11 Best LinkedIn Profile Tips From a Recruiter

I will give you my top 11 LinkedIn profile tips to help you stand out to hiring managers, recruiters, and anybody looking for talent on LinkedIn.

You want more views and clicks, but you also need to leave an impression on people once they click, or else they won’t come back. We’ll discuss how to increase clickthroughs as well as how to appear fantastic once someone has actually viewed you.

11 Best LinkedIn Profile Tips and Tricks

1. Choose a Specific Audience for Your Best LinkedIn Profile

Identifying your audience is the first step in enhancing your LinkedIn profile. With whom or how do you wish to be perceived?

Are you attempting to establish a new business, expand your network, find new employment, or pursue some other objective?

Before moving on to the next phase, you should take a seat and clearly define how you intend to use LinkedIn. Because there is no one-size-fits-all ideal Best LinkedIn profile, having your message specifically targeted to your audience is one of the most crucial LinkedIn tips.

In addition to choosing your LinkedIn profile photo based on your target audience, you must compose your headline, professional work experience, abilities, and keywords. (For instance, despite the fact that most people should present a professional image, the proprietor of a travel company I previously spoke to was using a picture from a backpacking trip. For most people, who should use a professional headshot, this wouldn’t be a wise decision; yet, it was ideal for his audience).

2. Put Keywords and Search Terms in Your “Skills” Section

On LinkedIn, keywords might help you appear in search results. Every day, recruiters and other professionals conduct searches to identify candidates.

And keywords include your LinkedIn skills. Your profile will appear when someone searches for a particular word or phrase, even if you don’t use it anywhere else in your profile.

Take full advantage of the chance to list up to 50 skills on LinkedIn. Select abilities that are pertinent to the type of person you wish to reach out to and attract. Consider the search terms that a person could use or what might grab their attention.

This LinkedIn method should be used by everyone as there is no better location to add keywords to your profile.

You could try to stuff 50 keywords into your most recent job or synopsis, but that would wreck your profile (and turn off anyone who reads it). Take advantage of the chance to do so in your skills section!

This is perhaps my favorite LinkedIn profile tip because it may significantly affect the number of recruiters and employers who find you in their searches and takes a few minutes to do.

3. Optimize Your Headline and Profile Picture for More Clicks

Anyone conducting a LinkedIn search, including recruiters, will see 10 persons per page of results. Then, since they haven’t yet viewed your entire profile, they will decide who to click on based on just a few bits of information. The “big two” things they focus on first are your photograph and your headline (the phrase that appears immediately below your name on your profile).

Therefore, you must ensure that these two aspects of your profile are excellent.

Make sure your appearance is first welcoming and professional. It’s human nature to react when we see someone’s photo, even while I don’t spend my whole day on LinkedIn criticizing others based only on appearance. Most individuals are quite visual and will respond to your photo in some way instantly. Regardless of how unknowingly.

The headline comes next. It can be changed by going to the “edit profile” page, which is located directly beneath your name in search results. Typically, it has the following form by default: Job Title at Company (i.e. – Software Engineer at Apple).

The words “software engineer” will be bold as I scroll past your profile if I searched for that term and your headline contained that phrase. It’s a terrific technique to catch my eye and it immediately lets me know that your profile matches what I was looking for.

So here is what I advise:

Leave your title alone or simply add one or two more keywords if it contains some good keywords and is fairly conventional for your business. These are all illustrations of strong titles that just require minor modification:

Head of Sales at __.

Recruiting coordinator at __.

Senior Project Manager at __.

If your work title, such as “Technical Associate,” is exclusive to your organization or isn’t particularly precise, choose something more descriptive and include keywords so that people can discover you and understand what you do. “Technical Associate in Software and Information Systems,” for example.

It also offers folks a far better picture of what your actual job entails. This includes a lot more keywords. You don’t need to make any changes to your employment history, please note. Just tweaking the headline at this point

Other considerations in this case

Avoid going too far and making it spammy, and keep the title brief. Sayings like “Award Winning Inbound Marketing Expert and Published Author With 10 Years of Experience” should be avoided. It’s excessive, makes you appear overly sincere, and undermines your credibility.

Additionally, refrain from using too many acronyms or certificates in your title (or in your name). You may include one, such as PMP (Project Management Professional). This is often the subject of headlines. PMP John Brown It’s alright.

But overloading your profile with acronyms is one of the quickest ways to make yourself appear spammy. As a recruiter, the last people I want to speak with are those who use a lot of acronyms in their names or headline. I stay away from them at all costs. Don’t subject yourself to this!

Choose the one or two certificates that matter most if you have numerous ones. “If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority,” is a quote I appreciate. Select the most crucial certification and disregard the others; otherwise, the reader will not pay attention to any of them and believe that none of them are significant.

Additional reading: 10 excellent examples of LinkedIn headlines

4. Get Professional Recommendations on Your Profile Page

The two profile suggestions above should help you start receiving clicks to your LinkedIn quite soon. After they click, you need to make your profile look impressive to the reader.

Obtaining recommendations for your profile is the best action you can take. I made this article to explain how to acquire recommendations on LinkedIn quickly and simply. I advise looking into it. In case you’re thinking, “I don’t have anyone to ask,” it includes a word-for-word template you can use to ask people to recommend you as well as six different suggestions for the kinds of individuals you can ask.

