How To Rank Your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is one of the most important social media platforms out there. Whether you are looking to increase your network, to find a new job, or promote your side hustle (blog, podcast, freelance service, etc.) The only way you will be able to achieve a presence on LinkedIn is by optimizing your profile to the niche market you are trying to reach.
Just like if you were selling a product to the market, your website would need to be found. In this example you are the product, the market is LinkedIn, and you want the people in your niche to find you. In this post I will show you how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, how to grow your connections, and most importantly how to rank on LinkedIn.
Steps To Rank Your LinkedIn Profile
- Upload A Profile Picture
Here is a little LinkedIn hack that you won’t be able to find anywhere else online. When you save your picture to add it on LinkedIn save the image as a keyword you want to target, similar to an alt title in SEO. For instance, I saved my picture as “Marketing”, this will again help you optimize your profile and add an extra keyword to your account.
- Optimize Your Headline
Just as an example if you are a cashier you might want to include “Customer Service Representative/ Cashier”. You might think oh I’m just a “cashier” but being a cashier teachers you the skills and patience you will need to find your dream job or to land you a full time customer service focused job.
Also I never include the company I work for in my headline, I like to keep it broad so I have a better chance of showing up and ranking when people do a search.
Add A Summary
Use this section to explain what you do at your job, and what skills you have. You can add a large amount of text here, so really talk about the value you bring to your company and what you do on the day to day basis. You can even add media links in this section, so if you have a website make sure you add it here.
- Add Your Work History & Education
When you add your work history make sure you link to the company’s LinkedIn account if they have one. In the summary you can link to their website or add an image of the company’s logo and here you will want to optimize the title and add a short description. Below is an image of how I did mine.
Add your education, when you graduated or when you attended college. You can even add your GPA if it is higher than a 3.0.
- Get Recommendations
Recommendations are important for ranking purposes as well. If you have friends you are close to, ask them to write a recommendation for you and in exchange you write one for them.
- Fill Out The Skills Section & Get Endorsements
- Edit Your LinkedIn URL
- Fill Out All Other Fields
- Add People To Your Network
- Be Active
Other Tips & Tricks To Achieving An All Star Profile On LinkedIn
1. Add your job & location
2. Your current position with a description
3. Two past positions
4. Add your education
5. Add your skills, 3 is the minimum but try to add the maximum of 50.
6. Add a profile photo (be sure to save it as a keyword you are targeting)
7. Have at least 50 connections. Aim for at least 501 in time so your profile will have the 500+ connections will make you look more professional.
I hope this post helped you learn a little more about LinkedIn and just how important it is to rank on LinkedIn. Feel free to leave a comment below on any other LinkedIn hacks you know to increase your ranking. Let me know how your results go! Connect with me on LinkedIn here.
Also available here: https://medium.com/@jdarcio/how-to-rank-your-linkedin-profile-d36efbbe9fc5