Plenty of business owners gravitate towards LinkedIn and its search system to gain recognition and visibility. This can help them build credibility and reputation, gain new business opportunities, and establish relationships with customers. From a very tiny networking site, LinkedIn has grown into a massive force for marketers, freelancers, and businesses of all sizes – all of them trying to crack the code and get into the groove of the system and its features.
How does it work? Company profiles are ranked through an algorithm that can produce different results, depending on search and data from multiple sources. These sources are often made up of search keywords, phrases, profile information, activities, and connections of publicly available users for searching. When you choose to increase your search rank, you must be able to optimize your profile and do things that can help connect you to various people on the website.
Pro Tip: Ready to get better ranking on LinkedIn? You can use aged LinkedIn accounts to get started. This is because an aged account usually gets better rankings as compared to new accounts.
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Build a Visually Attractive LinkedIn Profile
One of the most essential things you can do when optimizing the appeal of your profile on LinkedIn is to focus on two simple things: your profile and cover photos.
When it comes to profile photos, it’s highly recommendable that you use high-resolution images representing the image you are trying to exhibit – in this case, approachable. Another factor that could be very useful is that you can set your profile photo to the one you have used in other websites so that when a quick Google search is done, one of the things that will show up is related to you and your business, which can help you become easily recognizable.
You might have to keep in mind that the image should be of high-quality and not pixelated because lower-quality images often look unprofessional or not at all appealing. People tend to gravitate towards profiles with photos that have corporate backgrounds, with some casual tones. Another important thing to keep in mind is that you must know what audience you are working with and what they would like.
When it comes to cover photos, it should make a statement. It gives you over seven inches of desktop space to work with to help your audience figure out what your profile is all about.
When creating a custom cover photo to change LinkedIn’s default one, you should keep in mind of the correct dimensions and figure out what message you want to send out to your profile’s visitors. It would be good to add a tagline that can help you highlight what you’re offering to people. Websites like Canva and Adobe Spark can help you out with designs. For more information, you can check out this post on how to create LinkedIn profile that stands out.
Once you’ve fixed up a pretty pair of pictures for your profile, the next step to take is all about keywords.
Keywords Will Be Your Best Bet
Now that you are done with the visual aspect of your LinkedIn profile, the next thing you need to focus on will be strategically choosing the keywords that can help you optimize your profile and its ranking.
It’s important to note that the SEO keywords that LinkedIn’s algorithm has are very different from what you usually type on google. Usually, recruiters will tend to enter long-tail keywords in Google. This is where LinkedIn profiles have better chances.
Before putting in your final keywords into your profile, make sure you have gathered enough to cover the industry you work in, your skills, and of course, expertise.
For you to rank for the industry you desire, you will need at least two inputs. Start off by compiling a list of the ones you want to be ranked in. These should be short yet focused. When you figure out the keyword that best fits you, you must put it in your profile’s headline.
Although some people might advise you to repeatedly use a specific keyword, this can hinder you from reaching the top of the ranks. In that case, it can lessen the chances, which means that you will really need to evaluate which ones you will be using – or else it won’t be of that much help.
Make Your LinkedIn Profile Interesting
LinkedIn is often used as an online resume. Sometimes profiles are overly professional, too concise, and turn out bland. The idea of LinkedIn focuses on the concept of professionals and entrepreneurs alike to connect with their peers and fellow professionals. Even though it might seem like a necessity, you don’t need to treat it as straightforward as a plain resume.
A very intriguing way to approach your LinkedIn profile would be to act as if your profile is on a dating website, except it has more professional requirements. This will help you appeal more to the audience that you want to achieve. It will help you make it much more interesting – especially if you have an attractive summary.
The summary section of your profile is the largest space you can utilize when writing in SEO keywords. Those who visit your profile will be able to tell plenty about you, even if it’s just a hundred words. This is where you can advertise yourself in a concise yet very interesting way.
Some questions you might have…
Why is it essential to include keywords in a LinkedIn profile?
Recruiters, businesses, and the like all know what they need when it comes to choosing candidates. All it takes is a keyword if they’re looking for someone with a specific skill. By using LinkedIn as a way to connect, you will need to have keywords optimized so that you can show up when people search for these. If you don’t use the right keywords, you lose the opportunity to be searched and might not be able to show up on their search lists. Your profile will get lost in the sea of many other worthy applicants.
Why should we optimize our profile and its ranking?
When your profile is in the higher ranks, you’ll be easily searchable and that means more chances of getting job offers and opportunities. Because you are highly visible, your profile will stand out. You might be seen as outstanding, even if there are millions more LinkedIn users in the same industry as you. This is why your profile’s ranking matters and why you should keep trying to achieve that first rank.
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