Indeed Job Alerts: Set Up, Fix Repeats, Stop Them

How to set up an Indeed job alert that matches what you want

Indeed job alerts are emails about new jobs on Indeed. They match the search you activate them from (job title, keyword or company, and location) and the companies you follow, so the search you run decides what they send you.

The email field is at the bottom of the first page of results, and sometimes a pop-up offers to create the alert instead (Indeed's job alerts help page). Either way, the alert follows the search you ran.

So set up the search before you activate. Indeed says you can refine any search with its search filters, and our guide to Indeed advanced search covers the operators that narrow a search further. A tight search makes a better alert than a broad one you have to read through every day. One alert per role is easier to scan than one alert stretched across several job titles.

How to edit, pause, or turn off Indeed job alerts

All your alerts live in one place: open Settings in your account, then Communications settings, then Email, and look under Job and company alerts. Use the pencil icon to change an alert's job title, location, or frequency, which can be daily or weekly. Toggle an alert off to pause it and on to resume it.

To stop an alert from your inbox, open the alert email and click Unsubscribe from this email. Indeed says you must delete each job alert separately if you have more than one, so repeat this for each alert you want to stop.

If a daily alert is mostly jobs you have already handled, mark them in the alert's Indeed results with HideJobs so they stay hidden while the filters are on (see below), and narrow the search before you switch it to weekly.

Job alerts vs Recommended jobs: which Indeed email is which

Indeed sends several types of email besides the alerts you created. Indeed's communications settings page lists them, each with its own entry:

• Job and company alerts: "emails about jobs that match your searches or companies you follow." These are your alerts.
• Recommended jobs: "job suggestions based on your resume and activity on Indeed."
• Career guidance: career advice, company information, and resume tips.
• Application and account status: updates on your active applications and your Indeed account.
• Indeed feedback: requests for feedback and surveys.
• Resume contacts: "messages from employers and recruiters interested in your profile." These only come if employers can find you on Indeed, and you change this one in your Profile settings.

So check which kind of email is bothering you first: alerts are managed under Job and company alerts, and Recommended jobs has its own entry in the same settings.

Why the same jobs seem to come back in Indeed alerts

If you set an alert to "exact location only" and the email includes jobs within 25 miles, Indeed's answer is to open the search page from the job alert, where you only get the jobs that match your location preference.

Indeed's job alerts help page doesn't say why jobs seem to repeat. Some possible reasons:

• The same role was posted again, or by more than one company, such as the employer and a staffing agency, so it arrives as a new job.
• You applied on the company's own website, so it may be missing from My Jobs: Indeed says you might not see an application in My Jobs if you did not apply directly on Indeed (see its applied jobs help page). Our guide to Indeed My Jobs explains where your applications are kept.
• The search behind the alert is broad, so it keeps matching roles you looked at and skipped.

When I built HideJobs, this was the first complaint I heard consistently: active job seekers applying to 30+ roles said half their search results were jobs they'd already submitted to. Alerts bring you back to the same searches every day or week, so the problem grows with every application.

In your alert's Indeed results, the HideJobs browser extension covers each of these. Jobs you mark as applied or dismissed stay hidden while the filters are on. When you are logged in and save applications to your HideJobs job tracker, a card with a very similar title at the same company shows a line starting "Likely applied to this job," even when it is a new posting. The eye icon next to a company name hides a staffing agency you don't want to see. The next section shows how.

How to hide jobs you already handled in your alert results

Open the search page from your alert, the same page Indeed points you to for the 25-mile fix, with the HideJobs browser extension installed. It adds Mark as Applied and Mark as Dismissed buttons to each job card on Indeed's search results:

1. Click Mark as Applied on the Indeed card of each job you apply to, whether you applied on Indeed or on the company's site. HideJobs asks "Add to Job Tracker?" so you can keep a record of it.
2. Click Mark as Dismissed on each job you looked at and decided to skip.
3. Turn on Applied and Dismissed in the HideJobs filters panel. Marked jobs stay hidden from your Indeed results while the filters are on, including the next time you open the alert's search.

Other filters in the same panel clean up what an alert search brings back:

• Companies. Click the eye icon next to a company name to hide that employer or staffing agency on Indeed and every other site HideJobs supports. Matching uses the exact company name.
• Keywords. Hide cards whose visible text, such as the title, company, location, salary, or snippet, contains words like "senior" or "contract."
• Sponsored. Hide the cards Indeed marks as sponsored. Our guide to Indeed sponsored jobs explains what they are.

When you are logged in, cards also show a line such as "Applied to 3 jobs at this company" or "Likely applied to this job on Indeed" when your HideJobs job tracker has applications at that company, including a role posted again under a new listing. The line is a label, so the card stays in your results and you can decide for yourself.

If you also use LinkedIn alerts, HideJobs cleans up their results too: see LinkedIn job alerts.