IN THIS CHAPTER

Optimizing your LinkedIn search results

Determining your keywords

Creating a clickable search result

Increasing your search ranking

LinkedIn helps people connect with opportunity. Whether it’s a new job, a sale, a media interview, a business partnership, or something else entirely, many times the connection starts with a LinkedIn search.

At the time of this writing, LinkedIn has over 575 million users in over 200 countries. Of those 575 million users, 260 million are active on a monthly basis, and 40 percent are engaging on a daily basis (https://kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics). Making sure your profile sticks out and pops up is important. In this chapter, I show you how people use LinkedIn as a search engine. I show you the importance of your search result listing and how to make it attractive and clickable. I also show you how to discover your keywords and how to infuse them into your profile for higher search engine ranking. By the time you finish this chapter, you will have a list of your keywords and the knowledge of how to dominate LinkedIn search results.

Using LinkedIn as a Search Engine

Getting views to your profile doesn’t always start through an Internet search. LinkedIn is more than just a professional network and profile listing. LinkedIn is a different type of search engine. Most search engines return websites. Searches conducted via a LinkedIn search return LinkedIn profiles, company pages, job listings, reader-published posts and blog articles, and LinkedIn Groups. LinkedIn search is also used to find potential customers, vendors, service providers, and employees.

Using the search bar

On the top of LinkedIn’s website is the search bar. This is where most people enter their search terms. When people search LinkedIn, they search in two different ways: name or keyword. A direct name search is typically performed after a resume has been received or when a person has met you and is looking to connect on LinkedIn. The person doing the search is looking for one, specific person.

Most times, people are searching not for a specific person but for a type of person with distinct skill sets and strengths. In this situation, the person conducting the search enters those skill sets as keywords into the LinkedIn search bar. As the keywords are entered, LinkedIn’s search bar presents a drop-down menu with suggested results (see Figure 2-1). However, rather than selecting from the drop-down list, you can press the Enter or Return key on your keyboard or you can click the magnifying glass that appears to the right of the search bar when it’s active to visit a full page of search results. For example, Figure 2-2 shows the results of a LinkedIn search for the keywords “Customer Success Manager.” The search results display profiles that contain those keywords. Your profile never displays as a search result listing if those keywords do not exist within the profile. Therefore, to get found in searches, your profile must contain the keywords a person is using in the search.

Using search filters

Once you perform a search on LinkedIn and see the search results page, you can refine your search. You can filter your search by People, Jobs, Content, Companies, Schools, and Groups. You can also filter your search results by how you are connected to a person, location, or current company. In Figure 2-2, you can see the search filters immediately below the LinkedIn search box.

If you are looking for a person with a common name like Joseph Smith, you can filter by location or by his current company to find him. If you are looking for posts that contain the name of a company, you can filter by Content. The results are posts that people broadcast through their LinkedIn feeds.

If you are looking for people who provide a certain service, you can filter by Locations so you know they are located near you. You can also filter by Connections. Choose first for people you are already connected to or second for people who have mutual connections in common with you.

Even more filters are available on the All Filters page. When recruiters search LinkedIn, they often use LinkedIn’s All Filters to find the exact candidate they seek. See what the People search filters look like in Figure 2-3.

The All People Filters search filters provide additional fields to narrow your search to exactly your target results. You can search by connections, connections of, location, current and past company, industry, profile language, school, interests, and services they offer. You can also drill in even deeper by searching by first and last names, job titles, company, or school. Premium LinkedIn members get access to even more filters such as Years of Experience, Function, Seniority Level, Company Size, and more.

Recruiters typically search by the job titles they are trying to fill and the industry. If they are looking for a candidate in a specific area, they will add the Location to make sure they are only finding people within that area.

Follow these steps to use LinkedIn’s search filters:

1. Go to LinkedIn.com.

2. From any LinkedIn page, enter your desired search terms in the LinkedIn search bar.

   A drop-down list appears with suggested search results.

3. Click the blue magnifying glass icon that appears to the right of the search box.

   The full search results page appears.

4. Click People to ensure you are only seeing people within the results and not Jobs, Content, Companies, Schools, or Groups.
5. Filter the search results by the degree of connection you'd like to appear in the search results, selected geographic area, or company.

6. To access even more filters (including industry), click All Filters.

   The All People Filters page appears.

In addition to searching for people, you can also search LinkedIn for jobs, content, companies, groups, and schools.

Ensuring a Compelling and Attractive Search Result

People use LinkedIn to find other people. They are looking for job candidates, service providers, strategic partnerships, and many other professional relationships. When someone clicks the Search button on LinkedIn, he or she is confronted with a list of search results. It’s important that your profile turns up in the search results, but it’s even more imperative that your search result listing catches the searcher’s eye and compels him or her to click your listing to learn more about you.

