LinkedIn is certainly the biggest yet winning word-based social networking service connecting businesses and individuals into the workforce. With over 575 million users in total, LinkedIn has become the biggest hiring platform worldwide. Today, about 95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find top-tier talent for particular jobs.
Have you been trying to create a stunning LinkedIn profile to get noticed by high-grade recruiters? So, you’ve made a professional LinkedIn profile, how can you optimize it to rank higher in search results? Well, this is where SEO comes in handy. Follow this post and learn more about how you can skyrocket your LinkedIn profile rankings using SEO.
Create a Detailed Profile
The very first step to making your LinkedIn profile stand-out is to add in every piece of information you think can educate potential recruiters out there. Never exclude important information by cutting corners and list all details a recruiter will need to evaluate your profile. Think from the employers’ point of view and you’ll end up creating an authentic, to the point, and engaging profile.
Use Engaging Keywords
Are you a digital marketer, business consultant, or lawyer? Just like we use certain keywords or search terms for a website, you must use relevant keywords in your business profile. Using search queries like, “best business consultant”, “digital marketer near me”, or “experienced digital marketer” in your profile description will definitely make a difference.
Customize Your Profile URL
If you haven’t customized your profile’s URL yet, you are leaving huge loads of profile views for your competitors. Look at your profile URL, does it look appealing? A vague reference number in the URL doesn’t look much appealing both for profile visitors as well as search engine crawlers. Thereby, use relevant terms and your targeted keywords in the URL to make it look decent and professional. Your URL must showcase a clear message about your job description.
Promote Your LinkedIn Profile
It is recommended to keep promoting your LinkedIn profile on other social media channels. Networking your profile on other channels is certainly an effective way to connect with more people.
Keep following the people you are most likely to connect via LinkedIn. The more your network expands, the more likely your profile will rank higher in the search results.
Publish Posts
Whether you’re a business consultant, legal advisor, or a digital marketer, keep publishing the latest trends on your LinkedIn profile. Posting regularly will leave a positive impact on potential recruiters. It also shows that you’re completely up to date with new trends, news, and tactics to stand out.
Create Backlinks to Your Profile
If you’re aware of how digital marketing works, you can derive hundreds of potential recruiters to your profile just by following a simple backlinking strategy. Go to forums and Q/A websites, find relevant questions related to your expertise, answer them, and add a unique backlink to your profile. It increases the chances of getting noticed by a high-paying recruiter. Sounds good?
Following these steps, you can boost your LinkedIn profile and end up working at a huge firm. In case of further questions, feel free to leave a reply below.
Outranking the Competition
Now that we know some of the key tools that will help with LinkedIn optimization, now let’s dive deeper into what it all means. The purpose of LinkedIn is not just to be used as a platform to post your resume and walk away, the goal is to land the best career possible and to find the best people to fill those positions. With that said, LinkedIn should be viewed as more of an interactive platform rather than platforms such as CareerBuilder or Glassdoor.
If you are only posting resumes, how does that set you apart from the rest? Imagine for a minute how many resumes are similar in nature. Two members are being added to LinkedIn every second, so to outrank your competition the first step is to get noticed above all other applicants and this is where SEO comes into play.
Profile Fields
We have already discussed briefly the topic of creating a detailed profile, but what does that really mean? We know the profile needs to stand out… but how do we do that? We do that by applying SEO, we do that by using engaging keywords also discussed which will be done by keyword research. So, how do you boost your LinkedIn profile by using SEO?
Name Field
This is where LinkedIn will look first for keywords, so as stated, engaging keywords via keyword research is essential in boosting your LinkedIn profile. However: although 40 characters are allowed in the last name field, I would say stay away from overstuffing long phrases in that field. The last thing you want is to look unprofessional and be hard to find. Having too many characters may also cut off your information in the “People You May Know” section of LinkedIn.
Headline Field
The professional headline field is the second place the platform will look for keywords. While many users utilize this field to enter where the work as well as their job title… don’t if your goal is to be noticed. The reason is simple. There are thousands of users with the same job and job title as you so why bother to get lost among the competition?
To set yourself apart, use this field instead of just that… a headline. Using your keyword research, find the best phrase for what it is that you do. Are you a Structural Engineer? Being that the phrase structural engineer is highly searched with low keyword difficulty, any phrase using this term would surely get you noticed. An example would be,
- “Highly Experienced Structural Engineer That Approaches Every Project by Analyzation and Structural Requirements”
Experience
This field is also another very important field that is scanned by LinkedIn for keywords. The role that you play is undoubtedly important, for example, Co-President, Vice President, Owner, HR Director, but remember the goal. The goal is to get ranked and outrank your competition and to do this you must use target keywords and keyword phrases. An example of this would be where an HR Director is not highly searched, an HR Business Partner is and with low keyword difficulty. By replacing the director with a business partner, which is basically the same, will get you more exposure. The goal is to outshine and outrank and if you stick to some of these key points, your LinkedIn profile will soar ahead of the rest!
