Kylie Chown, LinkedIn Expert and Career Money Life Certified Supplier, shares some valuable tips on how to optimise your LinkedIn profile for online search.
LinkedIn is a database that is searchable.
This means that people can search LinkedIn for keywords and profiles are returned. The other thing that I like about LinkedIn is that you can have your LinkedIn profile returned in Google search results. BrandYourself recently analyzed 100,000 profiles and found that LinkedIn was the social network MOST often appearing at the top of Google search results. We also know that 94% of people don’t look beyond the first page of search results.
For example, if you search “LinkedIn Expert Brisbane” you can see my LinkedIn profile is returned in search results. You will see it is the first organic result. Under paid advertising. It is returned about my personal website.
To get this to happen one of the first things you need to do is ensure that your LinkedIn profile includes the right key words. In the right areas of your profile.
When identifying your keywords here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
Relevance: Ensure that you use words that your ideal audience would use to find you. These might be different to the words that you would use.
Competitiveness: Some keywords will be more competitive than others. This means that to get a strong, targeted result, you may need to be more specific. For example, the keyword “accountant” would be a competitive keyword. It is also not specific to what you do.
I would recommend in this case, that you use the keyword “mobile tax accountant” or “chartered accountant”. You will get a more targeted response that aligns with your goals and ideal client.
Location: The third element of SEO is the location of keywords in your profile. Even though you may be able to work with clients in many locations, people searching will often include a location.
Once you have identified your key words you need to include them across key areas of your profile.
Here are my top tips for writing content across these key areas:
1. HEADLINE:
You have 120 characters to make a stand-out first impression. When someone searches via keywords on LinkedIn, your profile’s image, name and headline are first returned. This means your headline is key in getting people to ‘click through’ to your profile. It’s a bit like when you do a search for something on Google. The headline is a determining factor on whether you click through to the website.
2. SUMMARY:
Your summary is really key to your positioning on LinkedIn. It is important to look at this section through the lenses of your ideal client. Make it clear how you can help them, including specifying what results you can help them achieve.
3. EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE:
Your LinkedIn profile is all about your future and not your past. And this is especially true for your employment history section. It is not merely a tribute to your past jobs, listing roles and responsibilities. With 2,000 characters for each role, it is to be used as a search engine optimised sales and marketing tool!
4. SKILLS (ENDORSEMENTS):
Many clients I speak to are skeptical about the value of having their listed skills endorsed. However, this section of your profile is a significant contributor to SEO. By taking control of your skill endorsements, you can use them to support your goals and objectives. List skills that are consistent with your future business goals. This gives you the opportunity to be endorsed for it and supports SEO outcomes.
5. RECOMMENDATIONS:
What others say is more important than what we say about ourselves. And a well-written recommendation should include SEO. When approaching people for a recommendation on LinkedIn, offer to draft the wording for them to approve and upload. This way you can include the right SEO and shape the message.
By focusing on these five key areas, this client was in a position to leverage SEO to support their business goals.
By proactively managing your SEO and applying the indexing formula, you will be on your way to increasing your LinkedIn traffic using keywords.
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