45 LinkedIn Profile Optimization Tips From the Pros
You only get one chance to make a great digital first impression. Starting with your LinkedIn Summary, your LinkedIn Profile is your chance to introduce yourself, capture your visitor's attention, entice them to learn more about you and continue to read your professional history. Use my list of 45 LinkedIn Profile optimization tips from experts to make sure your digital 1st impression delivers.
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How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Better Online Visibility in 2018
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JoAnne Funch, LinkedIn for Business Expert; learn more: https://linkedinforbusiness.net/linkedin-profile-tips, https://linkedinforbusiness.net/write-linkedin-profile-summary-like-pro
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Update Your Header Image: In 2018 LinkedIn changed the layout of your profile image so it is on the left side of your header image. The header image is still 1584px X 396px, but you may have to edit your header images if your profile picture covers up any text.
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Create a Compelling LinkedIn Headline: Your LinkedIn profile headline is now left justified. Be sure your headline includes your keywords that identify your title or what you do, and avoid the most overused buzz words. You have 120 characters to let people know who you are: do not add the name of your company after your title as it is not necessary because your company name is in your experience section. NEW to the right of your headline now shows your current company, where you went to school, your complete contact info and a link to your connections. Your contact information is the most important part of this section and you want to make it easy for people to get ahold of you.
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LinkedIn Summary Section – Tell Your Story: In the new profile design there 3 full lines from your summary description before the ‘show more’ link, up from the previous 2 lines. This is prime real estate in your LinkedIn profile so be sure those first lines are speaking to your ideal connection and encourage them to click on the ‘show more’ to learn additional details.
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Write your LinkedIn Summary in the First Person: Writing in the first person creates a conversation between you and the reader, which is most effective in building relationships - and shows you wrote your own LinkedIn profile.
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Make your LinkedIn Summary Rich with Keywords: LinkedIn is often the starting point anytime a person tries to find you online. It’s common that a LinkedIn profile is one of the top three spots when you Google someone.
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Implement a Call to Action: Encourage your reader to take action. Whether it be reaching out in regard to a new position, contacting you with interest to work at your company, or just a simple connection your summary should inspire the reader to do a little more than clicking over to the next recommended profile. It’s important that your call to action is just as authentic as the rest of your profile summary. Rather than a generic, “Please email me with any questions you may have,” try something genuine. A great call to action is, “I love meeting new people and learning new things, so please feel free to say hello and share a story with me.” Not only does it show the reader that you’re outgoing and eager to learn, but it welcomes inquiries and makes the reader eager to connect.
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Add Multi-Media in Summary: 3 thumbnail images of your multi-media show directly under the first 3 lines of your summary, previously there were no images showing unless you scrolled down into each section of the profile.
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Update LinkedIn Skills Section: LinkedIn is now dividing your skills into topic categories. They are industry knowledge, tools & technologies, interpersonal skills, and an all encompassing “other skills.” LinkedIn is using some form of artificial intelligence to sort and categorize. You can search by skill, and recruiters use this feature to find and vet candidates.
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LinkedIn Endorsements: As a strategy to stay top of mind with specific people in your network such as clients and prospects, go directly to the individual’s profile and endorse some of the skills you have knowledge about. It helps their profile in terms of credibility and they are notified that you took the time to endorse or recognize them. Often, those same people will reciprocate and endorse you back.
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LinkedIn Experience Section: Don’t assume a visitor knows what your company does or what your role is with the company. Be clear about what your company does, and bullet point out your services. Explain the types of clients the company serves along with the type of results they can expect working with the individual and company.
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Neal Schaffer, Social Media for Business Expert, Speaker and Influencer; learn more: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizing-linkedin-for-business
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Be Real: Use a professional photo and your full, real name.
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Be Complete: Use all of the real estate that LinkedIn offers.
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Be Branded: Use the Headline and Summary areas to tout your strengths, differentiate yourself from others, and make relevant viewers of your profile want to contact you
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Be Searchable: Make sure that relevant keywords associated with your brand, experience, profession and industry are included in your profile.
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Be Visual: Insert links to YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations or anything else on the Internet where you are featured in a way that will help you reach your objectives. At the very least, upload your own company resources to make it easy for profile viewers to find out more about your organization.
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Be Trusted: No matter how much you may want to promote your company, your LinkedIn profile should be all about you and how you can help other LinkedIn users.
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Jeff Bullas, Digital Marketing Expert; learn more: https://www.jeffbullas.com/linkedin-profile-tips
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Complete Your Profile: A complete profile has a better chance of being found compared to an incomplete one. LinkedIn gives you a measure of the completeness of your profile so you will know how much more you need to add to build your profile to 100%. LinkedIn even provides guidelines on how to improve your profile.
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Upload a Great Photo: Take the best photo you can, but remember, it should be appropriate and professional (i.e., not a selfie!).
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Customize Your URL: To get a custom URL, simply go to the ‘Edit Profile’ screen. You’ll find it on the window that shows your basic information. There, you’ll see ‘Public Profile URL’. Click on ‘Edit’ and put in your preferred address. After you’re done, click ‘Set Custom URL’ and voila, you have your own customized URL!
