LinkedIn SEO – How to Use LinkedIn for Maximum Impact?

LinkedIn is the largest network, with more than 900 million members in 200 regions and countries. It has been known as a powerful social media platform for professionals, as more than half of its members have at least a bachelor’s degree. 

LinkedIn helps members find a job or join a group, connect and strengthen professional relationships, and learn skills for career success. It can also be used to organize events, write articles, post images and videos and more.

But this platform is not only for professional networking. It also improves a business’s online presence through SEO. This article will harness the potential of LinkedIn for SEO growth. Read on to leverage LinkedIn search engine visibility and impact.

LinkedIn Is a Search Engine like Google…

Before we go over the details, it’s important to understand that LinkedIn also functions as a search engine. Just like Google, LinkedIn helps users find information across the web, making it a powerful tool for anyone looking to enhance their online visibility.

LinkedIn uses an algorithm to order search results of people on the website. It also optimizes their search results by different factors, such as the searcher’s activity, other members with similar searches to determine sort order, and search history to determine the relevancy of the result. It helps LinkedIn improve the quality of members’ search results. A well-implemented topical authority strategy can further refine this algorithm’s effectiveness, ensuring your content reaches the right audience.

In addition to the factors in optimizing their search results, LinkedIn also uses keywords to determine relevancy to searches. However, they don’t recommend an extended list of keywords as they have a spam detection algorithm that filters profiles and can negatively impact search results’ appearance. 

Being the largest professional network, LinkedIn can potentially connect you to your target audience. It enables you to find and engage with them, moving through your sales funnel.

What Is LinkedIn Search Engine Optimization?

LinkedIn SEO is optimizing your Linkedin profile to rank higher in LinkedIn search results. A higher ranking means more visibility of your profile or business page and more chances to be found by target audiences.

To know how optimized your profile is in LinkedIn search, it can be indicated with LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI). SSI quantifies the value of your ability to engage with possible customers through social networks. It will be based on four factors:

• Establishing your professional brand
• Finding the right people
• Building relationships
• Engaging with insights

An SSI score of 70 or above increases your reach by 25%.

Why Is LinkedIn SEO Important?

Profile/page optimization in LinkedIn improves visibility that drives results. When your profile or page is optimized, you can appear in LinkedIn results as a credible source. It generates leads, helps you reach your target audience, and builds relationships.

Generally, SEO is about making content that is easier to find in search engines by incorporating keywords that people search for. LinkedIn uses keywords that communicate about your profile, page and post clearly. Using SEO techniques in your profile enhances visibility and increases the chance of being found by target people for Jobs.

Can You Do SEO on LinkedIn? Here’s How to Leverage Your LinkedIn Search Engine Visibility and Impact

Before discussing SEO on LinkedIn, let’s talk about how the LinkedIn algorithm works:

• LinkedIn decides whether your post is genuine or spam – They will sort your content into one of the categories – spam, low-quality and high-quality.

• LinkedIn tests your post – If your post is not spammy, LinkedIn will push your post to your followers. If it does receive engagement, it will push to more people. However, if it does not (or worse, the audience flags it as spam), LinkedIn will not share it any further.

• LinkedIn delivers engaging content to more users – As your post passes the test, LinkedIn sends it to a wider audience and will decide who gets to see your post depending on these signals:
  • How closely you’re connected
  • Topic interest
  • Probability of engagement

SEO is not just for website pages and blogs but also LinkedIn profiles and content. Leverage LinkedIn search engine visibility and impact can be done by optimizing your profile, LinkedIn content and profile around relevant keywords, leveraging your visual elements and optimizing for local SEO.

#1. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile (or Company Page)

A LinkedIn profile describes the information you want to share with your audience. It aims to provide a positive first impression. Your profile can be a summary of who you are and why you are someone they might want to meet. It should be more general,  personal, and different from your resume. 

An optimized LinkedIn profile effectively expands your reach as the information about your skills, interests, and goals attracts like-minded people who share the same passion as you and may be interested in connecting with you.

See the example above. The upper image is an unoptimized profile. It is used by a person, but it doesn’t contain keywords, a banner or a professional picture. The lower image represents a good optimization of the profile. It shows document management technology and uses it as a keyword in his profile.

Optimizing your profile with keywords increases the chance that you will show up in the results of people searching for the same or similar skills and experience. 

