In this episode of AmsiveDigital TV, Ruben Quinones and Michael Stearne of Amsive Digital, SEO Company based in NYC, sit down and discuss the best ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile and get noticed within the professional social network. Ruben points out that it is a combination of looking statically at how people have come across your profile. Additionally, upgrading to the paid version will give you access to knowing which key terms are coming up when people are viewing your profile and which key terms brought them to your page. It also allows you to see the full list of people who have viewed your profile without omitting certain people like in the basic version.
If you don’t have the paid version, optimizing areas of your profile such as interests, skill sets, experience, endorsements and etc. will help you come up in searches more frequently. Find the key terms you want to be ranking for and use them in those specific areas so that LinkedIn’s algorithm pick up on those terms and directs people who are searching for them to your page. Using Google’s AdWords tool can also help you figure out which key terms get the most search volume that are relevant to your profile. Also increasing the number of connections you have will heighten your online visibility within the network because then you can potential reach other people in different networks, i.e. 2nd degree, 3rd degree connections.
Stay tuned for more episodes of AmsiveDigital TV to learn best SEO practices.
Michael Stearne: Hello and welcome to another exciting edition of AmsiveDigital TV. This is AmsiveDigital TV: The Reunion show. I am Michael Stearne and he is Reuben Quinones, the Founder and the original host who has now been sort of taken over by Avinash Conda.
Ruben Quinones: We already know apparently.
Michael Stearne: Yes. He has this determination that he just wants to do it and Reuben is the Director of New Media here at AmsiveDigital. So, we are very busy. Again, how long has it been?
Ruben Quinones: The Director of New Media? 50 episodes, 60 episodes, 2 or 3 years. I don’t know.
Michael Stearne: So, speaking of research, if I want certain aspects of my skill set to be found on LinkedIn, what are the ways to sort of get more noticed on LinkedIn? Just my experience or skills or tags…?
Ruben Quinones: What’s pretty cool about LinkedIn is it’s fast growing because it’s really powered by people. I mean, it’s amazing how profitable LinkedIn is becoming and continuing to grow because people are filling up their profiles but there is a way to… I have done a few sections on LinkedIn as far as optimizing your profile and all the intricacies that we may not be able to cover, maybe we can do some blog but it is a combination of looking statistically at how people are coming across to your profile. So, there is a view where you can go to the homepage of LinkedIn and you can see how people have actually viewed your profile. Now, I have the paid portion. Do you see where they are…?
Michael Stearne: Yeah. For the basic user or the non-paid user you can see like “Three people viewed your profile, these are their names” and then two other people.
Ruben Quinones: Does it show key terms?
Michael Stearne: No.
Ruben Quinones: That’s all in the paid version. It actually gives you all the key terms that are used when they come across your profile on an individual search, at the top right.
Michael Stearne: So, if they did a search, the keywords used in the search will show up.
Ruben Quinones: Yes but a better was to just approach it if you don’t have the paid version or you are just looking to integrate keywords into your profile which is everything from a professional headline to the position to skills, even the endorsements on those skills, interests, the skill set, not summaries but specialties. There is another area where you are starting to bring key terms to the whole area of the profile, you are giving yourself a better shot to come up under search but it’s not just that, it’s also how big your network is.
Michael Stearne: If you basically have more friends and more connections on LinkedIn, you get ranked better?
Ruben Quinones: You show up to more people because if they are 2 degrees away, they are most likely going to see someone within their own network or in their network if you happen to be connected with that first or second degree. So, being more liberal with your connections is actually the thing depending on the industry. So, a good trick to really think about what keyword I should integrate is to use the Google Adwords too. The same search that people use on Google when they are looking for professional service or a company is the same search they use on LinkedIn. So, if you are using the keyword tool on which we probably have an episode or at least a blog post about is do some keyword research on Adwords which we will provide a link to and see how much search volume there is for those key terms and then think about personalizing that in your actual profile but of course make sure it’s true and that will let you experiment with a few key terms that people might come across your profile for in individual searches. A couple of months later you can see there are more people visiting your profile when you actually integrated those keywords as well as connected with more people. You should see more visits to your profile over time.
Michael Stearne: So, if there is one section to fill out on your profile that will give you…?
Ruben Quinones: It is used across the board and it’s changing a lot. For longest it’s been specialties, it’s this big box where you throw a whole bunch of stuff in but really off the top of my head it’s professional position, even the keywords within the same the position title. I hate saying “Go to my profile” but honestly I thought about it a lot and certainly we will provide a link and you can tell where I am actually mixing some key terms.
Michael Stearne: And in the end go to my profile to see what is probably…
Ruben Quinones: …the wrong things to do. Now, this is always evolving, LinkedIn is evolving and they are also trying to incorporate endorsements into the mix or what do other people think. So, it’s almost like that back link of what you say. Google has always been about “I know what you say but what do other people say about?” and I think the same thing is happening in LinkedIn. So, it’s real nice to let me evaluate what I say two years later and see what those details are as far as what gets you ranked.
Michael Stearne: Excellent! Thank you, Reuben.
Ruben Quinones: Thank you. Thank you for watching this wherever you are watching this. See you next time.
Image credit from LinkedIn Strategies
