LinkedIn keyword optimization refers to the process of adding specific terms and phrases to your profile to increase your search visibility, which could be thought of as LinkedIn profile SEO.
When you are seen by more people on the platform, you get better access to opportunities. In this guide, we will show you how to identify the right keywords and where to include them, and cover common mistakes so that you can optimize your profile effectively and make the most of LinkedIn.
Key Takeaways
Optimizing your profile with keywords can help improve your search visibility, which paves the way for more opportunities.
You can use job descriptions, industry-specific resources, and LinkedIn’s suggestions to identify the best keywords for your role.
Keywords can be placed in LinkedIn’s Headline, Summary/About, Experience, and Skills sections.
You should consider your career goals, current level, and achievements to add other non-core sections to your profile, along with keywords.
Avoiding stuffing, providing context, and regularly refreshing keywords are three top LinkedIn visibility tips to keep in mind.
Do Keywords Matter for Your LinkedIn Profile?
Yes, keywords matter for your LinkedIn profile, as using the right ones can boost your search visibility, and on a platform with over 243 million U.S. users, being seen by others is key.
In return, better connections can help you find a job through referrals, hidden job market opportunities, and direct exchanges with employers. They can also provide other networking benefits, like sharpening your communication skills, to help you advance your career.
How to Identify the Right Keywords for Your LinkedIn Profile
To identify the right keywords for your LinkedIn profile, you should use job descriptions, industry-specific resources, and the platform’s suggestions.
#1. Use Specific Job Descriptions to Find Recurring Terms
Employers write job descriptions to outline exactly what they are looking for, so analyzing these is the best way to find keywords and write a good LinkedIn profile. You can see job descriptions on the platform by clicking the Jobs tab at the top of the page.
To find recurring terms for your LinkedIn SEO, you should:
Search for roles that match what you do or want to do, and look through several job descriptions.
Highlight the repeating words and phrases, especially those regarding industry-specific skills, tools, and results.
Look at the job titles and variations used and take note of them, too.
Organize the terms into a table with columns for soft skills, hard skills, tools, results, and titles and variations. This way, it is easier for you to use them in your profile and avoid repetition or keyword stuffing.
For instance, if you are an Email Marketer, you might notice the following LinkedIn keywords examples across job descriptions:
Soft skills | Communication Analytical thinking Copywriting Email writing |
A/B testing Automation Segmentation HTML CSS | |
Tools | HubSpot Mailchimp Klaviyo Google Analytics CRM tools |
Results | Open rate Click-through rate (CTR) Conversion rate Return on investment (ROI) |
Titles and variations | Email Marketing Assistant Email Campaign Coordinator Email Marketing Lead Email Content Strategist Email Marketing Automation Specialist |
#2. Research Industry-Specific Terms
Using industry-specific terms correctly makes you sound relatable and professional. It also shows that you understand your field, and by extension, your clients' or employers' goals, pain points, and the tools they care about. This helps you stand out, as it is clear you already know the ropes in your industry.
There are many ways you can research industry-specific terms, such as looking at:
Top-performing LinkedIn profiles. You can search for your role and study the first few profiles that appear. What are they including that's specific to your industry? A special LinkedIn profile tip: analyze the Recommendations section for value-based keywords.
Professional groups and communities. Join active LinkedIn groups related to your industry and pay attention to the phrases others are using in discussions. Outside of LinkedIn, you can also consider Reddit forums and Slack channels; networking events are also an option, both online and offline.
Industry blogs and newsletters. Many companies, agencies, and thought leaders share resources that you can read and pick up not just specific terms, but also new tools and trends, which implies you are proactive in staying current.
Resume templates and examples. Although not on LinkedIn, these references are great for pinpointing common terms and phrases in certain industries. Our resume builder has a library of free, HR-approved templates and examples for you to go through.
#3. Use LinkedIn’s Suggestions
In LinkedIn's Skills section, you can receive suggestions on keywords to use based on your role. These come from the platform's internal data, so you can count on them to align with what others are searching for.
Moreover, using LinkedIn's suggestions ensures you match the platform’s standardized taxonomy, which is used to connect candidates to job listings. For example, if you are a graphic designer, instead of adding "Adobe" as a skill, LinkedIn will suggest “Adobe Photoshop,” “Adobe Illustrator,” or “Adobe InDesign” for you to choose from.
Note: If you use LinkedIn Premium, you can also get suggestions for other sections on your profile, like your Headline or Summary/About.
#4. Analyze Employee Profiles at Target Companies
Another way to look for relevant keywords to improve your LinkedIn profile ranking is to check the profiles of people currently working at your target companies. To do this, follow the steps below:
Search for your target company on LinkedIn.
Click the People tab.
Narrow down on profiles that share the same role as you.
Look for repeated terms and phrases across the profiles.
These are likely the keywords you should be using, since employees and employers in your target company are already familiar with them.