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Write a Captivating Headline: Ensure yours is compelling and contains specific details that relate to your job function and industry. You can add in a distinct value proposition and selected details to give you an edge over your competition. Specificity is key. Google and other search engines typically capture your headline and will also include your location and your LinkedIn profile in the search results so this is another reason to make your headline stand out.
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Have Glowing Recommendations: LinkedIn used to have a requirement where a complete profile would have a minimum of three recommendations. It’s not mandatory now, but it still remains a good practice.
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Have Numerous Endorsements: There’s nothing better than being endorsed by people in your professional LinkedIn network.
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Utilize LinkedIn SEO: You must identify certain LinkedIn keywords and industry terms that you would want your profile to be associated with so that whenever a person searches any of the words that you want to be associated with (keywords), your profile will appear in the search results.
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Cut Down on Jargon: Use simple and clear language, preferably that which is used in normal day-to-day conversations.
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Update Your Status Regularly: Update your status at least twice a weekly by posting a new article, sharing interesting articles that you may have read elsewhere on the web, liking, commenting and re-sharing.
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Link Your Blog to LinkedIn: This provides unlimited opportunities to showcase your work. It also makes your profile appear more interesting to anyone who clicks on it.
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Don’t Add Just Anyone: LinkedIn is a professional network. You should only add those people you know or can be of use to you and your career goals.
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Search for Jobs Discreetly: LinkedIn allows you to tweak your privacy settings, so make good use of this feature! There are ways you can tailor the settings of your profile to make your job search efforts discreet.
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Tell People How They Can Reach You: Leave some form of identifying information on your profile for further correspondence. This could be anything from your email address, your blog URL, your Twitter handle, your Facebook profile, or even your personal phone number.
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Showcase Your Projects: You can create a dedicated ‘Projects’ section on your profile. It will enable you to add a URL to the topic of your project. When second and third parties click on it, they will be redirected to your project website.
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Be a Joiner: LinkedIn actually offers a guarantee that if you join active groups, your profile gets more visibility. However, it’s not just about joining groups. You need to actively participate in these groups.
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Be Creative: When you’re writing your profile, avoid being too plain. Use some visual cues, and add some bullets and symbols. However, don’t go too crazy. Maintain professionalism at all times, so you don’t make your personal brand seem like a cheap one.
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Be Warm and Enthusiastic: Make sure that your profile has an element of warmth and enthusiasm. Get personal. Be friendly. If you do this, you’re sure to leave a positive imprint on the mind of any reader of your profile.
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Avoid Exaggerations: Exaggerations will always work against you in the long run!
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Avoid Writing in the Third Person: Your LinkedIn profile summary should sound as if you’re the one speaking to the person reading it.
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Check On Discrepancies: Avoid all lies, white lies and ‘stretched’ truths. Ensure that all your details of employment including dates, positions held and any other relevant information are correct.
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Viveka von Rosen, LinkedIn & Personal Branding Expert; learn more: http://bit.ly/VengresoYouTube
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Use Formatting: LinkedIn itself has minimal formatting, you can add bullets and special characters in Word that will carry over to LinkedIn. Unfortunately, neither bold nor italics will show in LinkedIn. You can USE CAPITALIZATION.
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Add Additional Sections: Additional sections like Publications, Awards, Organization, Projects, Skills, Contact info, etc. give you ample opportunity to showcase your skills and your experiences. Most people skip these special features, but you can use them to increase your credibility, build confidence in your readers, and be found by others as a great candidate. Add sections you think are relevant to you and your business.
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Only Put Your First Name in the First Name Field and Your Last Name in the Last Name Field: Putting anything in the name filed other than your name totally goes against LinkedIn’s End User Agreement. If you want to put your designation or certifications (Ph.D., ISC, MBA) you can. But nothing else! No email addresses. No phone numbers. No keywords. It will only harm you. If you really want that info in the top section of your profile, then put it in your professional headline instead.
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Customize Your LinkedIn Profile URL: Be creative but keep the URL as close to your name as possible. You may need to use a middle initial. No spaces or special characters allowed. Once you have your unique URL, put it on your resume, business cards and email signature so it shows on all business related e-mail messages and replies.
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Connect With Your Friends and Professional Associates on LinkedIn: You can adjust your settings section that will make your connections visible to only you.
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Stay in Front of Your Network: A little consistent communication on LinkedIn will go a VERY long way towards increasing trust, and therefore increasing your business on LinkedIn. Share content that is relevant to your L audience, so no personal updates or piano-playing cats.
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Use LinkedIn Hashtag Communities: Hashtag Communities are similar to those on Instagram. They allow you to follow, share and engage on strategic hashtags. You cannot create your own Hashtag Community, there are plenty of relevant Hashtag Communities that you can discover and follow. Not only that - but LinkedIn will actually suggest Communities based on your past activity on LinkedIn.
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Add Multi-Media to Your LinkedIn Summary: Videos, PDFs, one-pagers, eBooks, images and infographics transform your LinkedIn profile from a resume to a resource. Multi-Media thumbnails add visual interest to your Summary and are a CTA to click and learn more.
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Use Your LinkedIn Privacy Settings: Set your Privacy Settings to control how others see your profile, activity, and data. You can also Block and Hide in your Privacy Settings.