This blog post intends to help you optimize your LinkedIn profile so recruiters and companies can find your profile when they search for candidates. Ensuring that you are always top-of-mind!

Write a compelling summary

LinkedIn is your online resume so you should write a professional summary. The summary is the first thing a recruiter will see on your profile so make it compelling and to-the-point. Let the reader know who you are, what you do and what you want. Don’t list keywords or industry lingo for the sake of it – this is your professional pitch. You could even say it’s your professional brand in a couple of lines.

It must catch the reader’s attention and be very specific. Don’t dwell on long sentences or try to cram-in every past employer’s name into the summary. Be precise on what you’re working with/ want to work with, what you do/ what you want to do and what value you offer a business – it’s a pitch, not a literary essay, so the summary must be precise, interesting and consistent.

Work the keywords to your advantage

How do you want to be found and how often? If you use the right industry-related keywords, you will show up in searches more frequently and effectively. The point is to be visible instead of hidden or unseen since relevancy and visibility will garner you much attention and contact with recruiters.

The first and most relevant keywords are job titles. Even though it’s funnier to have Frontend Ninja or Sales God as a job title on your profile, recruiters look for standardised job titles. If you’re a Frontend Ninja, we recommend you change it to Frontend Developer so we can find you!

Choose your keywords carefully and commit to them! You have a limited amount of typing space on your profile and time is a key factor for readers of your profile so choose and use with caution! Instead of using 50 variants of the same basic keyword just keep it simple, commit to the one relevant keyword and use it frequently throughout your profile. List specific technologies, software or hardware you have experience with.

Keep using the chosen industry-related keywords throughout the profile. If you choose X then don’t switch to Y further down on your profile – consistency will pay off when you check your search statistics!

List your skills and expertise

Skills and competencies are related to keywords but have their own section on your profile. The clever approach is to consider this section as an extension of your keyword review/ analysis. List the chosen keywords as your skills and competencies and get more specific from that point. List as many relevant and specific skills as possible to improve your search ranking.

Look at it this way: Is there any reason not to list your skills? There is a max limit of 50 skills, so be specific and consistent. There’s a flip side to this coin: Don’t list all 50 skills in your profile text. Your specific skills should be reserved for the “Skills” section while more general skills should be used in the profile text. As mentioned before, be selective and consistent.

After you’ve updated all your skills, ask former or current colleagues or acquaintances for their endorsements of specific skills. Having endorsements from like-minded professionals strengthens your brand from a recruiters point-of-view!

Make yourself visible – engage with content

Work your social selling index by engaging with content. The more frequently you engage with content or post content on your profile, the stronger your social selling index will be. That means your reach will be much broader and you will be visible to more people on LinkedIn – some of those will be recruiters or hiring managers!

Engage with great care. Not everything is worth a like or comment and certainly not a share. Like what’s relevant for you and your network or use the comment function when e.g. congratulating someone on a new job or achievement. If you want to share then tell your network why you think it’s worthy of a share – don’t just share without commenting on the content. Do yourself and everyone in your network a favour and don’t engage mindlessly. They’ll grow tired of you and will eventually remove you as a connection or block your feed – you don’t want to lose valuable connections!

List all your experiences

Your LinkedIn profile is your gross-CV/ resume: all your work experience gathered on a social media platform. It’s everything you’ve ever done professionally or that has any relevance to your professional career. Whether it be full-time jobs and student jobs to voluntary work, list everything. The more you list the more you will be able to work the keywords you’ve chosen to use.

It’s more or less SEO on a social media platform. Commit to keywords and use them! If you can use your chosen keywords, it doesn’t matter what kind of job it was – use them! Just make sure it’s relevant to your career and not your time as a lemonade-stand owner back in 3rd grade.

Don’t forget the photo!

Just like in your CV or resume, your photo on LinkedIn is the visual presentation of your professional brand. Leave out the bare-chested party photo or the Monday morning picture from the red-eye flight and use a photo taken in a professional setting. In case you don’t have one from a previous job ask, a friend or acquaintance to take one. If you know a photographer, you’ve hit the jackpot! When we say professional, we’re not talking about the photo where you’re dressed in full suit and tie, we’re talking picture quality.

You can definitely spot the difference between a picture taken by a pro with the right lighting and composition and a photo taken with the selfie stick! The point is to look the part, whether you should be dressed in a t-shirt and jeans or shirt and pullover is not the most important factor. Clean, nice and friendly will get you far!

Invest time in your LinkedIn profile

Almost everyone has a LinkedIn profile no matter their age or professional background. But you should do yourself the favour and optimize yours! Your optimized and informative LinkedIn profile is likely to land you a contract because the employer found your profile and got the relevant information to make an informed decision – your profile may just be your ticket to the next job interview!