Tips on how to optimise your LinkedIn profile

The internet is an important stage for many people to present them­selves to others – including from a pro­fes­sion­al point of view. With over 100 million active users, LinkedIn is one of the most important social business networks. More and more people rely on LinkedIn for job searches and net­work­ing; on the other hand, re­cruit­ers and HR staff use the site to find and contact in­ter­est­ing can­did­ates. Therefore, the better you design your LinkedIn profile, the greater the chance that re­cruit­ers or HR staff will notice you. If you pro­act­ively apply to companies via LinkedIn, your profile should also give a competent im­pres­sion. It doesn’t take much effort to do this. Follow these tips to optimise your LinkedIn profile.

You can access the "Edit" menu via the pencil icon on the right of your profile. There you can enter personal data such as your first and last name or your current job position as well as your contact details. A click on "See contact info" opens a box where you can enter your website and, for example, your telephone number and e-mail address. You can also access your public profile via your profile URL. There you can see how your profile is displayed to other users and you can edit your URL, content, and vis­ib­il­ity settings.

A complete profile gives a pro­fes­sion­al im­pres­sion and is a basic that’s needed in order to use LinkedIn suc­cess­fully. So what belongs in a LinkedIn profile?

LinkedIn profiles with a photo of the user are visited much more fre­quently than profiles without a photo. In addition, contact requests from users with photos are accepted more fre­quently. Your photo should match your relevant industry and give a serious im­pres­sion. Pro­fes­sion­ally-taken photos have proven to work most ef­fi­ciently with many users – however, the photo should not come across as too serious. It never hurts to smile.

In addition to your current job title, the profile headline also includes in­form­a­tion on the skills and qual­i­fic­a­tions that are relevant for the re­spect­ive industry. Your profile slogan appears in the Google search results and can encourage a recruiter to click if your headline gives off a positive im­pres­sion. But be sure to stay authentic and only state the skills and qual­i­fic­a­tions you actually have.

In this section, you have the op­por­tun­ity to write a short text that describes you as a person in a brief and concise way. The LinkedIn summary is located directly below your personal details. Ideally, you should write in a clear style by revealing the most important things about yourself in short sentences.

You have the option of uploading certain media to your profile. Use this option, for example, if you want to present samples of your work. However, this feature is not intended for sharing private photos. Only upload files that prove what qual­i­fic­a­tions you have.

You can link to your own website or another specific website. Depending on your industry, a link to your Instagram profile (for artists, pho­to­graph­ers, etc.) or Twitter account is also re­com­men­ded. In this case, it’s important to only link to content that is relevant for you as a business person.

This part of your profile resembles the well-known cur­riculum vitae. It will increase your cred­ib­il­ity and allow visitors to better classify you (e.g. by in­dic­at­ing your uni­ver­sity). Detailed job de­scrip­tions are less common. In the "Education" section, however, it is advisable to emphasise certain focal points, e.g. your major fields of study. The topic of your dis­ser­ta­tion or thesis may also be relevant.

LinkedIn allows you to specify three top skills. Think carefully about which of your skills are most relevant to the visitors coming to your profile and which skills best represent you. If you are unsure how to formulate your knowledge and skills, look at your col­leagues’ profiles and compare them. In addition to the top skills, you can define as many other skills as you want, but they will only be seen if you click on them. Don't ex­ag­ger­ate the details so that your profile remains credible.

This section is where you can add everything to make you stand out. It is important to add as much relevant content as possible to complete your profile. LinkedIn offers you the following options:

