How to Use LinkedIn to Improve SEO Results

LinkedIn continues to be overlooked as a vital asset for empowering SEO. Here’s the kicker: LinkedIn has its own SEO capabilities AND the social media platform can be used to improve SEO for a brand’s website.

Wait, SEO on LinkedIn is a real thing? Indeed it is. With the right strategy, you can organically rank your LinkedIn profile, as well as published articles on the platform.

This article will address how SEO within LinkedIn can be performed to generate business growth, and how LinkedIn can leverage SEO in the traditional sense.

Start Viewing LinkedIn as a Search Engine

In order to get SEO results within LinkedIn, you must first look at the social media platform as a search engine just like Google. With a massive network of professionals and tons of content, the opportunities are endless. According to Khoros, “80% of leads sourced through social media for B2B marketers come from LinkedIn.” This is why optimizing your LinkedIn presence is crucial to your growth.

Here are some tips you can use to optimize your LinkedIn profile and start showing up in Google search results:

1. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn has a crazy high domain authority. It also gets the tone of user engagement and is loaded with fresh, original content on a daily basis by thousands of users. This is why Google loves LinkedIn and why user’s profiles and blog articles rank organically in Google for various search phrases.

Most search terms Google ranks LinkedIn for revolve around job roles. In order to stand out in this regard, be sure to fill your LinkedIn profile and go into detail about your job title and responsibilities.

Don’t cut corners and leave sections empty; provide all the fine details that will help elevate your profile above others in your space. Make sure you are descriptive and use words that will intrigue others.

Also, think in terms of how your ideal customers might be searching for a professional like you in your industry, then use the pain points as key phrases in your profile description. Bullet points are ideal because they make your profile easy to digest, and they generally lead to greater session durations.

Speaking of engagement signals that garner SEO improvements, be sure to upload a clear, current professional picture of yourself. If your photo is clearly from the high school or college yearbook, or your photo shows you screaming with a beer in your hand at the football game, people are inclined to not take you seriously and will bounce out of your profile faster than you can shake a stick.

These engagement metrics will impact your ability to rank your LinkedIn profile, so be sure to choose one that gives a polished look. Finally, make sure the image is tagged appropriately so you can rank in image results.

2. Use the Right Keywords

Using the right keywords in your LinkedIn profile and blog articles requires the same thought process for optimizing a website; you need to focus on user intent when thinking of keywords and the context to use them in.

Avoid keyword stuffing as you would when writing content for a website. Create buyer personas to get a general starting point for farming keywords rich in buyer intent.

These keywords should be peppered throughout your profile, speaking to a precise audience. Be sure to really focus on the summary section, as it is one of the first sections people read and one of the easiest places to add valuable optimized content.

Remember, people aren’t reading your profile to hear you give mad props to yourself. Instead, they want to get a better understanding of what you do, and how you can help them achieve their business goals.

3. Customize Your LinkedIn Profile URL

If you’ve never given your LinkedIn URL any thought, go ahead and take a look at it and ask yourself if it reflects what your ideal customers are searching for. Your URL likely has a vague reference to your name, and a bunch of gobbledygook.

It is ideal to update your LinkedIn URL with your full name and job title or role. Make sure the URL is clear, and professional.

4. Use Social Signals to Improve Your Website’s SEO

Whenever you share a piece of content on LinkedIn, and someone makes a comment, likes it, or shares it, powerful social signals are generated and shoot back to your site. Google recognizes social signals as ranking factors; as people engage with your content and click through to your website, a message is sent that they value your content and want to learn more.

Once someone clicks through to your site and generates healthy engagement signals, SEO results get even better.

In order to use LinkedIn to improve your SEO efforts as described above, start by joining a number of social groups where your ideal customers spend time. You can also join industry groups.

Start commenting on content people share, and notice which topics are the most popular, as well as the most common pain points expressed by buyers. Then create high-quality blogs that address buyer needs, and that revolve around popular topics.

When you give people valuable content, they will engage in it, and as you collect these social signals, your appropriate rankings and domain authority will improve.

Need to Find Other Ways to Attract Organic Traffic?

Whether you are growing your personal brand or expanding your professional network, maintaining your online presence is a big part of the job. By following the steps above and making some small tweaks to your profile, you can be on your way to gaining more visibility in Linked and Google search results.

Keeping up with the latest social and search trends is a lot work. For more tips and insights into improving your organic search presence, download your free guide below and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you have. 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in NOVEMBER 2018 by WEBITMD. It has since been updated to reflect current best practices, services, and capabilities.