I’ve been an avid user of LinkedIn for over a decade now. Being a full-time Talent Sourcer I’m often on LinkedIn for at least 5-6 hours per day networking, researching, and prospecting for new applicants. My fiancé jokes with me about how much time I actually spend on this site. I know what works and what doesn’t on LinkedIn. I call it my “LinkedIn Intuition” I can tell which profiles stand out and which ones do not. Being active on LinkedIn and having an optimized profile will help you to land your next dream job.
I’ve read articles on SEO optimizing your profile, but not from someone with a recruitment background like mine. I will give an insiders perspective on optimizing and ranking your profile on LinkedIn. Below are 15 ways to completely optimize your profile on LinkedIn.
1. Quality Headshot
Recruiters like to see a professional photo on your profile. You need to create a personal brand that helps people can connect a name with a face. Recruiters will sometimes avoid profiles that don’t have a photo. I recommend using the same photo on other professional sites like About.me or Twitter.
2. Adding Contact Information
Make it easy for recruiters to reach out to you. Add your personal email and cell phone to your profile. If you don’t feel comfortable giving out your cell phone — create one using Google Voice instead. This allows you easily screen potential calls and get summarized voicemails sent right to your Gmail.
3. Adding a Location
The location field is very important on a profile. You can restrict yourself from appearing in searches by not correctly adding the right location diameters. The best solution to this is to simply include your Zip or Postal code in your profile. I also recommend including (Greater Minneapolis-St Paul Area) under your experiences. You can include a zip and (Greater) in both areas to cover all your bases.
4. Customized URL
You can customize and create your own personal URL on LinkedIn. Simply go to the settings to customize this feature. I recommend using your full name. When people Google your name, your LinkedIn profile will rank on the first page of results on most search engines. For example, my profile URL is linkedin.com/in/jonathankidder.
5. Adding Links to your Profile
You can add additional anchor text links in your contact me area. I recommend personalizing each link. For example, Jonathan Kidder Resume and add a hyperlink to your resume. This allows for additional links to be connected to your profile. Thus more opportunities to have your links get ranked by Google as well.
6. Promoting URL Link
After you’ve customized your LinkedIn URL link, use that link to promote yourself in email signatures, Twitter, About.me, websites, or even on Facebook. The more areas you can promote your personal brand the better.
7. Summary Section
In my summary section, I include a quick summary of my experience and I highlight small successes throughout my career. I make sure to highlight target job titles and keywords that I want other users to search for. I also highlight different projects that I’m working on. Overall, try to use the entire space to summarize your background.
8. Research Keywords
Use Indeed job trends to research trending keywords based on different job titles. This one’s a secret gem – use this to discover additional skill sets or keywords to add to your profile. It’s similar to Google’s keyword planner tool – just like how SEO professional research for trending keywords use job trends to figure out which keyword skill-sets are gaining popularity in your niche fields. I also recommend using job descriptions to find additional skills sets that you may have overlooked.
9. Use Bullet Points
Instead of just copying and pasting a job description in your experience summaries, try to use bullet points to highlight individual things that you’ve worked on. Use different keywords to describe the same skill set like PMP, Project Management, or IT Project Manager. Play around with the keywords but do not repeat keywords. I do however like to add additional keywords that highlight what I’ve worked on at that company.
10. Adding Endorsements
Use this feature to focus on your target keywords list. Use the keywords that you’ve researched off Indeed Job Trends and add those endorsements. Even though this feature can get rather annoying, it does help boost your profile and search rankings.
11. Following Groups and Companies
Try to target different networking groups that connect to your field. Use this to connect and network with others in your niche field. Also, make sure to follow different companies that you would like to work for. Recruiters can see that you are a company follower in LinkedIn recruiter, so the odds of having them reach out to increase.
12. Selecting “Open to New Opportunities”
You can select “open to new opportunities” in your preferences. This is a private feature to let recruiters know that you are actively looking for new opportunities. Recruiters target these types of profiles first. Only use this if you are looking at finding a new opportunity.
13. Connecting
Build your own personal network! Make sure to include a personalized note for each person you send a connection request too. The more you can build out your network of 1st, 2nd, 3rd level connections the better you will rank in search requests. Also, make sure to connect with recruiters at companies that you want to work for. Make sure to include an introduction message in your connection request. Recruiters and Sourcers like to see active users online who network.
14. Privacy Feature
You can include a two-step verification to your profile. Considering how some websites have been hacked in the past few years, it would be smart to add this security feature. In order to login, you would need to type in a code that is sent over text message to your phone. You can add this in the settings section under security.
15. Request Recommendations
Try to actively request recommendations from your peers. This helps build your personal brand of accomplishments. Recruiters and Sourcers value seeing personal references. It will make your profile look more legit and professional. Consider having them use different buzzwords that you want to highlight i.e passionate, driven, creative etc.
Concluding Thoughts
Make sure your profile is accurate and fully completed. Do not distort or add keywords that are not true to your profile. By following my optimization tips you’ll profile will appear higher in search rankings and hopefully land a job faster. The more proactive and prepared you can be in your career the better you will be in the future.
Am I missing any other suggestions? Let me know in the comment section below.
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