How Important Is Your LinkedIn Profile to Your Visibility?

Are you posting content and engaging on LinkedIn but have a profile that is about as clear as mud about what you do, offer, and who it's for? Or is it still all about YOU?

The problem is that you are sending more mixed signals than a guy afraid of commitment because your profile and your content aren't matching up with your messaging. Yep, this is NOT where you want to be when making your visibility plan a success or for using LinkedIn to find and connect with ideal clients.

I can't tell you how many profiles I look at that are either written in the vaguest terms possible, not written to the ideal client, and are written as an about page. Yep, many people haven't gotten the memo that your profile is NOT an about page or the place to post your resume.

It's a landing page written in your brand voice that tells your dream clients exactly how you can help them, whom you help, how you do it, and why you. And if you want to get SEEN on LinkedIn, you MUST set up your profile to do the heavy lifting that it was meant to do.

So, how important is your LinkedIn profile to your visibility? And how much does it cost you in time, money, visibility, leads, and clients because you haven't set it up properly? That's what I'm here today to help you figure out, so let's dive in.

There are three ways that people find you and get to know you on LinkedIn, and ALL of them connect to your profile.

1. Search
2. Your content and engagement
3. Word of mouth recommendations from other people

Your profile is the key component that ties everything you do on LinkedIn together. It's like a central station for your visibility plan. Everything starts and ends there, no matter what track people take. Here's how:

• The search engine uses keywords and phrases from your profile to include you in searches where people are looking for what you have to offer.
• Your content and engagement display your headline and headshot on every piece of content you post or comment that you leave, allowing people to immediately click through to...your profile if they like what they see and want to know more.
• And finally, if someone gives you a word-of-mouth recommendation to someone, they will either give a link to your profile, or someone will look up your profile in the search using your name to find you.

Are you starting to see why NOT having your profile updated and looking spiffy is costing you time, money, visibility, leads, and clients?

I hope so because it is the vital component of your visibility plan if you're using LinkedIn as part of your visibility and marketing plan. And if it's not set up properly, you aren't getting near the results out of all your hard work. And it all starts with your headline.

Why Your LinkedIn Visibility Starts or Ends with Your Headline

Your headline is one of the most powerful components of your LinkedIn profile. Why? Because it's the first thing -coupled with your headshot - that people see of your profile, whether it's attached to a piece of content or engagement you posted or because it's at the top of your profile.

Just like the headline to any article or book or piece of content, if you don't grab the person right then, they are going to keep scrolling because there are a million and one people out there just like you, offering what you have to offer. No one is really all that unique, which means if your headline isn't right, you're already losing people before they clicked through to see the rest of your profile.

So many people have vague headlines. Here are a few examples pulled straight from LinkedIn (if you see your headline, please see the bottom for my offer to help):

• Founder + Chief Resilience Officer | Resilience Leadership
• Co-Founder, the v.a. chicks at the v.a. chicks
• Freelance Email Copywriter and Content Writer
• The busy entrepreneur's right-hand gal, helping service business owners make more money by recommending process efficiencies and outsourcing opportunities.
• SEO Copywriter & Content Marketing Writer (available for projects)
• Crackerjack Copywriter & Creative Brand-Builder
• Graphic Designer, Author / Blogger, Goat Wrangler, Pinterest Marketing Expert
• Here to write. If it goes viral, it's not because of me. It's because it's true.
• Meditator Guide Speaker Writer

What's wrong with all these headlines?

They don't speak directly to your ideal client (or employer - if you're looking for a job), telling them what it is that you offer, whom you offer it to, and how you can help. Many don't include the commonsense keywords and phrases people are using to find them, which leads us into SEO - search engine optimization - and keywords and phrases. Plus, a few of them tried to get 'cute.' And these are common sights all over LinkedIn. Are you one of them?

How To SEO Up Your LinkedIn Profile

I'm sure you know how important SEO is for your business's visibility with Google, Bing, Opera, Firefox, or any of the main browser search engines. But did you know that SEO is also important for your visibility on social media platforms?

Many don't realize that each social platform, including LinkedIn, also has a search engine with its own rules for optimizing for search. The SEO for them isn't as complicated as it is for the big search engines, but it's still just as important if you want to get SEEN on the platform.

LinkedIn uses keywords, phrases, and hashtags in its SEO, which is why you need to know how to use them properly and where so that people can find you using the search option. Hashtags aren't important for your profile, but they are for your content. Find out more about hashtags and how-to-use them in my article The Two Types of LinkedIn Visibility.

When someone searches for you, the LinkedIn search engine searches for the keywords and phrases the person used to match them with the keywords and phrases used in your profile. If it doesn't find them, you get excluded.

What keywords and phrases should you use?

