When you type the keyword or key phrase you want to be listed under into the LinkedIn search bar, do you show up?
And, here’s the more important question – Do you show up when others are searching for you?
When searching for people on LinkedIn, the default setting is to show the results by relevance – which means when search for your keyword, you should show up at the top of your list, with your first tier connections showing up next, and second tier connections showing up after that etc.
When you change the results to display by keyword instead of relevance, the results change. Do you show up for the keyword you want to in this setting?
If not, head over to your profile and update the LinkedIn titles associated with your profile and the title of each position you currently hold and each position held at past employers. Your individual LinkedIn titles make a big difference in where you appear in the search results for your keyword of choice!
By taking some time to optimize your LinkedIn titles, you will see in a very short amount of time an increase in profile views, and increase in connection requests, and hopefully, if you’re attracting the right audience, an increase in business.
When I optimized my LinkedIn titles, I immediately benefited from all of the above and saw an upswing in my website traffic from LinkedIn.
If you haven’t optimized your LinkedIn profile yet, take some time to do so, wait a week or so and let me know how it works out for you!
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I bumped into this issue recently when I tried to search my LinkedIn network for a graphic designer to refer to a colleague. I entered “graphic design” and “graphic designer” into the search and netted a big fat ZERO in results. Strange, since I knew I had at least 4-5 good designers in my network. So, I combed through my connections, one by one, only to realize that every since designer had some obscure, overly creative title that I would have NEVER considered searching (ie “creative muse”).
So, YES! By all means revise those LinkedIn profile titles and keywords using things people might actually use to find you. After my experience, I actually went back and revised mine.
Thanks for the great reminder Jennifer!
Michele – EXACTLY! So many titles are unclear and vague… and they don’t match up with what people are actually searching for. Your titles need to be accurate first and foremost, but if you can make them more descriptive to use terms people actually search for, you’ll have much better success!
Great tip/idea for LinkedIn – I agree with your further clarification on our exchange on Twiter – don’t be innaccurate with titles – but adding a few words can clarify fuzzy titles can help a lot.
Along similar lines – do you know that when you ask or answer a question in LinkedIn’s Answers section – that those Q&As are also a part of the searches. So consider using keywords in the questions you ask or especially in those you answer – that too can help you get listed in search results. Just be sure you also write for the person who asked the question. Making something written online be both of interest to people AND search engines (internal site searches too) is always a balance. I was reading their updated privacy policy a few months ago – which noted this fact for privacy reasons – to me it is a GOOD thing.
Cathy – That’s a great tip – and good to know about their Privacy Policy as well! Using Q&A’s is actually on my list of upcoming blog topics :) It’s something I know I should be participating in more (and I plan to), but alas, right now something has to give in my 24 hours per day! Thanks for sharing your expertise with us! -Jen