You’ve built your LinkedIn profile,
updated your work experience and education and you’re all set to launch
your job search, land new clients and/or grow your business. But how do you
stand out from LinkedIn’s 200 Million other members? How do you make sure that
people and opportunities can actually find you? It all comes down to knowing
more about the search algorithm and optimizing your LinkedIn profile
accordingly. Here are seven things you need to know about LinkedIn Search…
1. LinkedIn’s Search Algorithm likes connections and profile completeness.
When people search LinkedIn, the
results are, by default, sorted by “Relevance” – which is code for “LinkedIn’s
Proprietary Search Algorithm.” (Hat tip to Andy Headworth of Sirona Consulting
for summing
it up so beautifully.) “Relevance” sorts by the following criteria:
- 1st level connections with profiles that are 100% complete (or close to it) and have the most in-common connections / shared groups, ranked in descending order
- 1st level connections with the fewest in-common connections / shared groups, ranked in descending order by profile completeness
- 2nd level connections ranked in descending order by profile completeness
- 3nd level connections ranked in descending order by profile completeness
- Shared group members (outside of your network), ranked in descending order by profile completeness
- Everyone else (those outside your network), ranked in descending order by profile completeness
So what does this mean to you and
me? Because this is the default for search results and the vast majority of
people aren’t even aware that they can change it, it’s extra important to a) be
a 1st degree connection to as many people as possible (i.e., grow
that network!) and b) have a profile that’s 100% complete. This means
including a profile picture, a professional headline, your last two jobs, etc.
LinkedIn will walk you through the process and let you know once your profile
is 100% complete. Anything less than 100% completeness is not only hurting you
from a search ranking perspective, it’s also less-than-impressive to anyone who
happens to read your profile.
2. Keywords in certain sections rank higher.
A LinkedIn profile has many
different sections, but LinkedIn’s Search Algorithm likes some of them better
than others. Keywords in your Name, Headline, Company Name, Job Title and
Skills rank higher in the search results. This is why it’s so important to have
a 100% complete profile. If these key fields are blank or filled with generic
terms, then you fall to the bottom of the search rankings. Think about which
search terms are most important and relevant for your business / career and
then search LinkedIn for those keywords. If you don’t show up on the first page
of results, update these key sections (Headline, Job Title, Skills) to include
those relevant terms and then search again. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you
shoot up the ranks! (Side note: LinkedIn allows you to choose up to 50 Skills.
If you’ve selected anything less than 50, you’re putting yourself at a distinct
disadvantage. Why give your competition a free head-start in the race?)
3. Using all fields/options available to you will give you an extra advantage.
Like Skills, you can join up to 50
groups (not counting subgroups!), so take advantage of every opportunity
offered to you and use all 50 spots. You have 120 characters available to you
for your headline. Use as many of them as possible to create a descriptive,
interesting and keyword-rich headline that attracts lots of targets to view
your profile. You have 2000 characters for your summary… use them! There are
1000 characters available for your interests… the list goes on. Make full use
of the fields and sections available to you to paint a detailed picture,
reinforce your brand and make your profile really work for you!
4. Keywords in the “Advice for Contacting So-And-So” section don’t rank at all.
Sorry, but placing keywords in your
contact section does nothing since this section is excluded from LinkedIn
Search. Use this space to tell people the best way to reach you (hint:
definitely include a phone number and/or email address if you REALLY want to be
contacted… why hide? You don’t leave it off of your resume or business card, do
you?) and place those keywords elsewhere in your profile.
5. Using a variety of keywords that mean the same thing will help you be found.
Think about all of the different
ways of saying the same thing and be varied in your language when writing your
profile. Maybe you’re a recruiter… There are so many different ways of saying
the same thing: recruiter, recruiting, recruitment, sourcer, sourcing,
staffing, talent, search, headhunter, etc. If you’re not using a variety of
terms and keywords, then you may not show up in search results. Use these terms
throughout your LinkedIn profile in meaningful sentences… Do NOT just keyword stuff
them into your profile in one big run-on sentence of nothingness. Use them in
the correct context so that the terms are meaningful and won’t turn off your
audience once they arrive at your profile. A spammy profile, even if it turns
up at the top of search results, is never good for your personal or
professional brand.
6. Search Trends can show you the effectiveness of your search strategies.
LinkedIn allows you to see your
Search Trends - how many times you’ve shown up in search results and how
many people have viewed your profile over the past three months. (Click on
“Your Profile Has Been Viewed by x People” on your home page and look at the
chart in the top right corner.) Take advantage of this information to make
changes and monitor the results. Are you showing up a lot in search results but
not being viewed much? Maybe it’s time to update
that profile pic and/or professional headline to be more enticing (since
that’s what people see in the search results before deciding whether or not to
click on your profile to view it).
Make your profile interesting and
compelling to attract more viewers. Maybe you’re showing up in lots of search
results but you’re buried on Page 9 and that’s why people aren’t clicking on
your profile to view it. Grow your network and optimize your profile to improve
your results in both of these categories – search results AND profile views!
7. SEO benefits extend beyond LinkedIn.
An optimized LinkedIn profile can
have far-reaching effects. BrandYourself
recently analyzed 100,000 profiles and found that LinkedIn was the
social network MOST often appearing at the top of Google search results. This
means that opportunities (job offers, clients, business deals, etc.) could be
pouring in from both LinkedIn as well as external searches from the web. Make
sure that your profile is optimized to bring opportunities your way and to be
sure that your audience likes what they see when they get there!
The amount and type of data stored
by LinkedIn is mind-boggling when you really think about it and there are
infinite ways to slice it and dice it. Put yourself in the shoes of your
potential customer, client or future employer and search away… How do YOU look?
Can they even FIND you? Now you’ve got the knowledge to make those changes and
use LinkedIn’s powerful search tools to your full advantage!
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