Many people when deciding which social media platforms to choose for their business, often neglect choosing LinkedIn. They often associate it as a vehicle for resume building. If that is what you think, you are missing a great opportunity. Keep reading and learn why having an LinkedIn profile will optimize your SEO and will actually enhance your business. We will also share how to optimize your LinkedIn for best results.
With over 500 million people connecting B2B or B2C, you are missing out on a great opportunity. Having an SEO strategy with LinkedIn is just as important as SEO for your website.
How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
I will share why it is important and how with some LinkedIn profile tips, you will be able to optimize your LinkedIn Profile.
Your LinkedIn profile is a great way for people to know something about you, the owner. People want to do business with those they know, like and trust. What better way for someone to get to know you or connect with you, than LinkedIn.
Let’s first discuss three great reasons for having a LinkedIn profile for yourself, as a person. By the way, you can also have a LinkedIn profile for your business. But we always recommend having one for yourself as well and first. This is as important as having social media platforms for your business:
First Reason
When people check out your website, they often look to check your “About” tab. They want to know a little more about the person behind the business. Once they know you are the owner, they often will go to LinkedIn to see some more details about you. Curiosity, as well as to see your qualifications and whether you are legit.
Second Reason
Or if they met you at a networking event or conference, they will often look you up later on LinkedIn to learn more about you or to connect. Without a LinkedIn site, there is little opportunity for you to network through social media. Not being able to connect with others is a huge missed opportunity. Conversely, if you are on LinkedIn you can make the first move to connect with others to network and build relationships.
Third Reason
Lastly, if someone googles you or your business, often your LinkedIn profile will show up. LinkedIn profiles are great for SEO optimization. The more they see, the more legit your business becomes.
Let’s Look at Some LinkedIn Facts…..
Who’s On LinkedIn?
Let’s start off with what kind of people have profiles on LinkedIn. Here are some interesting statistics. Most of the people with profiles have an average incomes of $100K or more and usually college educated. 41% of LinkedIn members are millionaires.
By the way many influencers and decision makers are on LinkedIn. With over 250 million monthly users worldwide and 40% of them daily, you have the opportunity to find people you would never find otherwise.
Business professionals are looking for interesting articles and videos to increase their knowledge. With a little effort you can post and educate your connections and use that to network. You will find some tips peppered in this blog article that will help you use your LinkedIn profile to gain more connections and expand your network.
LinkedIn Opportunities
If someone hears about you, the first thing they will do is “google” your name. What better place for someone to quickly find information about you than through LinkedIn. They will learn what you look like, your background, who your customer is, how you help your customers, what you do, and how to find you. They will see your endorsements and be able to read your articles. If you have done your homework right, they will immediately understand a lot about you. Your goal is to have people know you, like you, and trust you.
You can connect with people in all sorts of industries and related business fields. It is like having a huge file of business cards at your fingertips. Even if you are an introvert, it is the easiest way to try and create a dialogue without worrying about someone “hanging up” on you. You can get people to warm up to you through messaging and having people view your posts. How easy is that! I will give you some hints on that.
Tip #1 SEARCHING Other Business Owners or Potential Prospects
You can use LinkedIn’s search feature and key words to find the people that you want to connect to for business. For example – realtors, insurance agents, chefs, lawyers. Whoever is your target market. So, keep in mind that your ideal customer could be right there waiting for YOU to show up. Finding them is easier than you may imagine. If you are not sure your potential customer (avatar) is on LinkedIn, go online and do some searches. They are closer than you think.
LinkedIn Profile Tips
Here are some tips for making sure that when someone does land on your profile that it is polished and worthy of consideration of connecting or doing business with:
♦ Photo
There is a place to upload a photo in your header. It is a faux paux to leave it blank. Most people will think you are a robot or you are being scammy if there is not a personal photo of yourself. But since this is a professional site, best not to use a casual or family-oriented shot with the kids and dog. Since it is a professional site, best to use a picture of you looking professional. A business suit if you have a business where that is normal wear. If you are a web designer, a chef, a hairdresser, something with your type of attire is perfectly acceptable. Clean and neat though.
Upload a headshot, shoulders and above. Best size is 400 x 400 pixels, square. First impressions last. Make sure it is good quality. But you don’t need to hire a photographer. You can use a blank wall and take a nice one from your phone. Then just do a little editing if need be with photo tools on your laptop or mobile phone.
♦ Banner
This is the area behind your profile. This is the area that has a blue grid on it. This is valuable real estate to tell people who you are and what you do and whom you serve.
Hint. Upload as a jpg. Don’t know why, but a png doesn’t upload.
You can add something as simple as a photo or graphic. Suggestions could be your town skyline, a fabulous dish, a person having their hair cut, a photo of the book you published, etc. Canva is a great tool to create a banner if you would like to add text to your banner. Still save it as a jpg.