The common-sense ones people use to find you and what type of service you offer. This isn't the place to get cute like you see so many people do - calling yourself the word slayer when people are looking for a copywriter.

I didn't want to call myself a coach because of some of the stigma attached to it, but guess what people are hunting for when it comes to my services? They are hunting for a coach, which is why you want to be thinking in terms of your customers when you are deciding what keywords and phrases to use. What are they using in the search box to find you? What words would you use in the search box to find someone like you if you needed your services? Those are the ones you want to use.

Where do you need to place these keywords and phrases in your profile?

The LinkedIn search engine searches the:

• Headline
• Location
• About summary
• Work history
• Schooling

Sections of your profile to see if you have any of the keywords and phrases entered the search box to see if you should be included in the search returns. Don't have what they are looking for in these sections; then you aren't getting SEEN. So, how do you know if it's all working?

Does Your Profile Speak to Your Ideal Client?

SEO is important for increasing your visibility, but you also MUST be speaking directly to your ideal client. Don't forget the human factor! If your profile looks like an about page or is beyond vague - IT'S NOT WORKING.

This prime piece of LinkedIn real estate should be set up as a landing page telling people exactly whom you help, what you offer, how you do it, and why you. Make it clear. Make it do the heavy lifting for you so that when people contact you, they already have a lot of answers. Save yourself some time and effort, which is also why you want to know if your efforts on your profile are working.

How Do I Know My Visibility Efforts Are Working?

One of the biggest ways to know if your visibility efforts are paying off is that you'll start having more leads and people both connecting and contacting you. That's the surest and best sign that things are working.

BUT LinkedIn also includes a dashboard on our profile that gives us some sights into the metrics of what is happening on our profile. The paid version has deeper ones, but the ones on the free profile are good enough to give us visual tells that our efforts and changes are working.

It's labeled Your Dashboard and is quite easy to find by scrolling down your profile whether you're on the computer or the phone. You'll find three metrics there:

• Who viewed your profile
• Post views
• Search appearances

We care about the top and the bottom one for determining if our profile is getting SEEN. Post views reset every time you put up a new post, plus they aren't the best metric to determine if your content is a success.

The number of people who viewed your profile is those who have looked at your profile over a 90-day period. If you click through on the number, you can see a graph showing your results. You want this graph and these numbers to be climbing. That means your profile is interesting enough that people are looking at it.

The second metric, search appearances, is how you determine if your keywords and phrases are working. It means first - that people are searching for you and what you do - and second, you are turning up in searches. Once again, the higher the numbers, the better here. If it doesn't look like these numbers are climbing, and you're doing something that isn't a tiny niche, it's time to make some adjustments.

I had a client see a 12% increase in profile views in just FIVE days after working with me to makeover his profile.

And yes, it can happen that fast for you as well.

The Featured Section IS All About You

Make sure you add and update the Featured section regularly. THIS is where people get to know you better. So, what do you add here?

I recommend including a small introduction video here, plus any place you've been featured, such as guest posting, in the news, as a podcast guest, on a Summit. It's also a suitable place to:

• Add pieces of content you want people to read that pertain to what you offer
• The transformation you help give
• What it's like working with you
• Helpful tips and tricks that allow your ideal clients to take easy action and get fast results.

Don't Forget Recommendations

One of the most overlooked sections on the LinkedIn profile is recommendations. While they aren't searchable, they are testimonials from people who have worked with you. They help build your authority and set you the trust factor that you aren't a sham or someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

One reason that LinkedIn recommendations are so trustworthy is they have left but someone else. You can't add them yourself. Yes, you can ask for an edit or someone to add a keyword or phrase that you want people to see in them or a small, guided nudge on what you would like included. But I recommend that you let people leave the recommendation mostly in their own words and thoughts.

Some people try to cheat the system and either pay people or do a recommendation exchange without having ever worked with the person to build their recommendations. This is NOT recommended. It hurts you rather than helps you because it's all about building trust. Lying to your potential customers right out the gate is not the way to do that. And usually, you can tell when someone didn't work with the person by reading the recommendation because it's not detailed or obvious in what the person did for the other.

And ALL That Is Why Your LinkedIn Profile Is Important for Your Visibility Plan

Having your LinkedIn profile set up properly is so important for getting SEEN on LinkedIn and your visibility strategy. Couple it with deliberate action for posting, engaging, and connecting and you have a winning formula for visibility.

Using all the tools in your tool kit efficiently is one of the easiest ways to save time while making more money. And skipping setting up your LinkedIn profile properly is a huge mistake because it does so much of the heavy lifting for you when helping people get to know you.

Want help turning your LinkedIn profile into a client attraction magnet? Sign up for my 30-day email course - Close Clients on LinkedIn. The entire first week is devoted to giving your profile a makeover that will have your ideal clients coming in faster than a woman to a 70% off sale on Louboutin shoes.