SEO for your LinkedIn profile - 7 tips to make your personal profile more findable

By doing that every week, my profile was viewed more often, I got more connection requests, more offers from recruiters and I brought in multiple leads.

But it's not just posting content that can help you get found better. No, you can make a few easy adjustments to your profile yourself that often have an immediate effect.

Actually, LinkedIn works almost the same as search engine optimization and so I will give you some tips you can use to increase your findability on LinkedIn yourself.

Tip 1: Make sure you have a unique URL

Within LinkedIn, it is possible to claim your own URL. This looks like this:

When I wanted to claim my own URL, I saw until that /danielkuipers was already in use. But apparently within LinkedIn, you can also use commas within your URL.

Of course, in addition to your name, you can also include the keyword you would like to be found on in the URL. This can ensure that you are found even better (also in Google!).

Customizing your own LinkedIn URL is done as follows:

1. Go to your own profile on LinkedIn
2. Right click on public profile and edit URL
3. Then adjust your URL on the right (See photo below)

Tip 2: Incorporate keyword in the Header

Think of the header within LinkedIn as the H1 on your website. As the title, that is.

Your all-important keyword, of course, is what you want to include here.

This doesn't have to be one term; feel free to use multiple terms to get found even better. If you look at my header, you will see that I use the following keywords: online marketer, SEO, SEA and social media and affiliate marketing.

Tip 3: Optimize your Summary

To make the comparison with SEO again: the summary of your LinkedIn profile can be seen as the meta description of your website. Within a few lines, you want to persuade the visitor to your profile to read more about you or to contact you.

When optimizing your summary, a few things are important:

1. Get to the point in the first few lines.
2. Always include a call-to-action. For example: contact me.
3. Again, use the search terms you want to be found on.
4. Tell something here about what you do (with passion) or what you have to offer the reader.

On LinkedIn, I see that many people choose to have a very long summary. While this gives you more room to play with the keywords, it is not necessarily necessary.

As you can see, my summary is very short. I like that and that's what suits me.

Tip 4: Complete your Experiences.

Experiences within LinkedIn also have a lot of value. Not only for your visitors, but also for the algorithm LinkedIn uses.

You could think of them as landing pages. You can give each experience its own title (header), its own keywords (description) and its own content (documents, images, etc.).

So again, play with the keywords here, use synonyms and semantically related terms. It's okay to write some content here, also because you are adding to the experience for any clients, recruiters, or potential employers!

Tip 5: Optimize the name of your images

You can also optimize the images and documents you upload to LinkedIn. Consider your profile and header picture, for example.

You optimize these by naming them with the keyword you want to be found on. This is because the name of the photo or image becomes the alt text, which in turn is an important part for search engines.

So always make sure that the keyword you want to be found on is used in the name of the image.

Tip 6: Ask for recommendations

Earlier, in the blog The Principles of Cialdini and How to Employ Them on Your Website , I outlined how to persuade visitors on your website.

You can apply these ways of persuasion to your LinkedIn profile as well. When you have a number of recommendations on your LinkedIn profile it creates social proof power.

People have more confidence in (popular) things. Things that are touted by others.

Feel free to ask for a recommendation when you work or have worked somewhere and get yourself recommended!

Tip 7: Complete your LinkedIn profile

In addition to experiences, a summary and a header, you can add more content to LinkedIn. Examples include degrees, skills, certifications an e-mail address and a phone number.

This makes your page have more SEO value, because your page simply contains more content. So, greater chance that your visitors will find what they are looking for.

Bonus tip

Within LinkedIn it is also possible to add your profile in multiple languages. For example, if you want to tap the market in Germany, chase your dream by moving to China or have that American party as a customer this can be very handy.

Searchers from those countries will then find your profile if they search on German, Chinese or English terms related to your work. Even if you have no international ambitions, it can be useful. In fact, it is also just another way to add additional keywords on which you want to be found.

This article was written on July 4, 2018 and updated on August 27, 2021.