Tip #2 Photo Positioning
Keep in mind that if someone sees your LinkedIn profile on a laptop, your photo is in the center bottom. If you see it from a mobile phone it often shows on the left side. So, consider where you position your text so that it doesn’t get cut off.
♦ Header Section
In your header use lots of great keyword phrases that you would normally use in your website or blog content to describe what you do. Make it client focused. Not about you, but what you do for clients. Separate each phrase with a space or bullet. Google will pick up those keyword phrases. That could be a bonus to your SEO optimization.
♦ Profile Information
Be sure to include your business phone number, business email address, your website address in your Profile so people can find you and connect offline.
♦ About YOU
This is a great place to talk about how you help your customers with their specific problems relating to your business. Don’t make it about you and your awards and education. Boring. Write about the transformation your business creates. How do you solve their problems?
I suggest you write this section in a word document and then copy and paste into LinkedIn. You want to craft it carefully, so it really explains what your client’s issues are and how you help them. What do you do that will make their lives better by using your service or product? Not too wordy, but strong enough people will get the idea of your service.
♦ Experience and More
Complete as many of these details as you can so people will get a good sense of you. People you went to school with you may be searching for others. Great way to meet them here and let people know what you are doing now. Could be potential customers. If you have special skills, this would be a good place to note them.
Once your Profile is set up, the next step is to actually create some content. The point of your posting is to provide value to potential customers that will educate them or be of interest. Periodically you can have a little commercial that you can send them offline to your website, your lead magnet, your webinar, your open house, etc.
♦ Posting Hints
You have two options to post content. First is creating some awesome posts and articles. The second is adding graphics and/or videos. This is when some of the SEO magic can come in. Posts are usually short and sweet and come with a graphic, photo, or video. Articles are longer stories. Sort of like mini blogs.
Tip #3 Hashtag Strategy
When you write a post, LinkedIn will help you by suggesting some hashtags. LinkedIn loves hashtags, so feel free to use any they suggest they are applicable but also some of your own that you use regularly for your business. This will help people looking for content by a # to find your post.
Tip #4 Video Programs
Absolutely use video for best viewing. If possible, we suggest you use captions as often people watch in silence. Second option is to run little PowerPoints that will have the text on the screen. We love “explainer” videos. There are many kinds of programs out there to help you create videos. We love Powtoon, Loom, and Videoscribe. Videos are great for SEO. But giving you the tips for creating videos is another blog article altogether. The nice thing about learning about videos, is you can use them on any other social media you use and your website.
Video Tips for LinkedIn
Tip #5 Video Viewing
Every time you post a video it will show to your first, second and even third connections. So, the more connections the more opportunity for your video to be seen.
♦ Building Your Connections
Focus on getting your connections up to over 500. Besides having a larger pool of people to network with, it will give you more credibility with LinkedIn. LinkedIn suggests people for you to connect with based on your current connections. Spend a little time going through the list and inviting people to connect. Also, every time you go to a networking event or conference and you get someone’s business card, next day go online search for them on LinkedIn. Ask them to connect while you are fresh on their mind. If you think you would like to get together, you can send a message while connecting or after they connect and ask them to have a conference call with you or meet face to face.
Tip #6 Connection Strategy
When you are connecting, you can either just press the “connect” button or you can send a message. You can just ask someone to connect but I think it is much nicer to customize the invitation and send a personal message. This is also important if they don’t know you. They will be more inclined to accept your invitation. Better chance of a successful connection.
Screen Shot of LinkedIn Requesting to Connect with someone new.
But don’t grow your connections just for the sake of numbers. Reach out to people who have synergy for you, partners or perspective clients or potential referrals. Connect with people you think will grow your professional network.
♦ $$ Membership
LinkedIn is free. However, there are paid choices. The paid memberships are really for people who are committed to using LinkedIn as their primary prospecting tool. If you are not planning that, you can get plenty out of the free version. You may never need to upgrade. You may be tempted with their trial but beware it is very expensive for the Sales Navigator or Premium version. LinkedIn also offers ads. But I think you can grow your value with LinkedIn organically if you give it a little time and energy.
Final Thoughts
Who would have thought SEO and LinkedIn go together but they do? Writing fresh content with appropriate keywords or posting a summary of your blog with a backlink to your website will aid in that strategy. We all want to get to page one of Google. LinkedIn is a great asset in that pursuit.
Having a great optimized LinkedIn profile will do much to help your SEO as well as set you up as the professional you are. Hope these LinkedIn profile tips and LinkedIn SEO tips gave you some ideas to create one or fix the one you have. At the end of the day, SEO is all about being found by the right people whether on social media or your website so people will eventually hit that “buy” button.
Tomorrow start your LinkedIn profile or take our advice on the tips and enhance your profile and posting strategy.
Using LinkedIn Profile Tips to Improve Your SEO
If you would like to know even more about optimizing your LinkedIn profile for SEO, we invite you to watch this webinar replay:
