms on a single site.
“Work At Home”
I use this keyword phrase the most often. Notice it’s in quotes so that the results will only include listings with that exact phrase. Although this is a good keyword phrase to use, not all results will be work-at-home jobs. Read the job description carefully, as this keyword search will also result in listings that say “no work at home” or “work at home office” meaning the work is done at the main office of the company.
Alternatives: “work-at-home” with hyphens, “work from home,” “work-from-home,” “home based” and home-based.
Telecommute
You’ll notice there are no quotes around the keyword telecommute as it’s a single word. Even so, similar to “work at home,” the resulting list from the keyword telecommute doesn’t always include only work-from-home jobs. Job posts that include “no telecommute” or “this isn’t a telecommute position” will also show up. So you need to read the job description to make sure it’s a home-based job.
Alternatives: telecommuting and telework
Virtual
I don’t use this one as often, but there are a few sites, such as Kaplan, in which it’s the only option for getting home-based job announcements, so it’s worth considering if you’re not getting good results with the others.
Remote
I’ve been using this term more frequently, although only when other terms don’t yield results.
Freelance
There are a whole lot of freelance job openings, but not all are home-based. I use this search term only if all the other search terms have yielded no results.
Alternatives: Freelancer, consultant
Have you found a work-at-home job using a different term? Tell me below.
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