Tag Archives: LinkedIn SEO

LinkedIn Profile Search Engine Optimization / SEO

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I recently wrote about what happens when you search for yourself on LinkedIn.

Now I’d like to address what happens when people don’t search for you by name, but rather try to find people like you using “regular” keywords and titles.

When it comes to Internet search, the goal for most people and companies is to be on the first page of search results for your keywords, and ideally #1 if at all possible.

When you search LinkedIn with the titles you have on your profile and keywords you’ve mentioned in your metro area, do you show up in the first 10 results?

Have you ever wondered if there was anything you could do to positively affect your ranking in search results when someone searches LinkedIn looking for people like you? Have you seen heavily keyword-loaded LinkedIn profiles and wondered if it really does any good?

You could get lost in all of the YouTube videos and blog posts on the subject of LinkedIn profile optimization, but most of it is pure speculation.

Before I go into some detail as to what I think is going on with LinkedIn search ranking and what you might be able to do to positively affect your ranking, I’d like to show you a little experiment I’ve run and ask you to do something similar and see what happens.

You have searched or have had someone else search LinkedIn by the titles and keywords you used on your profile to see where you rank, haven’t you? Continue reading →

Free LinkedIn Profile Optimization and Job Seeker Advice

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I watched a YouTube video the other day in which someone was charging job seekers for LinkedIn profile optimization.

It bothered me.

While I appreciate capitalism and don’t fault people for recognizing and seizing an opportunity, I think that in today’s economy, job seekers deserve all of the help they can get, and the currently unemployed certainly don’t need another expense.

Seeing that YouTube video inspired me to create a series of six videos sharing my knowledge of LinkedIn Groups, Jobs, Companies, profile optimization and Internet research to help people make better use of LinkedIn in their current and future job search efforts. Continue reading →

Where Do You Rank In LinkedIn’s Search Results?

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LinkedIn_Why_Join_LinkedIn2 from www.linkedin.com Have you ever wondered where you rank in the search results when other people search for you or people like you in LinkedIn?

Have you ever searched for yourself on LinkedIn?

Do you know here you rank in the results?

From my research and observations, most of what the LinkedIn experts and gurus advise with regard to LinkedIn profile optimization may be wrong. In fact, some of the things people are doing on LinkedIn in an attempt to positively affect their search ranking may have a dramatically opposite effect!

Let me show you what I’ve found.

What Happens When You Search for Yourself on LinkedIn?

When I search for myself, this is what I get:

LinkedIn_Glen_Cathey_Relevance

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but something told me I should be #1. Instead, I am the last on the list of results sorted by relevance, after people who aren’t even in my network.

None of the profiles, including my own, mention my name more than once.

Then I decided I would try searching for my name in the keywords field to see what would happen. The results are the same – I am dead last, and the top 2 results are people who have only 1 connection. The third result isn’t even spelled the exact way I searched for it, and it’s still ranked higher than me.

Does this happen to everyone who searches for themselves? Does LinkedIn always rank you last in your own search?

What happens when you search for yourself by first and last name in LinkedIn? Is your experience any different?

LinkedIn’s Answer to Search Result Ranking

To get to the bottom of this mystery, I thought I’d try checking into LinkedIn’s searchable customer support center. I’m not sure how many other people have really delved into all that is available there.

Surprisingly, it turns out they have an answer to the question of why my profile doesn’t rank at the top of LinkedIn search results. I suggest you read very carefully. Continue reading →

LinkedIn Search Results Sorting: Relevance or Keyword?

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Find_People_on_LinkedIn from www.linkedin.comWhen I deliver presentations on how to leverage LinkedIn to source candidates, I have the opportunity to get a sense of what most people seem to know about using LinkedIn.  Recently I have been making it a point to ask how people tend to sort their search results when searching LinkedIn, and the overwhelming majority leave their results sorting at the default value, which is “relevance.”

LI_Search_Sort6

I find this especially interesting, because most people do not seem to realize that when you sort your search results by “relevance” on LinkedIn, you are not getting results based solely on the search terms entered – you are getting results ordered by a combination of factors – including your “social graph.” 

LinkedIn’s definition of “relevance” is decidedly different than practically every other searchable source of potential candidates – Monster, Google, Applicant Tracking Systems, Twitter, etc. – and what LinkedIn *thinks* is relevant to you may actually not be based on what you are specifically looking for. Continue reading →