Your search result listing is comprised of the following:

• Your profile picture
• Your name and degree of connection
• Your headline
• Your location
• Your current or past job title and company
• Names and total number of connections in common
• Services you may offer or if you are currently open to new opportunities

By making sure your profile picture, headline, and current job listing are optimized and compelling, you are ensuring that when recruiters or others looking for a person like you sees your listing, they will be sufficiently impressed to click your profile rather than another person’s profile.

Looking through pages and pages of LinkedIn search results is a daunting task. It’s important to make sure your search result listing showcases you in the best light. For example, many recruiters and hiring managers actually skip past profiles that do not have a profile picture. The omission of a profile picture typically means that the LinkedIn user doesn’t take the social network seriously, provides little detail to his or her career trajectory, and won’t respond when an InMail message is sent. (InMail is a message that you send to a member not directly connected to you. Only Premium members have the ability to send InMail messages.) By including a profile picture, you are proving that you are a serious LinkedIn user and networker. I show you how to upload a profile picture in Chapter 6.

Let’s see what your full search result listing looks like by performing a name search for you:

1. Type your name into the LinkedIn search bar and click the magnifying glass icon (or press Enter or Return).

   While you are typing, LinkedIn may provide you with suggestions from a drop-down list. Do not choose any of these suggestions. Upon pressing Enter or Return, search result listings appear.

2. Find your search result listing.

   Your search result listing may be the only result, or if you have a common name, your listing may reside farther down the list of search results.

3. Look at your search result and determine if it showcases you in the best light.

   Did you upload a professional profile picture? Is your headline engaging? Read through the chapters in Part 2 of this book to learn how to optimize these different areas.

Look at Figure 2-4 to see the difference between an optimized and an unoptimized search result listing and the differences between a free and a paid user listing.

Understanding the Importance of Keywords

To appear in search results, you must identify what words people are using to find a person like you. What words would they type into LinkedIn search to find you? These search terms are your keywords.

Your profile never appears in search results for terms that do not appear in your profile. In order to appear, your profile must contain those keywords people use to search.

How many keywords do you need? I suggest choosing five to ten main keywords to pepper throughout your profile. When you try to rank for too many keywords, you lose keyword density and you end up not ranking for anything.

Keywords don’t have to be just one word. A keyword could be a phrase. For example, profit and loss may be three words, but it is considered one keyword.

Keywords must be descriptive and exact. Problem-solver and dynamic professional are not good keywords. These words are too general and can describe anyone from a top executive to an office manager. Good keywords are specific and reflective of key skills, strengths, core competencies, specialties, and abilities that differentiate you.

Here are some questions to help you determine your keywords:

• In what industries have you worked?
• What positions have you held?
• What certifications have you earned?
• What skill sets were listed on your last job description or resume?
• What computer applications do you know?
• What languages do you speak?
• What services do you provide?
• What topics are you an expert in?
• What products do you sell?
• What additional strengths or skill sets do you have?

Answering these questions provides you with a starting point. Now that you have a few keywords, the next step is to use one of several online keyword tools to find additional, related keywords.

The following is a list of keyword examples to get you thinking. These are real meat-and-potato keywords. Highlight or star the keywords that seem to fit you and your role. Once you have that list, use the keyword tools described in the next section to dive in deeper and find more keywords that fit you.