• Pub­lic­a­tions: If you are an author, editor, or copy­writer, you can enter your ref­er­ences here.
• Cer­ti­fic­a­tions: If you have a relevant cer­ti­fic­ate, you will find the ap­pro­pri­ate position here to indicate this. In addition to the cer­ti­fic­ate name, you can also enter the cer­ti­fic­a­tion authority and the license number to add cred­ib­il­ity to your entry.
• Patents: If you own a patent, you can enter it here. For this, you need three pieces of in­form­a­tion: the patent name, the relevant patent office, and the patent or ap­plic­a­tion number.
• Courses: Here you can specify a course that you want to take. You also have the option of linking the course with your employer or training in­sti­tu­tion.
• Projects: If you are working on a project, it is often useful to indicate this. You can also link the project to your job or in­struct­or.
• Honors & awards: If you have received an award, you can document it here.
• Exam results: Special ex­am­in­a­tions with present­able results should be placed here. When it comes to final ex­am­in­a­tions at uni­ver­sit­ies, for example, it is customary to include the topic of the final thesis or dis­ser­ta­tion in the details of the training.
• Languages: Language skills are extremely relevant in­form­a­tion for the modern pro­fes­sion­al world, which is why you should state them in full. However, it is important not to over­es­tim­ate yourself here: Even if you have studied Spanish, for example, you are not at the level of a native speaker, but should write that you are "business fluent."
• Or­gan­isa­tions: You may be a member of a relevant or­gan­isa­tion, but you should indicate this here so that you appear in the search results when someone searches for the re­spect­ive or­gan­isa­tion.

Here, links to the subpages of the network that you "follow" are found. These are employers, training centres, interest groups, and as­so­ci­ations. It makes sense to only follow those pages that represent you as a person in some way. Pro­fes­sion­al interests should count above all. You can also follow companies and groups on LinkedIn that have something to do with your private interests and hobbies. However, consider how these interests might be perceived by re­cruit­ers. For example, a group with a par­tic­u­lar political stance might be con­tro­ver­sial. Ul­ti­mately, it is important that you leave a serious im­pres­sion with your profile.

A pro­fes­sion­al looking LinkedIn profile has many ad­vant­ages. On the one hand, the profile gives you a good overview of your career, skills, and qual­i­fic­a­tions. LinkedIn also allows you to network with people that you would rather not send a friend request to on Facebook, namely your col­leagues, superiors, and decision-makers in your field of work. It's true: Almost nobody rejects a contact request via LinkedIn because both sides always benefit from expanding their own network. In mass social networks, users are actually more selective, because private content is shared more often there.

It is clear that you will benefit more from your LinkedIn profile if you con­stantly expand your network. This is only possible if your profile convinces visitors that you are an in­ter­est­ing person or a valuable contact with whom it is worth net­work­ing. The profile is the heart of LinkedIn and you should present it in the best possible way – whether for potential employers, your col­leagues, or other people. If you follow our tips, you will be one step further to suc­cess­fully using LinkedIn.

When you create a LinkedIn profile, a URL is auto­mat­ic­ally generated for your profile. The so-called vanity URL is much shorter and simpler and can be created in­di­vidu­ally. Your profile gives a more pro­fes­sion­al im­pres­sion with a vanity URL. To shorten your profile URL, first access your public profile. With a click on "Edit URL", you can now edit your profile URL and change it at any time. A shorter URL is also more con­veni­ent if you want to link to your LinkedIn profile, e.g. in a cover letter. URLs that are too long look cum­ber­some and messy.

Would you like to make it as easy as possible for users to network with you? The in­ter­act­ive profile button is ideal for this. It can be in­teg­rated almost anywhere without any problems, e.g. in your e-mail signature or on your website. With LinkedIn, these buttons are called profile badges. Various designs are available for these. The "Badge Builder" feature can also be accessed via the public profile settings.

By adding a link to your profile, it allows visitors to go directly to a specific website. For these links you can create in­di­vidu­al anchor texts. This allows you to per­son­al­ise your LinkedIn profile and increase overall attention. Under the menu item "Contact info," you can add any number of websites and select a suitable category: personal website or company website, blog, RSS feed, or portfolio.

Search engine op­tim­isa­tion is a broad field that even covers social networks and profiles. This means that you can also optimise your LinkedIn profile for Google search. To do this, you need to use the ap­pro­pri­ate terms that you want to rank in your profile. If a user searches for these terms or topics, there is a higher prob­ab­il­ity that your profile will be shown to them. Only use keywords that are related to your everyday life and job. Also be es­pe­cially careful when creating your LinkedIn profile headline – after all, it will appear directly in the Google search results.

More and more employers are re­cruit­ing new ap­plic­ants via direct search and are therefore looking for suitable employees for their company in business networks. For this reason, it is advisable to upload selected sample work as a video, image, or text file to your profile or at least to link to a file (e.g. if you host these files on your own website). Potential customers can get an im­pres­sion of your work this way. For example, under "Work ex­per­i­ence" in your profile, you can add media files to your in­di­vidu­al work sections, which will then be displayed in your profile.