LinkedIn Profile Optimization Tips:

– Upload the Best, High-Quality Profile Photo

When building your profile, upload a clear and strong profile picture. Your face should be shown for recruiters and networks to trust who you are. The best quality image for your LinkedIn profile picture is 400 x 400 px.

– Leverage Your Banner Image

The banner image is the background image in your profile that you can utilize. You can be creative with it by relating it to your work or passion. For best quality, it should be 1584 px wide by 396 px high (4:1). 

– Create Backlinks

Creating backlinks to your profile increases your ranking, which results in more visibility. Users’ views and interactions will also increase your LinkedIn score. A way to get backlinks is through your website, blog and social media link-building.

– Customize URL

Incorporate your name in your URL to improve profile visibility and searchability. It creates a polished image in a professional way. You can also add some SEO value by putting the most important keyword into your URL.

– Create a Profile Funnel

Profile funnel is creating a profile that is straightforward for new leads. It will make your profile clear about what you offer, helping visitors to easily know about your website details and how to reach you. 

– Publish Content Relevant to Your Niche

When you publish a post, make sure it is relevant to your industry. It will establish relevance, credibility and authority that will help you reach more people.

– Get Recommendations and Skill Endorsements

Recommendations and endorsements not only build credibility. It improves your profile SEO by encouraging clients and colleagues to endorse your skills and recommend you with your strengths and accomplishments. Recommendations and endorsements build the trustworthiness of your profile.

– Join and Participate in Groups

Groups are a great way to find like-minded people in your industry. Join relevant groups and engage in meaningful discussions to increase your visibility and expand your network. You are likely to be discovered by wider audiences if you are active and engaged in the platform.

– Build Smart Connections or Network

To optimize your LinkedIn profile, building smart connections with people within the industry is a good practice for success. The people you build connections with are more responsive to the articles and posts you create on LinkedIn. It will lead to more engagement and backlinks if they decide to link to you from their website.

– Use the Right LinkedIn Hashtags

Relevant hashtags help you get more views as some people search for posts on LinkedIn actively using hashtags. The best practice is to use 3-5 hashtags that repeatedly use target keywords.

#2. Optimize Your LinkedIn Content

LinkedIn content is powerful to connect with your target audience and expose your brand to people who are not yet network members. LinkedIn content is beneficial in digital marketing, SEO and link building as it will be seen by people through Google because these contents can be indexed and ranked in SERPs for target keywords.

Ways on How to Optimize LinkedIn Content:

– Publish More LinkedIn Content

When you add a LinkedIn post, you can include keywords. To achieve being seen in LinkedIn search results for those keywords, publish more LinkedIn that are optimized in those terms. This strategy allows your content to show up as a result of the relevant search queries.

– Share Relevant Content

Publish content relevant to your industry. It is the most effective way to apply SEO to your LinkedIn profile. When you publish content, link it back to your website to increase traffic. You can rank quicker this way, as LinkedIn has a high domain authority. Remember not to duplicate content so that you will not harm your ranking on LinkedIn and Google. The only way to make sure whether your content is duplicated or not is by checking it through a plagiarism checker.

– Tag or Mention People and Businesses

Tagging people or businesses on your content shows up in their activity feed and increases your visibility. It will reach more potential customers, where you can engage with them directly. However, overdoing it will come off as spammy. If you have something interesting to share, then let them know about it. 

– Include a Compelling Call to Action (CTA)

Adding a call to action in your post will drive traffic and more engagement to your website. It is an invitation to take a step/action that is tailored specifically for the audience you want to reach. It attracts attention and prompts users to take action. 

#3. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile Around Relevant Keywords

Keywords in your LinkedIn profile promote your online credentials. LinkedIn relies on search results to drive traffic to the post. Using relevant keywords ensures profile visibility that attracts people to your content.

LinkedIn Parts Where Keywords Can Be Used for Optimization:

– Headline 

The headline is the one that grabs attention and improves SEO. Use specific words relevant to your expertise or industry instead of generic ones to easily identify your profile when these skills are being searched for. 

LinkedIn headline allows 220 characters. Use every important keyword in the beginning to carry more weight for SEO. 

– Profile URL

Incorporating merely your name to your URL isn’t helpful, especially to search engines. Customize your URL to include your full name (think of it as a name that would make you happy on a business card). If you have a common name, be creative by maintaining professionalism.