• Accounting
• Account reconciliation
• Auditing
• Budgets/budgeting/budget control
• Contract management
• Corporate governance
• Financial reporting/analysis
• Financial statements
• Fixed assets
• General ledger
• Internal controls
• Inventory management
• Investment finance
• Investor relations
• Tax accounting
• Taxation
• Engineering
• 3D modeling
• Assembly design/modification
• Conceptualization
• Consistency and compatibility
• Data collection and analysis
• Design methodologies
• Efficiency control
• Integrated solutions and services
• Job costing
• Mission-critical programs
• Process development
• Process improvements
• Project management
• Prototypes
• Resource allocation
• Executive
• Budgeting
• Business plans
• Change management
• Deal negotiations
• International business
• IPOs
• Joint ventures
• Operational streamlining
• P&L/Profit and loss
• Policy development
• Process reengineering
• Profit building
• Restructuring
• Start-up operations
• Turnaround strategies
• Human Resources
• Business reengineering
• Compensation management/analysis
• Deferred compensation
• Dispute arbitration
• Employee relations
• Job description development
• Labor relations
• Leadership development
• New Hire orientation
• Performance management
• Recruitment/recruiting
• Succession planning
• Talent management
• US Family and Medical Leave Act
• Workforce planning
• Information Technology
• Data center operations
• Database administration
• Fault analysis
• Information security
• Infrastructure development
• IT risk management
• Multiplatform integration
• Network administration
• Process reengineering
• Quality assurance
• Solutions delivery
• Systems configuration
• Technical documentation
• Web-based technology
• Yield management
• Professor/Teacher
• Brain-based learning
• Classroom management
• Classroom planning
• Curriculum design
• Curriculum development
• Discipline strategies
• Educational leadership
• Educational technology
• In-service training
• Interdisciplinary teaching approaches
• Lesson planning
• Peer mentoring
• Process improvement
• Teacher-parent relations
• Technology integration
• Retail
• Assortment
• Customer service/interpersonal skills
• Inventory management
• Loss prevention
• Marketing strategy
• Merchandise planning
• Merchandising
• Planograms
• POS terminals
• Sales management
• Shrinkage
• Store management
• Store operations
• Team management
• Visual merchandising
• Sales and Marketing
• Account expansion
• Account management
• Account retention
• Channel development
• Client relations
• Competitive analysis
• Contract negotiations
• Lead generation
• Market analysis
• New business development
• Post-sale support
• Product rollout
• Proposal development
• Prospecting
• Sales forecasting
• Supply Chain
• Asset management
• Cost reduction
• Demand planning
• Distribution management
• Inventory control
• Logistics planning
• Loss prevention
• Procurement
• Purchasing
• Quality control/assurance
• Route management
• Shipping/receiving
• Six Sigma
• Vendor relations
• Warehousing
• Telecommunications
• 3G
• Audio visual and peripheral equipment
• Broadband
• Customer service
• Integration
• Internet protocol (IP)
• Network installations
• Product management
• Project management
• Telephony
• Value-added service
• Voice and data networks
• Voice over IP (VOIP)
• Wireless technology

Using Online Keyword Tools

Coming up with the right keywords is challenging. The good news is that there are tools designed to assist you in finding the right keywords.

One of my favorite techniques to determine keywords is the word cloud. A word cloud is a way to visualize data. It is an image composed of words used in a particular piece of writing. The size of each word is determined by how many times the word is used or the importance of that word. A word cloud generator is an application that scans through text and provides a graphic output of words. The more often a specific word appears in inputted text, the larger and more colorful the word is shown in the word cloud. (My favorite word cloud generator is found at WordArt.com, which I discuss in the next section.)

To use a word cloud generator, you first need text for it to analyze. Use text from your current job description in digital format or find a similar job description online. If you are looking for your next opportunity, do an Internet search for a job description that fits your dream job. Don’t worry whether the position is in your location or already filled. Most job descriptions are the same — right now you are just after the text and not the actual opportunity.

If you are not a job seeker but instead looking to brand yourself more effectively or showcase yourself as an expert thought leader, use the content of your company’s website or marketing literature. There are also industry-related articles and white papers that you can use. Also check out the LinkedIn profiles of people you admire and copy their LinkedIn profile content into the generator. (But do not copy their content into your own profile!)

There are a number of word cloud generators out there on the Internet. Here are a few examples:

• WordArt (https://wordart.com)
• WordClouds (www.wordclouds.com)
• Word Cloud Generator (http://wordcloudmaker.com)

Using WordArt.com

WordArt.com is my favorite free word cloud generator. I love it because not only is it super easy to use, but also the resulting word clouds are visually beautiful and you can customize them.

Follow these steps to use WordArt.com to generate a word cloud for keyword discovery:

1. Find and copy the text you want to visualize for keywords by highlighting the text and pressing Ctrl+C (Windows) or Cmd+C (Mac).
2. Open your web browser and go to https://wordart.com/create.

3. Click the Import button that appears on the left side of the screen.

   A large, empty text box appears with the words, “Input your text here.” Figure 2-5 shows the text input area of WordArt.com.

4. Paste the text into the WordArt.com text box.

   Copy and paste by using the right-click menu or by pressing Ctrl+C (Windows) or Cmd+C (Mac) to copy and Ctrl+V (Windows) or Cmd+V (Mac) to paste.

5. Click the Import Words button.
6. Click the Visualize button.

The resulting word cloud visually shows you what words hold the most weight. These words are typically your keywords. Check out Figure 2-6 to see what a word cloud looks like. I used a job description text to generate this word cloud. Clearly customer, success, manager, and team are important keywords for this position.

Hopefully your word cloud provided you a good strong list of keywords. If not, I have another keyword tool, and this one is found right in LinkedIn.

Using LinkedIn’s job postings

LinkedIn is not just a social network, and it’s not just a search engine; LinkedIn is also a job portal. A veritable warehouse of job listings, you can search LinkedIn for open positions worldwide (see Figure 2-7). And LinkedIn provides more than just a job description — it also provides a section called How You Match. This section highlights the skills pertinent to the position and lets you know if your skills are a match. If you are a premium LinkedIn user, you also get access to a section that shares competitive intelligence about other applicants. You can see where you rank based upon your LinkedIn profile, and you can see the top skills of those who have already applied.