The "Summary" section contains a short text, which is found directly below your personal data. Many LinkedIn members un­der­es­tim­ate the im­port­ance of this feature, and the text field is one of the first things someone visiting your profile sees. There you have the chance to reveal something about yourself in a more informal way. It helps if you imagine this field as a kind of teaser, which should give visitors a first im­pres­sion of you.

Think about what re­cruit­ers and HR staff should know about you, so that they get an authentic and con­vin­cing picture of who you are. However, formulate your summary as compactly as possible and make sure you have optimal keyword density. Use industry-specific technical terms and keywords that show off your expertise. This is your chance to be creative, but stay in­form­at­ive and objective!

Once you have set up a sat­is­fact­ory LinkedIn profile, this does not mean that your work is finished. On the contrary; you should check regularly to make sure that your profile is up-to-date. If you gain new qual­i­fic­a­tions, knowledge, skills, etc., you should mention this in your profile. Many users make the mistake of updating LinkedIn only when they are back on the job market. However, if you maintain your profile regularly, even though you are not looking for a new job, you are better equipped in case that time does come.

Not only is it important to keep your profile up to date, but it's also important to con­stantly expand your network and, if necessary, be active on LinkedIn by sharing and com­ment­ing on relevant content. This is the only way to attract the attention of those users who might later become important to you.

LinkedIn profiles offer you several pos­sib­il­it­ies for in­di­vidu­al­isa­tion. However, LinkedIn is a business network aimed at pro­fes­sion­al business contacts. Never operate LinkedIn like an ordinary social network. Always keep in mind that stricter rules apply here and a certain etiquette is expected and rewarded. See LinkedIn as a fancy club where you would always be on your best behaviour. Because almost everyone in this network is only showing their best side, ques­tion­able content is all the more no­tice­able. You should therefore avoid the following "no-gos" at all costs.

Do you want to share a funny picture or video? Have you seen an in­ter­est­ing article that has nothing to do with work? LinkedIn is not the right place for the kind of content that is usually shared on Facebook or Twitter. Normally, LinkedIn also provides you with a special contact list that includes your col­leagues, su­per­visors, and other business contacts. These people are primarily in­ter­ested in you as a pro­fes­sion­al or industry contact. Before posting posts, comments, and other content on LinkedIn, carefully consider whether it will improve or ruin your image.

LinkedIn is like an event with dress code, where everyone adheres to certain customs. Although a few re­cruit­ers are won over by an in­di­vidu­al, in­ter­est­ing ap­pear­ance, this does not mean that you should use a profile photo of you in your beachwear. Your profile headline should represent you as a worker, not ne­ces­sar­ily you as a private in­di­vidu­al. A joke or a funny saying can scare visitors away, after all, they are expecting in­sight­ful in­form­a­tion in your headline. That's what it's all about: The profile should contain all important qual­i­fic­a­tions and skills in a compact and appealing form. If you want to generate attention with other means, you’ll lose cred­ib­il­ity.

It goes without saying that spelling and grammar mistakes should be avoided. On LinkedIn, however, mistakes like these create an even worse im­pres­sion than elsewhere due to the pro­fes­sion­al context. It is therefore better to check your texts over and over and, if necessary, have the profile proofread by someone else. Errors in profile headlines are par­tic­u­larly no­tice­able. Many re­cruit­ers and HR staff skip profiles in the search results if they notice obvious errors.

Com­mu­nic­ate as precisely as possible who you are, where you have worked (or are currently working), and what you can offer. For example, students should not just call them­selves students, but should indicate their field of study. Your job title should describe as ac­cur­ately as possible what you are actually doing. For example, don’t just write "marketing," but use more detailed job titles such as "Content Marketing Manager." Re­cruit­ers and HR managers pay attention to precise in­form­a­tion like this. They may also search spe­cific­ally for these keywords. It would be annoying if you don’t appear in the search results due to in­ac­cur­ate in­form­a­tion.

Please note the legal dis­claim­er relating to this article.