Don’t Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile for Views
Do it for value instead.
Like most writers on Medium, I, too, still have a 9–5 job. I currently oversee the marketing strategies and execution at a law firm based out of Hong Kong. Part of my responsibilities is to implement profile-raising activities for our partners and that meant I ensure their profiles are notable, authentic, and well-written.
Recently, I dipped my toes in side-hustling over at Fiverr to optimise LinkedIn profiles for purposes that serve my clients — whether they want to revamp their profiles to increase their visibility on the platform, to land a new job, or to become more prominent and build their credibility as an expert.
Whatever their objectives are, I am guided by the principles in the optimisation of profiles like adding relevant keywords, creating attention-grabbing headlines and summaries or articulating their achievements in their work history.
Earlier, I was communicating with a prospective client and his intent is to be more visible in particular keywords. I thought, “OK, that should be doable.” After a some back and forth Q&A, I decided to withdraw my offer. It wasn’t because it will be a hard task, in fact, he already has an amazing profile as a Co-Founder. All that needs to be done is to further edit and fine-tune, that’s it. But I withdrew my offer because he made a sensible ask and I was not entirely confident I’d deliver. To be specific, he had asked me what parameters should he measure my work against in the context of increased views and search appearances.
To be honest, I was offended at his question at first.
The nerve of this person to demand results for a mere profile optimisation. But after some thought, I realised he raised a good argument and I saw it as a challenge. I took time before I replied to his message, even if it meant my response time on Fiverr may drop. I wanted to research first and find out for myself if there actually is such a thing for individual profiles. Ultimately, I contemplated that if I were to take on this gig, how would I ensure I meet the goals. Besides, his question made total sense since he will be paying for it and like the businessman that he is, he needs some sort of ROI.
First, I wanted to have a benchmark. Are there standards around individual LinkedIn profiles that would warrant improvement in statistics? Going back to my LinkedIn dashboard, there only are 3 analytics available for member profiles — profile views, post views, and search appearances.
Would I be able to find some sort of gauge to “prove” the effectiveness of an optimisation? This question led me to a few more:
- Is there really an uptick in these stats whenever you edit a section in your profile? If it does, what is the acceptable rate? There was an article from Moz in 2010 wherein a guy did an 8-week experiment and kept a log of sections he optimised along with variables like subscribing to premium account, adding skills, and recommendation and tracked movement in searches. He noted that while the numbers are non-conclusive, there was 5.5x increase in search impressions and increase by a factor of 1.8 in optimising the headline, summary, and work experience alone. However, it leads me to ask if after optimising his profile, did he leave it as it is or did he do some activities thereafter?
- Would you be able to distinguish what is organic and which one is from your proactive efforts like publishing an article, or commenting on a post, or connecting with somebody?
- What actually are the trending keywords and their volume? Will I be able to research what is ranking and the most searched on LinkedIn.
- In LinkedIn’s algorithm, which gains more weight — your headline, summary, skills, or hashtags?
In my quest for answers, I came upon this post from ValueExchange, a UK LinkedIn consulting company, discussing on the importance and somewhat inaccuracy of searches on the platform. He noted that some members have been searched for keywords that are way irrelevant to what they do.
For example, someone was searched for a “doctor” when he is clearly not. I then checked my search appearance stats and saw that I was searched for “company secretary” instead of marketing or BD keywords. To my surprise, the word “secretary” is in the Organization section where I listed the position I held at that association.
So, I can’t help but infer that with all the advantages of leveraging LinkedIn for professional gains, as in individual profiles, we wouldn’t be able to predict or estimate how much likes or profile views or searches you will receive by optimising your profile until we have deep understanding of LinkedIn’s algorithm, unlike Google or other SERPs. As far I know, there is not much available data around this.
At this point then, I got back to him and explained the reason why I would have to withdraw my offer. I respectfully advised him that in the absence of benchmarks or standards, I wouldn’t be able to give him an accurate estimate of the improvement of his stats after I’ve completed my work. Additionally, I told that I’d rather not provide unfounded numbers that I wouldn’t be able to meet and eventually result to his dissatisfaction.
In my experience, it is your proactive activities that directly translate to increases in views or search rankings.
If you want to keep your momentum on LinkedIn, you have to invest time socialising, networking, and sharing insights that give value to others. By maintaining your information up-to-date, being active, relevant, and social, your chances of increasing your online presence will become higher.
And though the 2010 article I’ve stumbled upon seems irrelevant after years of changes that LinkedIn took, what he closed with still resonate today and I firmly agree. As it is relevant to content strategies, it is to not optimise your content for search engine. Rather, do it for user experience and bring value.
Originally published at https://www.theannelytics.com.
