8 Tips for Navigating LinkedIn SEO

You might already have a LinkedIn profile that you use to connect with other professionals, but do you have a LinkedIn page for your business? And if you do, is that page SEO-optimized so that it can be found?

LinkedIn can be a great way to help your business gain visibility, but only if you’ve taken the time to ensure that your profile and business page are fully optimized. Whether it’s LinkedIn or Google, understanding search engine optimization (SEO) can help you to get noticed by search engines and people who are searching for you.

Don’t waste your time with a platform that’s not optimized. If you already have a LinkedIn profile and business page, that’s great! In this article, we’ll be looking at SEO tips specifically for LinkedIn that can help you to be found. And if you don’t have a LinkedIn account yet, I’ll quickly delve into why you might want to consider setting one up. 

Let’s dive in now!

Getting Noticed Organically

SEO, it’s not just for Google anymore. SEO matters on social media platforms, and that includes LinkedIn as well. It’s important because it will help your content get noticed and shown in searches, improving your organic reach. Organic reach is when content reaches an audience without any paid promotion. 

While we don’t know how exactly the LinkedIn algorithm works, there are some guesses. It may prioritize content from people you’ve engaged with in the past, content from users with a large amount of engagement from others, regularly posting, and more.

The more knowledgeable you are with the SEO basics, the better the chances that your content will be visible to people who search for topics, products, or services your business provides. 

With a LinkedIn page, you can connect with prospective customers and give them an opportunity outside your website to get to know your brand, interact with your employees, and read engaging content. Plus, it’s free, so why not give it a try?

The Benefits of Using LinkedIn

First up, should you always use a LinkedIn page for your business? In most cases, yes, but there are a few exceptions. LinkedIn has provided a few guidelines to help you decide if a LinkedIn page is right for you. For example, if you’re the sole proprietor and the face of your business, you’re better focusing on your personal page and growing your connections this way. 

If you have a business though and are looking to grow your brand, then it would make sense to start a LinkedIn account. And if you’re ready to set up a LinkedIn page for your business, there’s an easy guide to help you with that as well.

But why go through all this hassle? Is it worth it? In short, yes.

LinkedIn is about 20 years old now, and while it may not be the largest social media platform, it’s an extremely targeted platform; a valuable tool for reaching business professionals and ideal for B2B marketing. It’s also grown in leaps and bounds in recent years in terms of advertising opportunities as well. 

LinkedIn has become more than just a place to post jobs and connect with colleagues – it’s a place for professionals to learn more about what’s happening in their industries and offers some pretty good opportunities for businesses to be found by customers as well.

With this in mind, here are eight ways you can optimize your LinkedIn profile or page so that you can get noticed on this platform.

8 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile or Page

Find the Right Keywords

Sharing articles on LinkedIn can be a great way to get noticed. Both within the platform itself, and via traffic from Google. Google indexes LinkedIn articles, but here’s another exciting update: rumor has it that soon Google will start indexing individual profile updates on LinkedIn as well. That’s big news if you just post updates, or don’t have time to do long-form content on the platform.

Using the right keywords for your business will help your page or profile show up in search results. 

Jessica Foster shares a great strategy for finding keywords that your audience is looking for in her article on Search Engine Land. She suggests optimizing your profile with both SEO keywords and LinkedIn SEO keywords. Keep in mind that sometimes what your audience is searching for on LinkedIn isn’t necessarily the same thing that they’d type into Google.

Most people don’t treat LinkedIn like a search engine and therefore the queries look differently as well. In order to discover keywords that potential customers might look for, think about what your business is offering, and try searching for your industry on LinkedIn to see what might come up. Try to think about the shortest, broadest description of what you have to offer and go from there. 

Once you’ve found your keywords, try including the most relevant keywords in your company description, tagline, or specialties. 

Use Keywords in the Headline

For LinkedIn pages, right under your name or business name, there’s the opportunity to write a short sentence on what your business is about; make sure to take full advantage of it! 

Write, in as few words as possible, who you are, what you do, and who your business caters to. Or, if it’s a personal page, incorporate your keywords like this: Analytics|Marketing Consultant|Freelancer |Keynote Speaker.

Many businesses write a catchy tagline, yet by doing so, they miss the chance to add precious SEO-friendly keywords. Below is an example of this by Beardbrand – catchy headline, no keywords. 

(Source: Beardbrand LinkedIn)

What does the company do? How can it help you (tangibly)? In terms of headlines alone, this might not get picked up by LinkedIn or Google’s search engine if someone was searching for a beard oil company to follow and work with.

Comparatively, The Neilson Group hits the nail on the head by adding core keywords to their headline. The company showcases what they do – coaching and talent performance, for its core target group of people working within organizations.  

(Source: The Neilson Group LinkedIn)

According to Josh Lee, “The dopamine dealer of LinkedIn” and founder and CEO of StandOutAuthority.com, one easy way to create excellent headlines is with XYZ statement headline method. Here’s how it works: 

“We lay it out as I help X to do Y so they can have/achieve Z,” he explains. “X is your ideal avatar, Y is the service you provide but Z is what most people miss, and that’s the outcome of someone working with you. The real reason why they buy your product or service, that emotional tie. Having this type of headline always you to truly stand out on LinkedIn.” 

