Top 10 LinkedIn SEO Optimization Tips
It seem as entrepreneurs we are always waiting got be discovered! At different moments we want to be discovered by customers, key partners, media and investors. LinkedIN is the ONE social network that targets all those segments.
LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 313 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
One part of becoming a successful social seller is by making sure your profile is easily found online. People like to search for what they are looking for on Google. Finding you in their searches would be one of the best things you’d do for your LinkedIn profile.
In order to make yourself more visible on Google, you have to be friendly to both LinkedIn’s and Google’s search algorithms. In order to make sure that you stay relevant, you have to update your LinkedIn profile often.
Check out our 10 top tips for LinkedIn SEO Optimization:
1. Fill Out Your Profile Completely
It very important to make sure that your profile is complete, more so by using descriptive keywords. When your profile is complete, it will mean that there is even more information that can keep you relevant in Google searches. You should however use these keywords in a wise way so that they may not appear ‘forced’ or repetitive. That can make your profile a ‘putt off’ for potential clients. Use the tools provided by LinkedIn to fill out the various fields. Don’t however make your descriptions too long in a bid to increase the search content. They should just be long enough to cover what you do and short enough to stay interesting.
2. Choosing the Right Keywords
During a search, people are always looking for something specific. In order to optimize your profile, you have to think about what people would be searching for, on Google. These are the actual phrases that they might use when searching for products or services in your field.
For example, if you sell workforce management software to companies, you might consider using keywords like Team management, Human Resource, Talent organization etc.
3. Use Keyword-Rich Job Titles
Job titles give people a hint of what you do, even before they read your profile. It’s important to choose a descriptive title that clearly outlines what you do, while optimizing search. This is usually through a good choice of keywords. You can write as many as 7, while not being embellish at your achievements.
You can separate the Keywords using the symbol ‘|’. This will allow you to write more keywords, without necessarily constructing a complete sentence for your job title.
4. Correctly Name your Pictures
Google is very effective in searching images, even more than text. There may be thousands of relevant texts to search from, but it’s not the same for pictures. It’s therefore important to know how to name your pictures before uploading them.
You should not give pictures your own name. Instead, you should name them relevantly to what you do. For example, if you sell workforce management software to companies as mentioned before, you should name your picture something like, ‘team management’. This name will not appear in the search and neither will it be visible to the viewers, but it will be used by Google and LinkedIn search algorithms for search filtration.
5. Grow your Network
LinkedIn very much relies on Connections. This is the network of friends, contacts, colleagues and even other businesses. Logic will tell you that the more connected you are, the more people are likely to find you.
This is a smart SEO strategy. LinkedIn places first and second degree connections before third degree and the others. That tell you that you should be more generous with LinkedIn connection requests, and send them even more often. The larger your social net, the more people will be able to find you.
6. Upload a Profile Picture
Uploading a profile picture to your LinkedIn profile is very crucial. This is because a picture uniquely identifies you from other professionals, if you have a common name.
The picture you upload should be a clear picture of you. It should also not be a fancy picture but a professional one, since LinkedIn is a professional network. It’s also advisable to use the same profile picture that you use for other social media sites, in order to remain more consistent. This will also act as a personal branding, hence helping people looking for you.
7. Add to Your Skills Section
The skills section is used to find people with certain skills that are required by recruiters. That therefore makes it one of the most Google indexed parts of LinkedIn. You should therefore optimize search by listing all the skills on your profile here.
8. Include Keywords in Your Summary
In your summary, make sure to use keywords. However, you should not just stuff them for optimization by Google algorithms, while forgetting its being written to be read by humans. You should use them in a logical manner, at least once in every paragraph.
9. Share More
Sharing is a brilliant way of interaction. It can prove to be a very effective method of driving traffic to your blog post or web content.
You should share your work more for your connections to see and interact with. They may also share to their network, hence helping you reach a wider audience who may then be interested in your professionalism.
10. Promote Your LinkedIn URL
It’s not egotistical or classless to self-promote. Unlike self-congratulating, you spread you value and good content in a nice way.
You can put your LinkedIn profile on your Business Card, your Webpage, Twitter/ Facebook Page and on your Google+ profile among other places. This will open you up to a bigger audience to favor success for your products/services.
SO if you want to be discovered online, make sure you are optimizing your profile!
