Want more sales leads for your small business? Of course you do. Well, this little LinkedIn SEO trick will help you to get found by more of the right customers and boost business growth. It seems too good to be true, but it’s not!
Before we explain this LinkedIn SEO hack, we need to explain why it works. SEO, if you didn’t know, means Search Engine Optimisation. And social media platforms are actually search engines. Yes, LinkedIn is a search engine, just like Google, or Yahoo, or Bing. In fact, social media is used more and more for search in today’s world. Did you know YouTube is actually the largest behind Google?
When consumers want to find something online, they’ll probably turn to Google, or they might search in Facebook or Instagram, especially if they want to be constantly kept up-to-date by the brand in question. Besides Google, where do business people go to connect to the people, product and service offerings that are relevant to them? LinkedIn.
So, if you want your profile to be the one your customers find when they’re searching LinkedIn, keep reading to find out the one simple thing you should be doing to convert your LinkedIn profile from pointless into performing…
Boost your SEO with this free LinkedIn checklist – click here!
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Searching in LinkedIn
The latest changes to the platform have made it even easier for users to search for the people, companies, groups and jobs relevant to them. LinkedIn has become such an effective search engine that users can now search for more general products and services in order to find people they’re not yet connected with, that might be able to help them.
For example, type “content marketing” into the LinkedIn search box. What happens? You should see a mix of job and people results. And that’s just in the ‘Top’ results tab. You’ll see next to that tab a whole host of other tabs, breaking down those results into different categories.
Boosting your LinkedIn SEO
Now imagine what your sales targets might be searching for; what services and professional experience can you provide them? Those are important keywords that are going to boost your LinkedIn profile’s SEO. And it’s more than just your job title.
However, as with all social media, it’s not a cut and dry formula. What profiles appear in LinkedIn search results depends on how those people are connected to the searcher’s profile (1st, 2nd or not a connection), which skills are listed and endorsed on their page, and what keywords are used within the profile sections. But the more relevant keywords you use in your profile sections, the more chance you have of being seen. Even better if those keywords are contained within your LinkedIn Headline.
Make this one simple change now and get results
So, here’s what you do. Make a list of your professional skills, experience, specialities and sectors. You have 120 characters in your LinkedIn Headline to describe what you do and in what ways your professional make up is unique.
Ask yourself…
- What do I do?
- What am I really good at?
- What skills would my colleagues or clients say that I possess?
- What words and phrases might people in my target market use to search for someone with my background?
If you can, it’s a good idea to collect testimonials from colleagues and customers to use as idea generation. Brainstorm a little. Use good ol’ fashioned pen and paper if you like! In fact, it’s probably smart to do so. LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to save draft changes to your profile, so work offline until you’re ready to update it.
Now that you’ve done the hard part of figuring out relevant keywords for your LinkedIn Headline, make sure you use them in your Summary and Experience sections too. This will boost SEO, improving your chances of getting found by the right customers.
If you want more reasons why this platform is so important for your business communications, read our blog post: 10 Ways LinkedIn Boosts Business Growth
Listing Skills on your profile will also ensure you rank highly in search results, and it presents an impressive professional image to potential customers when they see your key strengths displayed and endorsed by others. Want to make sure you’re covering all your SEO bases? Click the banner below to download our FREE LinkedIn checklist .
Want more help and social media training to boost your business? We offer small business training workshops in Adelaide and other major Australian cities, including LinkedIn Training.
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