Josh and his team put together this tool to help people build the perfect headline for LinkedIn. It’s worth checking it out and giving it a try!

Flesh Out Your About Section

You have the keywords, a short but information-packed tagline, and now it’s time to fill out your about section.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your personal or business page, think of the about section as a way to showcase who you or your company is creatively and compellingly; forget about the standard resume format that once used to dominate LinkedIn. 

You want this section to be a mix of engaging text that speaks and holds your audience’s attention, yet filled with the appropriate keywords that will help the algorithm lead your audience to you.

If it’s your personal page, use this content real estate to include great text with SEO keywords by highlighting your key takeaways working for each company and the results you managed to get. Make sure your text reads authentically and smoothly, and LinkedIn advises to use multiple keywords instead of the same ones over and over.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags on LinkedIn are a relatively recent feature, only added to the social media platform in 2018. However, it works similarly to how they do on other social media platforms – to categorize the content. 

(Source: LinkedIn)

LinkedIn published a helpful best practice guide on hashtags and recommends using them to establish credibility and expertise, reach people who value your insights and connect and start meaningful conversations with those who share similar interests. Plus, people can follow hashtags, and content tagged with them will show up on their feed.

(Source: LinkedIn Help)

By using hashtags, other LinkedIn professionals who may not be connected to you can find your content, particularly because LinkedIn searches tend to be skewed, as they will show search results based on the relevancy or degree of connection a person may have to you. 

LinkedIn’s best practice guide seems to recommend using three hashtags, and while some users report that adding more doesn’t seem to ignore the hashtags that have been used, we want to ensure the LinkedIn algorithm favors your posts, so it’s best to stick with what LinkedIn recommends.

Update Your Profile Regularly

If you created your profile but left it sitting to gather dust, it’s time to get to work. The LinkedIn (and Google’s) algorithm rewards active profiles, so consider having regular updates to your profile.

This is because the refresh gets indexed, and this tells the algorithm your profile or page is active and contains valuable information. Plus, it keeps your audience engaged with new and regular content.

For a personal profile, follow interesting groups, share information, and write blog posts. company pages that post at least weekly see twice as much engagement with their content. And the more people that visit and engage with your content, the more the algorithm sees your page as valuable and will place it in better rankings.

So whether you have a business or personal page (or both), make sure you publish at least once a week to generate more traffic to your profile and start making those valuable connections.

Include a Photo and Cover Photo

While the profile and cover photos themselves may not be crawlable by the LinkedIn search engine, it does tell LinkedIn that your profile is complete, and complete profiles receive up to 30% more weekly views than those that aren’t.

If you have a LinkedIn page, make sure you upload your logo. If you don’t have one, you can use Canva to create one for free. Your photo should be a clear, high-quality headshot for your personal profile, with LinkedIn recommending that your face should take about 60% of the frame. 

If it’s your business page, think about updating it for different occasions or promotions. For your personal profile, inject a bit of your personality and, depending on the tone you want to give, use the cover photo to highlight hobbies, charity work, your service (for example, if you are a personal stylist), or products. 

Here are some examples of how cover photos make the profile pop and showcase who the person is or what the company is involved in.

(Source: onHand LinkedIn)

(Source: Claudia Marcocci LinkedIn)

(Source: Steve Gibbons LinkedIn)

Personalize Your LinkedIn URL

Have you claimed your free, short URL on LinkedIn yet? Personalizing your LinkedIn URL is another chance to improve your SEO. If you already have a list of keywords narrowed down, incorporate your name and one of those keywords that you feel represents you most. Plus, it will be easier to share and for people to remember you by. 

Start Posting Video

Video is an excellent way to boost your LinkedIn SEO, and get your page more publicity. LinkedIn is known to boost video content over text content in their algorithm, but of course, not every video makes the cut.

Your video needs to provide content that people find relevant and interact with, that encourages people to share to their own feeds, and, of course, content that is produced with high quality. Your content doesn’t need to go viral for LinkedIn to share it, but it does need to serve a purpose.

Wyzowl shares tips on how you can use video to help boost you in LinkedIn’s algorithm.

• Tell the story of your business

• Promote your products
• Make a video blog
• Keep your video short and optimized for mobile
• Make it professional and link it back to your business page

Neil Patel is convinced that LinkedIn video is a great way to not only promote your business but convince people to work with you and buy from you. It helps the right market better understand your business and products.

And there you have it, my top eight tips on how to navigate LinkedIn’s algorithm and start implementing SEO tricks to help your LinkedIn profile or page to get seen. And while my tips can give you a head start, always ensure you stay up-to-date with any LinkedIn SEO rules so that your content will have the reach and impact you want for yourself or your business. 

Finally, while LinkedIn might seem like the less exciting of the social media platforms to use, don’t underestimate its rewards. The more people you connect with and who follow you, the higher your chances of finding fantastic business opportunities, and new customers too.

Are you wondering how you can take your business to the next level? Don’t hesitate – schedule a free 20-minute call, and let’s chat about what your next steps can look like.