These two areas are great places to discover additional keywords. These skills may also describe your skill sets. If so, not only consider them keywords but also add them to your LinkedIn Skills section.

To access LinkedIn’s job postings, follow these steps:

1. Click Jobs on LinkedIn’s toolbar.

   The LinkedIn Jobs page appears.

2. In the Search Jobs text box, enter the position you are interested in and click the Search button.

   A new page displays with a listing of open positions. You can also designate a location to search.

3. Click the job listing you find most compelling.

   More information on that position appears on the right side of the screen. Scroll through to find more information.

Using Good Ole Google

I have one more tool in my arsenal of keyword tools to help you determine your keywords: Google. Go to Google (www.google.com) and search job descriptions for the position you are interested in obtaining. For example, “Customer Success Manager job description.”

You may find job descriptions from Indeed.com, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, or Monster. Don’t worry if some of the results are for old postings that are no longer open or for positions located outside your target area. The point of this exercise is to find four or five job descriptions to determine the different ways this position is defined. Print out the descriptions and with a pen or pencil, underline the keywords that are specific to the position (see Figure 2-8).

Repeat this exercise at least five times, using five different job descriptions. You want to make sure you know exactly how different companies are defining the role you are targeting so you can define yourself in the same way and be seen as the perfect candidate!

Regardless of how you located your keywords, make sure you write them down. Don’t make the mistake of trying to remember them in your head. It’s important to keep these keywords in front of you so you can work them into your LinkedIn profile in an organic, natural manner. In Figure 2-9 is a blank form to use to jot down your keywords.

Ranking Higher with Profile SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of making certain strategic changes to a profile to boost its search ranking. By putting in a little effort, you can improve your profile’s ranking so it appears more often and higher in search. Certain areas within your profile are highly sensitive to the addition of keywords. When you add keywords to these areas, the LinkedIn search algorithm treats these keywords with more weight and your profile ranks higher on the search results page. These highly sensitive SEO fields are:

• Headline
• About section
• Skills & Endorsements section
• Job titles (especially current)
• Job descriptions

Make sure these five areas are rich in your chosen keywords. Don’t just list keywords in the summary and job description fields. Use your keywords intentionally yet naturally in your narrative. Write for your reader first and the search engine second.

The more times a keyword is repeated throughout your profile, the higher you may rank for that keyword in LinkedIn search results. Although repeating keywords is a good thing, it’s easy to become obnoxious, so be careful not to overdo it!

Figure 2-10 demonstrates the difference between strategic keyword usage and obnoxious keyword stuffing.

You can rank higher by repeating your keywords ad nauseam, but when your target reader opens your profile and sees the repetition, they are turned off and exit from your profile and move on to the next search result listing. Keyword abuse doesn’t impress anyone. In fact, LinkedIn has been known to delete profiles that are abusive in their keyword stuffing technique. Ultimately, you want to be strategic and smart when peppering your profile with keywords, not obnoxious.

Building Off Profile SEO

In addition to building a powerful profile enriched with keywords, another way to increase your LinkedIn search ranking is to have a large number of connections within your LinkedIn network.

When a person performs a keyword search on LinkedIn, they are not searching the entire LinkedIn database of users. They are only searching their LinkedIn network. Your LinkedIn network extends three degrees. Your first-degree connections are the people who have accepted your LinkedIn connection invitation and ones you have accepted. Second-degree connections are those people who are first-degree connections of your first-degree connections. Third-degree connections are the first-degree connections of your second-degree connections. Additionally, any people who are in a LinkedIn Group that you belong to are also considered part of your LinkedIn network.

Figure 2-11 is a visualization of your LinkedIn network. Your network increases exponentially as you add more first-degree connections.

When people perform a LinkedIn search, the resulting profiles are from their LinkedIn network. Every now and then you may see a person from outside your LinkedIn network; however, when that happens, you are prevented from seeing that person’s full name and that person’s profile may not be completely accessible to you.

LinkedIn ranks the profiles of people directly related to you first. This means the more people you are connected to directly, the higher you rank in a LinkedIn search.

LinkedIn cautions that you should only connect with people you know and trust. I agree, but I believe you should remain open to all opportunities. I do not suggest aiming low and wide to connect with everyone and their brothers. However, if a person you do not know sends a connection request, visit his or her profile. Is this person in the same industry? Do you share a similar network of connections or belong to the same LinkedIn Groups? As long as the person doesn’t look overly suspicious, it’s okay to accept this person into your network. You never know if a connection of theirs may one day be searching for someone like you, and accepting the invitation today means you’ll be found tomorrow for a fantastic opportunity.

In the next chapter, you see how to take your keywords and add them to LinkedIn’s Skills & Endorsements section.