linkedin profile optimization

A Guide to LinkedIn Profile Optimization for B2B Marketing in 2023

Increasingly, one of the best places to build B2B sales contacts and networks is on LinkedIn. This is unsurprising when you consider that LinkedIn is one of the largest business-focused networks in the world, and that 80% of B2B sales leads come from the network. However, as LinkedIn becomes more important for B2B marketing, marketers and sales professionals must become more careful about LinkedIn profile optimization. That’s because LinkedIn profile optimization is critical for people being able to find you and your company.

Of course, while there are several techniques for LinkedIn profile optimization, not all of them are created equal. In addition, some techniques may not be appropriate for your business or personal brand. But if you apply several of these techniques, you should get much better results for B2B marketing.

5 techniques that are great for LinkedIn profile optimization

While the following list is not exhaustive, they are an excellent start that will help you make a great first impression and be found more often on the algorithm. From there, you’ll have more opportunities to expand your network and convert those sales leads into customers.

Use your headline to get attention

Just like the morning newspaper or your favorite website, your LinkedIn profile needs a great headline. That’s because people decide if they are going to read a piece of content based on its headline. And at the end of the day, your LinkedIn is a form of content. Therefore, to optimize your LinkedIn profile, you want to grab people’s attention with your headline.

Because LinkedIn is a business-focused website, the best way to optimize your headline for B2B marketing is to announce what you do and whom you do it for. For example, a writer who specializes in marketing copy might say, “I write killer newsletters and web copy for the best marketing agencies on the planet.” In this example, the writer describes their clientele as premium marketing agencies. Since many agencies see themselves as experts, this is an appealing pitch.

Keywords are essential

Many people forget that social media and its algorithms function very similarly to a search engine. In addition, many social media pages show up on larger search engines like Google or Bing. For this reason, many of the standard SEO techniques also work to help with LinkedIn profile optimization. Specifically, using the right keywords for your profile is an essential way to help people find you. That traffic can come from within LinkedIn, or it can come because people search for your name and find the profile on page 1.

With that said, there are many potential keywords for any LinkedIn profile optimization effort. Be sure to choose the ones which are most relevant to your B2B marketing and personal branding goals. This way, you can drive the right traffic to your profile.

Be mindful of links

While it’s an often-quoted maxim that you should distribute content on multiple social media channels, you should keep the links themselves off of your posts. That’s because LinkedIn wants its members to go from one profile to the next or to keep viewing a member profile for added content. They don’t want you to leave their website because that reduces the opportunity for them to make money through advertising. For this reason, if your profile has too many off-site links in the actual postings, then LinkedIn may penalize you in the algorithms.

For LinkedIn profile maximization purposes, put the off-site links into a comment under the parent post. This way, people can check out your content conveniently without your profile being penalized.

It’s all about you (really!)

linkedin profile optimization

Image Source: Semrush

Within the B2B marketing world, it’s easy to think that only your company matters. After all, sales and marketing professionals are primarily ambassadors for the company. However, as the saying goes, “People pay people.” In other words, when it comes time for people to buy something, they with both the people and companies that they trust. If they know that you will give them a fair deal on the product which best fits their company’s needs, they’ll call you first.

Using this principle for LinkedIn profile optimization is easy. Talk about yourself and what makes you a leading professional in your About section. This lets you build a rapport with prospects before they even make contact.

Optimize contact options

A feature of LinkedIn that’s both a strength and a weakness is its focus on privacy. Because LinkedIn is a repository for so much personal information, there are significant data privacy safeguards. However, the same safeguards can make it much more difficult to contact someone if you have a legitimate reason to do so.

Fortunately, there’s a way to balance both priorities. Use the contact information section to add relevant websites that people can view. For instance, if you have a blog, then you should link to it, and linking to your company website is also a must. This also serves to authenticate where you work and promote traffic to both sites.

Final thoughts

For professionals in sales and other B2B marketing disciplines, LinkedIn profile optimization is critical. Otherwise, people won’t see your profile as often, and your rivals who know about LinkedIn profile optimization will have an automatic advantage. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to optimize your profile if you know how. The techniques we’ve discussed in this article should get you started.

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