How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and build a resume that puts your success in your hands. 

Millions of people are searching LinkedIn every day to find valuable information on people, performing research and background checks before hiring someone and also increasing their personal and business outreach.

For all of these reasons, you need to make sure you have a perfect LinkedIn profile page. It’s simply not enough to create an account on LinkedIn, adding your picture of yourself and then hoping for the best — no, not at all!
To help you with this process, we’ve listed 10 of the best ways for you to improve your LinkedIn profile page and stand out from the crowd right away.

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

The process of creating a great looking LinkedIn profile page can be broken down into different sections, such as the bio area, resume and connections sections. However, it’s not just how you create your page, but it’s also what you do with it once it’s live.

PHOTO

Your photo is the first thing someone is going to see when they visit your page. Make sure it’s a professional looking photo and definitely in high-quality. Also, be sure to use a photo that makes your face close and clearly visible.

HEADLINE

Your headline is a description of your position. This area should be catchy and keyword rich. Stay away from boring titles and headlines, as you are going to want to stand out from the crowd.

CONTACT INFO

Your contact information is always going to be important, especially because not everyone likes to use LinkedIn messages for contacting people. Within your contact info you should include your professional email address and any business related social media accounts and web sites.
If you haven’t already, make sure you use a personalized URL by clicking on the “Edit Profile” link and clicking on “Edit contact info”

STATUS UPDATES & STAYING ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN

Just like any social network, LinkedIn is all about status updates and providing value to the people you are connected with.

Update your profile daily with interesting content that is relevant to your audience. Don’t only promote your own content, but share various content that would be relevant to your audience, niche and business partners as well.

SUMMARY

The summary of your LinkedIn page is what people are going to read when they want to find out about you, your job and your history. In many ways, your LinkedIn profile represents your professional brand, telling others who you are, what skills you possess, and the accomplishments you’ve made in your professional life.

When writing your summary, be sure to use target keywords that allow your profile to be found when people are performing searches on LinkedIn. Also, write your content in first person and include your contact details to make it easy for anyone to get in touch with you.

EXPERTISE

Everyone is on LinkedIn because they are looking to conduct business, hire someone or connect with other individuals that can be of service to them.

The best way to represent yourself and what you’re good at is to post all of your previous and existing job experience.
While you can list the date range and title from your previous jobs, you should also go into detail on what your day to day tasks were and how you helped the company grow.

The better and more information you provide, the more likely someone will follow up with you.

PROJECTS

Along with the experience you are listing in your ‘expertise’ section, you also have the option to include other various projects that you worked on or are currently still working with.

This area would include any side projects that you could highlight during your work experience. This is also the perfect section for anyone who is in freelance work, as you can show a wide range of completed work.

AWARDS & RECOMMENDATIONS

The last section of your LinkedIn profile is made up of three different areas, which are endorsements, recommendations and groups.

Endorsements – Everyone wants to be recommended by someone and endorsements on LinkedIn are a quick and easy way to do this. The more endorsements you receive for your recommended skills, the better your profile will look and rank on LinkedIn.

Recommendations – Endorsements are easy to get, but recommendations require more time and work. To stand out from the crowd, try and have at least 2-5 recommendations on your profile page.

Groups – Expand your reach and exposure by joining different groups on LinkedIn that are related to your niche or job title. You can join up to 50 different groups, and by doing so you will future increase your chances of making new connections and getting the attention of others.

How Do You Look Online?

LinkedIn is just one of the major social networks that ranks at the top of the search results for individual and brand names…. however, what else might be ranking at the top that you don’t want others to see?

Knowing how to optimize your LinkedIn profile is a great way to get started, but there is a lot more that needs to be done to protect your good name and reputation online.

To learn more about what ranks for your name in the search results and how to protect your online reputation, feel free to contact InternetReputation.com at (888) 711-5576 or click here to set up a free consultation.