– Summary or “About” Section

Create a compelling summary by showcasing your unique value, key skills and accomplishments. Incorporate important keywords to improve its SEO. Also, adding links to your portfolio, personal website, or blog adds context and shows expertise.

– Job History

Provide detailed information about roles and responsibilities with measurable achievements and outcomes. Incorporate keywords to enhance the SEO of your profile. Use subheadings, bold text and bullets to have your experience section easily scanned and understandable.

#4. Leverage Your Visual Elements

Leveraging multimedia further optimizes your profile. Relevant images, videos or presentations make your profile engaging. These visual elements in your content increase your chance of appearing in search results. 

Not only that you can also leverage LinkedIn Widget for website to boost the reach of your LinkedIn profile, increase connection and more. Tagembed offers automatic LinkedIn feed aggregation, curation and integration on the website with real-time update options.

Using the LinkedIn widget you can improve the overall performance of your LinkedIn posts activity.

#5. Optimize for Local SEO

If the user’s business or profession has a local focus, optimize the LinkedIn profile for local SEO by including the location, sharing content relevant to the local community, and connecting with local professionals and organizations.

For instance, if you had a travel OT job, highlight the location of the facility and connect with your coworkers.

Do Hashtags Help with LinkedIn SEO?

Hashtags are commonly used in TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. But can a professional network use this, too? Yes!

In 2016, they were present on LinkedIn mobile and reappeared in 2017 on desktop, but people still don’t know how to use them. In 2018, they ran a beta test of using hashtags to help members discover and join relevant discussions.

Hashtags categorize content like how it works on social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. It helps users find content about a topic and helps you (who use hashtags) to be discovered by other people, even those not connected with you. LinkedIn hashtags increase your visibility and engagement.

How You Can Benefit from LinkedIn Optimization

1. Get More Traffic to Your Page

When you publish relevant content in your industry, your content will be seen as credible. It will reach more people who search for something relevant to the information you provide. When you give something that users want, they will engage with your content and increase traffic.

2. Enhance Engagement with Other LinkedIn Users  

Optimizing your profile helps you build a network. You can follow various profiles, add people who are connected to you and help you join in groups. When you have connections with more different people, they are more likely to engage with you. Having a network of professionals can get you help from them, or you can help them.

3. Gain More Quality Leads

Posting quality content helps people find your content useful. These users will likely trust and follow your page, leading to high-quality leads. Your CTA will also encourage users to get in touch with you or take other desirable actions.

4. Boost Brand Awareness  

Brand awareness is important in business. Optimizing your LinkedIn can create awareness of your brand to your target audience. By publishing content relevant to your industry with the right keywords, your content will reach your target audience, gain visibility and rank high in search results.

Ranking high in search results makes people aware of your business, helping it grow and generate more profit.

5. Build Relationships and Trust

LinkedIn optimization helps you build relationships by creating engaging content that is relevant. You can also join conversations, groups, and other communities related to your industry to interact with mind-like people. By consistently engaging with your people, you can build trust and relationships for long-term success.

6. Increase Sales

Optimized content that engages people and drives traffic, leading to an increase in sales. People who engage with your page will likely buy, especially if you have a profile funnel.

7. Enhance Career Opportunities

By highlighting your strengths, skills and achievements, recruiters or employers are likely to find you. If your profile stands out, you will have more opportunities to land the profession you want. 

Using LinkedIn Analytics to Track SEO Performance

Monitoring and tracking the performance of LinkedIn optimization efforts is crucial for the ongoing improvement of overall SEO growth. It can be viewed in LinkedIn analytics on the profile dashboard. Here are some key metrics to track your performance:

• Profile Views – it is the number of times your profile was viewed. The higher the number means you appear on search results and rank well on search engines.
• Search Appearances – It is the frequency of your visibility in search results. A high number means that you may be able to achieve more visits as more people can see you.

• Post-performance – Monitor individual posts like, share, views and comments to see which topics or content generate more engagement of your audiences.
• Connection Analytics – It provides insights about your professional network, which industries your connection works, and the number of connections.

Incorporating LinkedIn analytic tools into your strategy allows you to measure engagement and make informed decisions to enhance your LinkedIn presence and local SEO performance.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn optimization is an important part of any digital marketing strategy. It helps increase traffic and engagement, build trust and relationships with other professionals, and boost brand awareness. Investing in SEO efforts will help your content reach the right people, leading to more leads and sales. Now that you understand better, implement LinkedIn SEO strategies and take the tips and insights from this article.