Getting Known: Optimizing your LinkedIn Profile for Maximum Exposure

LinkedIn has become an indispensable tool for today’s professionals. For many people, it’s their digital fingerprint in the vast world of online business networking. It has all the features necessary to market your skills and credentials, expand your network, and assess the current trends in your field and profession. With over 700 million members and 55 million registered companies, surely it’s easy to go out there and get some exposure, right? Right?

The truth is, LinkedIn is just like any other social media platform. Its search engine prioritizes some profiles over others by scanning for specific terms, keywords, and other variables. Right off the bat, exposure isn’t given equally. Some profiles will naturally rank higher than others in LinkedIn’s search results and newsfeeds. That’s exactly why optimizing your profile is essential. If you want potential clients or hiring officials to earmark your profile, then you’re going to need to know the right optimization techniques and strategies to do so. Here’s how to tune your LinkedIn profile for high coverage:

Understand Your Profile’s Purpose

First of all, you need to know why you are writing your LinkedIn profile in the first place. Are you writing your profile because you want to land a job with a prospective client? Or are you writing a profile because you’re looking to make a sale or reinforce your company’s branding? Knowing your profile’s purpose sets a beacon for you to follow, as it will guide you in the right words to use, the right information to highlight, and much more. These will help in garnering endorsements and optimizing your profile.

Once you understand your goals, it will become so much more easy and motivating to write and edit your profile.

Mind the Audience

Remember, optimization is more than just about punching in the right words to get the most views. Because of LinkedIn’s endorsement system, you will have to craft a profile that works not only for the algorithm but for the people visiting your profile. Remember, getting endorsements helps with optimization! Often your endorsers will be in the same field or profession as you. Hence, you will need to study your audience and know the proper words, skills, and information they’re after. Here are a few tips to know:

1. Take a look at highly ranked profiles in your field. See what they highlight, how they format their profile, and what words they commonly use.

2. Study the job postings of companies in your desired field or profession. They will likely share specific key-words or skills that they will remember when browsing LinkedIn.

3. Endorse others. There is always a chance they will endorse you back. Moreover, by endorsing others, not only are you enhancing your visibility, but you are also cultivating your network!

Polish Your Profile Picture

For most of your actions in LinkedIn, your profile picture (and headline) will be visible. This means that you absolutely should choose a picture that is presentable. Preferably, your picture should maximize the allotted space given by LinkedIn for profile pictures. When appropriate, it can also show you doing an activity relevant to your work or given experience. What is essential is that there are no distractions or other irrelevant elements in your picture. You want it to be as professional and memorable for both your endorsers and for any company that might be browsing for their next candidate.

Reword and Keyword Your Headline

Like your profile picture, your headline will be visible in most of the activities you do in LinkedIn and so you would want it to be as interesting and straightforward as possible. At the same time, LinkedIn’s search engine will also scan your headline for relevant key-words. The more key-words you have, the higher your profile’s ranking in the website’s search results. To know the key-words, search for job postings in your desired field and find out which terms and skills they use most frequently, or you can simply Google search the key-words! You can then include these in your headline.

However, unlike most SEO strategies, you will also need to make your headline readable. Bombarding your headline with key-words might put off potential endorsers. Intersperse keywords in your headline while making it look presentable by:

1. Highlighting information from left to right. Your headline should begin with the most important things to know about you, such as your position and your key skills or experiences.

2. Separating each complete word and phrase in your headline by divisions such as the vertical bar (“|”) or other simple symbols.

3. Including a strong call to action, such as “Come to me for fast and affordable service” or “Contact me for an impressive portfolio.”

4. Refraining from long sentences. Long sentences can put off your readers and can also waste character as the headline only has 220 character limit. Endeavor to use strong and to-the-point phrases instead.

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Write a Moving About Section

Your About section is both a summary and introduction about yourself and your experiences. It is a taste of who you are as a person and as a professional, and a good About section is the difference between a capable professional and an impressive capable professional.

A good LinkedIn profile includes a very readable About section with concise language and a definite list of your achievements. A well-written About section can also attract endorsements. An effective About section should include:

1. A well-rounded introduction of yourself. This means a little bit of your personal background and your professional background. Try to keep it brief but illustrative about who you are and what you do. More words doesn’t necessarily mean better optimization.

2. A snapshot of your accomplishments.  A concise, bulleted list of your accomplishments and experiences helps hit key-words and allows people to quickly assess your achievements. You can also include the services you offer in this list. Try to make your accomplishments as quantifiable as possible and include direct references to your Featured section when necessary.

3. Contact information. Be very sure to include some way to contact you from your profile. This can include a work number or an e-mail included at the end of the section.

Be Straightforward with Your Work Experience

Writing the work experience section of a LinkedIn profile can be very similar to writing the experiences section of a résumé. But be careful, they are not identical at all, and optimization strategies for writing résumés do not translate to a LinkedIn profile. To optimize your work experiences section, you should:

1. Be specific. Whenever you are prompted to include a specific detail (like your company name), be sure to include it. This goes for your position, your responsibilities, and your achievements. Use the exact name of your position and quantify your achievements as much as possible.

2. Refrain from tailoring. The work experiences section is a generalized list, not a tailored one. This means that you are not writing the section with a specific company in mind. Focus on highlighting your relevant achievements per work experience, and using terms familiar to everyone in the industry. These general terms will also serve as optimizing key-words.

3. Be concise. Prioritize your most impressive and relevant achievements. Do not saturate your experiences with too many lines. Remember, you are not just optimizing the profile for key-words, but making it readable for users who many endorse you.

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While these tips can help you attain more exposure, always remember that experience will speak louder for you. Whenever you can, include your most relevant experiences in your features section, and cleanly list your key skills in your about section. A profile with more relevant content will naturally be optimized for the search engine and it will certainly attract endorsers.

However, if you feel too pressed for time to optimize your profile, then don’t worry. Our team of professional writers and experienced hiring officials will help you transform your profile and more. With over hundreds satisfied clients internationally, we provide affordable, high quality, and punctual services concerning resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile writing and SEO optimization! To begin your journey with us, feel free to come to our website, tailoredresume.com.