Two or three recommendations are desired. It is the most eye-catching element you may use on your profile. It’s also the most effective way to establish credibility and get businesses to interview you once they’ve looked you up on LinkedIn.

5. Focus Heavily on Your Experience Section

Spending a lot of time and attention on your LinkedIn experience section is one of the best pieces of writing advice I can provide you if you’re a job seeker or anyone trying to network.

You have a tonne of freedom and flexibility on LinkedIn. It’s an opportunity to incorporate important keywords to increase profile visibility as well as professional accomplishments, awards, and other data to draw readers’ attention as they read your profile page.

Therefore, the work experience portion of every excellent LinkedIn profile should contain in-depth information. When it comes to best practices for LinkedIn, this cannot be missed or neglected.

6. Put Specific Accomplishments Under Past Jobs

This is one of my favorite suggestions for improving a LinkedIn profile, but in my opinion, not many job searchers apply for it.

What you should do is: Under each previous employment, include particular figures and achievements in your bullet points. Think about doing this in the “About” part of your profile as well.

Not just “Responsible for _” will do. Instead, begin with a verb like “Grew,” “Led,” or “Increased” and then list as many concrete outcomes and achievements as you can. In what ways did you assist your employer? That is the topic to discuss.

It’s not nearly as remarkable as giving results and stats because having a lot of duties says nothing about how good you were.

An illustration of how to use this LinkedIn tip when composing bullet points is shown below: “Brought on 16 new clients in 2020, increasing department income by 11%.”

“Hired and trained 8 additional team members,” as another example

Another illustration: “Managed three different project teams totaling 12 personnel, resulting in an average of five successful customer projects per month in 2019.”

So, go look at your job descriptions or bullet points and consider whether you’re describing what you did or just what you were accountable for. Additionally, this is a fantastic approach to enhancing your resume. This goes beyond being a LinkedIn tip.

7. Get to 500 Connections

Your LinkedIn network’s size may be used by some recruiters and employers to evaluate you.

Fortunately, LinkedIn only displays “500+ connections” after 500 connections, making that a reasonable figure to aim for when building your network.

Now, this isn’t a critical professional move, and it’s not even the most important piece of advice on this list. Additionally, you shouldn’t reach out to strangers or individuals you don’t know personally or who aren’t connected to your profession or sector.

But as your career progresses, be careful to make an effort to interact with new people and professionals in your field. You’ll eventually reach 500 connections, which is simply one more opportunity to enhance your LinkedIn profile and give it a slightly better initial impression.

8. Write a Summary Section that Makes the Reader Want to Read More

Your summary/about the part is one of the first areas on your LinkedIn profile page.

Since your summary is one of the first things a reader sees, it should contain relevant keywords and information that encourages them to continue reading.

Additionally, you must persuade the reader to want to read more about this particular area.

Here is all that LinkedIn displays to a reader in this section at first look. Although there isn’t a lot of room, you can display much more after they click to expand the section. So encourage them to read on.

One of the most crucial pieces of advice I can offer is this: Unless someone clicks “see more,” only a few lines of your LinkedIn summary are shown.

The two objectives of this section are as follows:

• To encourage the reader to click “see more”
• After concluding this section, make them want to continue reading to learn more about your professional background.

9. Copy What Works for Other People

One of my favorite LinkedIn tips—and also one of the simplest—is this one.

The finest methods for fast enhancing your LinkedIn profile are those mentioned in the aforementioned advice. There is one more thing you should do, though, and it will benefit everything we’ve just discussed.

Examine what others in your sector are doing. Consider that you are a scientist. Find a few profiles on LinkedIn by searching for “scientists” that you think look fantastic. Check out their talent list or headline to see what they are advertising. Try to remember what prompted you to click on their profile from the search screen in the first place.

Now apply what you’ve learned to your profile. Combine several concepts from the top profiles available.

You might discover a fantastic keyword that you overlooked. You might find how to improve your title just a little, etc.

Overall, if you’re looking for outside inspiration and not only working off of the thoughts in your mind, your LinkedIn profile will be a lot better. Although you should start with your ideas, don’t be scared to incorporate some of the best ideas from other people’s work. It is a successful tactic that will benefit you right now.

10. Write in the First Person, not the Third Person

Everyone dislikes reading a LinkedIn profile written in the third person, such as “Beth is a nationally recognized HR leader, with 18 years of experience in…”, as a former recruiter I can attest to this.

Write in the first person, using “I,” or just write, “Nationally-recognized HR leader,” without any pronouns.

11. Include Relevant Certifications in Your Headline, but Not Too Many

One or two certificates can improve your profile and make it easier for people to understand your professional credentials. However, it’s off-putting when someone’s LinkedIn title or headline has eight cryptic abbreviations and qualifications.

So be picky and consider carefully whether certification will be known or acknowledged, as well as whether it is pertinent and important.

Ask recruiters which certifications they value for a specific position if you’re unsure. Alternatively, inquire as to which of your certifications is most pertinent.

Alternatively, look over a few job descriptions for the new position you want and see if any include certifications. This will enable you to understand which official certifications can be valuable to hiring managers and recruiters. You’ll stand out and secure more interviews in your job hunt if you put the aforementioned LinkedIn advice into practice.