The Secret to an Optimized LinkedIn Profile is Strategic Keywords
Do you want recruiters to find you on LinkedIn while you are sleeping? Of course you do — assuming they are the right recruiters, the ones who actually have jobs that match your interests, expertise, and salary expectations. The fastest way to get found is to fully-optimize your profile with LinkedIn keywords and let recruiters find you with no additional effort!
But where do you put your keywords on your profile? There are 4 sections where you need to focus.
Watch my video below and drive recruiters to you.
Book a Call with MikeTranscript:
Introduction on Getting Found on LinkedIn
Hi, this is Mike Mittleman your personal career coach. I help people get top jobs in financial services.
Today I’ll be talking about “how to get found on LinkedIn”. After watching this video, you will know exactly where to put your keywords on your profile so recruiters find you.
What Do Recruiters Do All Day? LinkedIn Searches. What Do They Look For? Keywords.
First, some background. If you have been watching my videos, you know that applying for jobs online is a frustrating and less than effective way to search for a job. So what is the quickest way to find a job? Optimize your Linked profile! Let your Linkedin profile work for you when you are sleeping.
What does that mean in English? It means that when a recruiter searches for talent, they rely upon LinkedIn’s search algorithm for results, just as you rely upon Google’s search results when you want to find a great restaurant. A good friend of mine is a recruiter for a large NYC based bank. What does he do all day long? LinkedIn searches.
So how does LinkedIn Search’s algo work? While they won’t tell anyone explicitly, we do know great deal after working with 600+ clients.
First, have as much as your profile filled in as possible, including those sections you may not think about, like your volunteer, skills, publications, honors, and recommendations sections. It’s really simple: the more you give LinkedIn information about you, the more they reward you in search priority.
The 4 sections of your LinkedIn profile that are key to getting found are:
- 1. Headline
- 2. About section
- 3. Experience section
- 4. Skills section
While you don’t want to load up on keywords for the sake of keywords, balancing really tight content and keywords will do the trick.
Let’s take, for example, your Headline section which appears directly below your name. The default is the name of your company and title. You get 220 characters to use however you want, and simply having the default is ineffective.
Let’s take a look at my LinkedIn profile. You should be able to understand exactly what the value I offer is and not really notice I have loaded up on keywords.
Do you see “I Help Buyside, Sellside, and FinTech Pros Get The Job They Want?“ Now if you don’t understand these words, then you are not my target market. However, if you are in finance, you will understand exactly what buyside, sellside and FinTech mean. The rest of the wording hits home with why you should hire me. However, let’s look at my keywords and word count. I have pretty close to the 220 limit. For someone in my position, you would expect to see “career coach,” “job,” my target market segments, “buyside, sellside, FinTech.” Since I don’t want you to hire me as your chef, you don’t see any food related words.
Optimizing Your About Section and Determining Your LinkedIn Keywords
The 2nd keyword search area is your About section. You get 2,000 characters so you have plenty of room to balance great content and keywords.
My keywords are job (12 times), career (10 times), resume (5 times). You get the point.
In another video I will cover the remaining 2 sections, the Experience and Skills sections.
You may have asked yourself the question: “Great, I know where to put them, but what are they? What are my keywords?”
To determine your keywords, find 6 job descriptions for the positions you want from any job search platform, copy the text from each into a word counter program (Like wordcounter.net) and notice the 5-10 most frequent words.
Summary
I hope you found this video on getting found on LinkedIn helpful. I’m Mike Mittleman. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and download our complimentary “How to get found on LinkedIn” tips below. Thanks!