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Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for SEO

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This is the third in a series devoted to helping you improve your Linked in presence.Optimizing LinkedIn for SEOIn case you missed the first two articles you should go back and read them first:  LinkedIn Beginners Guide  and More Marketable LinkedIn Profile

Today, I want to help you make your LinkedIn profile more search engine friendly.  Keep in mind, a quality job search strategy encompasses both pull and push marketing. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile is only one important component of a “pull marketing” job search strategy. Never forget as a job seeker, you should focus the majority of your time and effort on a “push marketing” campaign focused on targeted job search networking.

Before I start, I want to be clear that even if you follow these tips it is unlikely you will be screaming to the top of the Google search results. Having a blog that you update regularly is  far and away a more effective medium for improving your personal search rankings.

Step 1. Revisit your goals.

First and foremost, LinkedIn is about marketing: either marketing your company or marketing yourself. But if you are like me as you worked through completing your profile that focus probably got lost, instead you ended up with a resume completion task. Who you are isn’t as important as what you hope to accomplish. Think about your goals and convert your goals into keywords, because keywords are how people find you on LinkedIn.

Don’t just whip out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to identify popular keywords. While it has some value, everyone’s using it. That means every Web designer has shoehorned in keywords like “build a website,” “custom website,” “designing a website,” and “webmaster” into their profile. It’s hard to stand out when you’re one in a  millions.

Dig Deeper, go an extra step, think about words that have a deeper meaning in your industry. Some are process-related; others are terms only used in your field; others might be names of equipment, products, software, or companies.

Try this:

  • Go to the peoples tab > hit advanced search.
  • Input a keyword or keywords associated with your targeted position. Ex: Social Media Manager
  • Now enter a geography zip code and a distance. (I used Rochester NY and 50 miles is a good starting point.)
  • Select an industry/industries that apply to you. The broader you make your search the lower your ranking will be.
  • Now hit search. Can you find yourself in the first few pages of the LinkedIn results?

Probably you couldn’t find yourself, but look through the first few profiles. Pay special attention to the the highlighted words, you will see the criteria that LinkedIn used to filter the search. Now you can see what keywords people are using to rank for the search you want.

Note: LinkedIn appears to scan only four categories: Professional Headline, Titles, Specialties and Industries. LinkedIn scans these categories for frequency of the keywords selected.

Step 2. Layer in your keywords.

With regards to those big four categories, Professional Headline, Titles, Specialties and Industries; pay special attention to the headline it is a key factor in search results, pick the most important keyword and make sure its in your headline. Most important, does not necessarily mean most searched.

Next work through the rest of your profile and replace some of the vague descriptions of skills, experience, and educational background with keywords. Your profile isn’t a term paper so about a little repetition won’t hurt you. A LinkedIn search scans for keywords, and once on the page, so do people.

With regards to Specialties, its a particularly good section for including keywords. Google does index this section, so make good use of it.

Step 3. Join related groups.

The value of joining a LinkedIn group in unmesurable, it goes way beyond SEO. From an SEO point of view groups help by associating the name of the group with your search profile. Search for Groups that are aligned with your professional interests.

Tip: Look for Group names that include relevant keywords for you.

Step 4. Customise your links.

Rather than the generic, blog, company website or Twitter links that LinkedIn generates go customize your personal URLs this will help generate more potential Google Juice.

For a guide on how to do this, check out this handy video created by Mike Volpe of HubSpot.

Step 5. location and job title

While these are not exactly SEO, I think it matters a lot.  Let me explain;
This is what my profile looks like when found in google:

David P Mon on LinkedIn

 

 

 

(click it to connect with me)

Your location and job title are the only personalised pieces of information provided on on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – I highlighted it. This is important because if the SERP shows 10 linkedin results, the only differences are the Name, location and job title.  Perspective searchers will only have this information to go by when deciding which profile to check out. Sadly there is not often a lot of flexibility in job roles, but perhaps think about how you can present your title in the most effective way to include desired keywords.

If you enjoyed this post about optimizing your LinkedIn profile why don’t you subscribe to my blog via RSS or email by following this link. You can also Follow me on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Related posts:

  1. Make Your LinkedIn Profile More Marketable
  2. Beginners Guide To Setting Up A Linkedin Profile
  3. Top 10 Highly Effective SEO Tips

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