Linkedin Profile Optimization

Top 15 Tips for LinkedIn Profile Optimization

Optimizing your LinkedIn profile involves several important steps to ensure that you present yourself professionally and effectively.

I will give you my top 15 tips for LinkedIn profile optimization, which are from my experience as a user who has managed to get 10k supply chain followers.

I will explain how I have used LinkedIn's key features to improve your visibility, credibility, and appeal to recruiters or companies you want to collaborate with.

Let's get started...

1. Create a Custom LinkedIn Profile URL

First and foremost, as much as this needs to be thorough, don’t just write anything, customize your personal profile.

By creating a customized LinkedIn profile URL, you will increase the searchability of your profile. How? Well, when someone searches for you in Google, not only will this bring up your first name and surname, but also the URL link to your profile page – you may have a popular name, so to ensure it’s your profile viewed, your custom link will take them directly to your page. There will be no mistaking in whose profile they want to find.

Adding a URL also ranks higher with Google search therefore increasing your visibility and chances of a call back by as much as 71%

2. Make sure you have configured your LinkedIn Privacy Settings Correctly

An all-too-often oversight is not realising who is able to view your profile particularly when you update.

Configure your private settings so that visibility is set to ensure your current, previous and future employers don’t see recent notifications of any updates you have made it.

3. Configure LinkedIn's 'Open to Network' settings

Let recruiters and hiring managers know you are open to new career opportunities.

Quite simply click on ‘Open To’ then ‘Finding a New Job’. A new window opens allowing you to input information of the exact role you are searching for.

Some information to include:

1. All the job titles that relate to your expertise and experience
2. Select whether you are looking for a full-time/part-time or casual work position.
3. Specify the locality of where you would prefer to work
4. Update the privacy to ensure that only recruiters see the profile, simply click on ‘Change Who Sees You’re Open’ and select ‘Recruiters only’. Once done, click on ‘Add to Profile’

4. Upload a Suitable LinkedIn Profile Picture

Again, the emphasis here is suitable. For a site that is aimed at the professional you, the best picture is one is a headshot. The stats for including a profile picture speak for themselves: On average a profile picture increases views to your page by as much as 21 times as well as increasing chances of being contacted by up to 36 times and a professional headshot will receive a further 14 times more views.

You don’t have to go to a studio for the perfect professional headshot, just find a suitable picture with a plain background. Simple!

5. Upload a Suitable LinkedIn banner or Cover photo

Think about the story you want to tell and get creative with telling it. ?You can share it as your personal statement or a statement that reflects on a skill or ability.

Of course, you can upload the one you have done, but for anyone new to this, simply log onto Canva.com and search ‘LinkedIn Banner’ to give you ideas of the elements, style and text that will set you apart. To set the banner/cover photo in the background, simply select the photo icon within your profile picture and upload it. Key step in LinkedIn Profile Optimization.

6. Optimise your LinkedIn Introduction Section

Make sure you include a headline and location settings. Within the headline include your key traits and educational background with the keywords (not too many) that will increase your rank in searching. Always search for similar profiles to see who comes up and what traits they are including that are ranking them first.

7.? ? Write the Perfect LinkedIn ‘About’ Section

So, your Introduction, banner and header are done, let’s influence your searchability further by creating the perfect About section.

First and foremost, make sure it is short and to the point encapsulating who you are and what you have to offer – including the relevant life skills, accomplishments and your chosen industry keywords but not too many. Your chosen keywords must have context and meaning, don’t create a word salad, it’s very off-putting – we all know it when we read it!

Additionally, too many buzzwords are picked up by search engines and can have adverse effects.

An ideal length is having a line or 2 and a line that is a closing statement that triggers them to want to respond by connecting or messaging you

If you are choosing to change career paths, include your reasons for the change and the transferable skills you possess that make it a logical step.

8.?Use LinkedIn’s ‘Featured’ Section in

Here you can add posts/articles/media/links to work samples, studies or presentations that you have done or links to videos you have created. Posts are limited so provide more of a snapshot whereas articles allow for longer content to be uploaded.

Simply go into ‘Add Section’ scroll to ‘Featured’ and then you are presented with the 4 options: Post, Article, Media and Links

If you have more than 2 posts, prioritize the first 2 as they will be on the front page.

9. Optimize LinkedIn’s ‘Work Experience’ Section

Make your work experience description stand out – as with the About section, succinct is the name of the game here. In the description provide just an overview of no more than 2 to 3 lines and list some of your outcomes and achievements. This brings impact and purpose to your work experience and should be enough to prompt recruiters to get in touch.

Make text more dynamic by using action verbs at the beginning of sentences. In your outcomes use quantifiable metrics and you can add a pdf or PowerPoint via the link button to add supportive evidence of the achievement.

10.?Optimise LinkedIn Skills Section

There is a maximum of 50 skills that can be added here so prioritize strategically the skills of the role you are currently applying for.

On average, adding 5 or more skills increases the chances of receiving a message from recruiters by almost 33% and increases views by more than 77%.

Here are the examples of LinkedIn skills I got an endorsement.

11.?Further Optimise your About Me Section

Have you done some courses or interesting projects? add them in! Go into the Add Section and scroll down to Skills and Accomplishments and select the Course or Project option to enter these details.

It’s all there, you just need to put the information in the correct section for it to highlight on your profile page as you want recruiters to see it.

12. Get Skill Endorsements

Skills and qualifications are great, particularly during the searching process for recruiters – but to really enhance their credibility, get them endorsed by your LinkedIn connections. It’s the perfect acknowledgment of actually achieving the skills you are saying you have.

Create a mutually beneficial environment of endorsing skills with your connections and send a direct message showing genuine interest in their work as this will prompt them to endorse you back.

13. Get Recommendations

Similar to endorsement – give recommendations to receive recommendations.

This is a wonderful way to recognize the work done and an acknowledgment that your work has impacted positively in the workplace.

The effort of writing a recommendation speaks volumes to a recruiter. They can also see someone is willing to put their name behind you. This is a must for me to get to active Linkedin Profile Optimization.

14.?Connect and Engage

Search for people that have a connection with you – Alumni and former company searches are very effective for finding connections

Click on those with similar interests or in a similar role and send them a message building on the new connection. It is the ideal way to network and get that all-important foot in the door or have your resume forwarded by them to the relevant person within that company.

A resume coming via a recommendation is a sure-fire way to at least get an interview or meeting.

Be patient and wait for them to make the step of recommendation, there may be mutual benefit for them too with them by way of a commission.

15. Optimise the Summary

Do not leave the summary blank!

Studies show the first 300 characters stay in the mind of the reader so make it attention-grabbing. So, make sure the introduction to your summary is strong with an appropriate number of keywords, your ambitions and goals and what drives you.

Conclusion

The theme of this article has been to utilize, optimize and be succinct and provide you top tips for LinkedIn profile optimization. It you apply these rules when writing with the top tips, it will give you an all-star status on LinkedIn which has the added benefits of:

• Being 40 times more likely to be contacted by recruiters therefore 40 times more job opportunities
• 18 times more visible in the search