The importance of standing out through LinkedIn SEO
LinkedIn is a social network that belongs to Microsoft and has more than 600 million users around the world in 2020. This platform was founded in 2002 and has become the largest professional network in the world so its potential is huge for social selling.
With a visual and attractive profile on LinkedIn, you can make new contacts, clients, meet partners, find talents, investors which will help you grow professionally and develop your business with more resources.
What’s LinkedIn SEO?
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, that is, optimizing a page to improve its position within the search engine results and therefore, increase the traffic towards it.
When we perform SEO on LinkedIn, we aim to have our profile positioned as high as possible in the platform’s search results based on a certain requested keyword.
We will use techniques directed towards making our profile the most relevant for a given search according to the algorithm.
If you want your profile to stand out from the competition and attract visitors, we recommend implementing a set of SEO actions that will enhance your results.
Phases to position our profile on LinkedIn
1. Keyword Research
Why should we position keywords on LinkedIn?
As we mentioned above, with LinkedIn you can search for profiles and it has an algorithm that determines the order of appearance of each profile depending on the inquiry. Therefore, it is important to optimize your profile so that the algorithm understands that it is relevant to the keyword by which we want to position ourselves and shows us amongst the first results. This will attract recruiters, potential clients, or other people interested in your background to your LinkedIn profile.
How do we define the keyword for how we want to position ourselves?
The first step is to define the keywords that we want to position in our profile. Think about how your target audience would look for you and try to position yourself for that search term. There is a lot of competition on LinkedIn, so we recommend using specific “long-tail” keywords, and analyzing how much competition they have. A generic keyword like “Commercial” has much more competition than “Digital Marketing Business Analyst” for example.
2. Add the keyword in your LinkedIn profile
How many times should I add my keyword?
Once you have chosen your target keyword, you should try to replicate it about 20 times on your profile. To see how many times it appears in the profile, press Command + F or Ctrl + F and a search box will display. In that box, type your keyword and it will tell you how many times it appears.
How does the keyword positioning work on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn’s algorithm is not semantic like Google’s, it makes a literal search for the keyword used. This explains why the more you replicate the keyword throughout your profile, the more relevance the algorithm will give it , which will help you appear before the competition in the corresponding searches.
Can we be penalized for keyword stuffing on LinkedIn?
Keyword stuffing is a key positioning factor for our LinkedIn profile. You should repeat the keyword as much as you can on your profile. However, you must be coherent. If you do keyword stuffing on a website, Google can penalize you as it is a black hat seo technique. LinkedIn won’t do it, but if there is no consistency in your writing, your profile visits will leave as quickly as they arrived.
3. Optimize your introduction
How I present myself in an attractive way and SEO friendly?
Add the keyword chosen in the headline. In the “about” section, you should try to add the keyword as many times as possible. Bear in mind to whom you are addressing, your audience pain points and what your goal is. That is, in the first two lines of your introduction, we have to show how we can help our target audience to solve their problems. We have to encourage our prospective customers to keep reading our profile and connect with us.
4. Optimize your work experience
Why should we optimize our work experience on LinkedIn?
Your work experience is key to position the keyword that we want our profile to be found by. The algorithm gives much more importance to the keywords included in the title of the experiences than in the description. When you look for keywords in the search engine, your name, title, and your past or present experience in which the keyword is found will appear highlighted in bold.
What priority is given to each professional experience?
The algorithm will prioritize your current work experience much more, but that does not mean that you should neglect your past experiences. Rather, take advantage of both the titles and descriptions of all experiences to include your keywords by balancing keyword stuffing with consistency.
5. Edit your URLs profile
What is editing the URL of your LinkedIn profile for?
LinkedIn automatically assigns a set of numbers that represent your profile’s URL. Take advantage and modify it to include your first and last name, that way when Google finds your name, your LinkedIn profile will appear in the first results. Also, make sure that you include a generic keyword that represents you. Remember that the URL can only be edited from a computer after entering your profile. On the top right corner you will find the button that lets you customize it.
6. Content strategy
What type of content is recommended?
Content is a very important pillar of SEO positioning. Good content marketing is the key that will make your profile visible. Once you have a large network of contacts, it is essential to generate relevant and attractive content that solves problems, informs or educates.
You can use the engagement of your content as a KPI to know if you are on the right track.
Why increase the visibility of my profile?
Similar to how SEO link building can work for websites, “shares” are a great source of redirecting traffic to your profile. Your publication will be visible to the contacts of the users who recommend, comment or share it and that will trigger visits to your profile. The more interaction your post has, the algorithm will judge it as relevant and show it more often.
Also, make comments smartly and add value to your posts in order to increase your visibility and connections. Don’t be shy about sharing experiences, opinions or asking questions to your contacts.
Conclusion
SEO on LinkedIn is not a difficult process, but you must be methodical and strategic. You should start by doing keyword research to determine which one you want to be ranked by. Then, you must repeat it throughout your profile: headline, presentation, experiences, URLs… Finally, sharing quality, relevant and engaging content will skyrocket the number of visits to your profile and your business opportunities.
Hey Sara,
It’s a great article on LinkedIn SEO. I will incorporate these techniques to make my Linkedin profile SEO friendly. Keep posting good ones