5 Types of Keywords You Can Add to Your LinkedIn Profile
These are the five types of keywords to include in your profile for LinkedIn content optimization:
Industry-specific keywords. These are terms that are unique to a field. When you use them, you signal credibility and ensure that you appear in searches related to that field. For example, some industry-specific keywords for SEO are "backlink," "breadcrumb," "cannibalization," "disavow," "E-E-A-T," and "index."
Skill-specific keywords. These describe what you can do and can be interpersonal or technical. For instance, in SEO, there are terms like "SERP ranking," "on-page SEO," "off-page SEO," "link building," and "SEO audits."
Software-specific keywords. These are usually just the names of common tools in a field. For example, "Google Search Console," "SEMrush," "Ahrefs," "Moz," and "Screaming Frog" in SEO.
Location-based keywords. These make your profile easier to find for local or hybrid jobs, such as "Remote," "APAC region," "NZ market,” or “Eastern time.”
Value-based keywords. These are terms that highlight the results you can deliver. For instance, "traffic growth," "high CTR," "page one ranking," "conversions," and "ROI” in SEO. Usually, they will be longer than other types of keywords.
Where to Place Keywords on Your LinkedIn Profile
You can place keywords in your LinkedIn profile Headline, Summary/About, Experience, and Skills sections.
#1. LinkedIn Headline
This section plays an important role in how easily you can be found because it appears in searches, connection requests, comments, and messages. However, it is limited to 220 characters, so you need to be strategic about the LinkedIn headline keywords you include.
If you look at the best headline examples, you will see that they are quite similar to a mini elevator pitch. Yours should showcase what you do, what you are good at, and why you are better at it than someone else. For optimal LinkedIn profile discovery, try to use a mix of industry-specific, skill-specific, and value-based keywords.
#2. Summary/About Section
You have 2,600 characters in this section, so there is more room for you to add keywords than in your headline. Here, you can write about your experience, results, and values in more detail.
The key is to focus on what you can do for clients and employers and weave in keywords naturally. Aside from industry-specific, skill-specific, and value-based keywords, you can use location-based keywords to indicate your work preferences.
This section is also where you can indirectly showcase your writing skills, which is important in almost every industry. Here are four tips from LinkedIn’s talent blog to keep in mind:
Grab attention with your first sentence.
Avoid overused buzzwords.
Create white space with strategic spacing and bullet points.
Include a call to action (CTA).
#3. Experience and Skills
The Experience section is where you list the jobs you have held and demonstrate your progression.
While many people only input their job titles, dates, and responsibilities, you should focus on your achievements and skills to stand out.
Using bullet points can make the section easier to scan and to include keywords naturally. It also helps to start with an action verb to maintain consistency.
Here is an example of a keyword-rich section for an SEO Specialist:
Keyword-Rich Section Example
SEO Specialist | Kiwi Marketing | Jan. 2020 - Present
Manage on-page and off-page SEO strategies to improve organic rankings.
Conduct keyword research using Ahrefs to inform WordPress content strategies.
Monitor impressions, clicks, and CTR using Google Search Console to prepare monthly reports for 5 stakeholders.
Increased organic traffic by 50% and ranked in the top 5 SERP results for 50+ high-intent keywords.
As for the Skills section, you should use LinkedIn’s suggestions as a starting point, and pick from the dropdown to ensure you use well-known terminology.
You can double your profile views and connection requests by simply listing at least one skill. The platform allows you to add up to 50 skills, and there are over 41,000 options to choose from.
Selecting the best skills for your role and ranking them will strengthen your profile; the order in which they appear matters, especially if your list is long. Here are some skills on the rise to consider including:
AI literacy
Adaptability
Conflict mitigation
Innovative thinking
Process optimization
You should include a mix of soft and hard skills. Also, depending on where you are in your career, certain skills deserve more of the spotlight. At the senior/executive level, for instance, it is important to highlight skills that demonstrate your strategic impact, such as high-level decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
#4. Additional Sections
If you want to strengthen your profile even further, LinkedIn offers several optional sections that you can add, such as:
Featured
Licenses and certifications
Projects
Courses
Recommendations
Volunteer experience
Patents
Honors and awards
Languages
Organizations
Causes
If you include all of them, your profile will likely feel drawn out, especially since more users are on their mobile devices now.
Only choose sections that add value. You can do this by thinking about your career goals and accomplishments. For example:
If you are a recent graduate with no formal work experience but want to leverage your achievements from university, you can add Courses or Honors & Awards.
If you are changing careers and don’t have formal education, Licenses & Certifications or Projects can showcase your transferable skills.
If you are an Interpreter or want to work in a multinational environment, the Languages section is worth adding.
If you want to establish your reputation in scientific studies, the sections Publications, Patents, and Organizations will all be helpful.
If you are in a humanitarian field, you can add Volunteer Experience, Organizations, or Causes to highlight both your skills and motivations.
Follow these steps to add sections:
Open your profile.
Select Add profile section.
Select the section you would like to add.
Fill in the required details. Remember to add keywords naturally.
Click Save.
How to Measure the Impact of Keyword Optimization
Once you have optimized your LinkedIn profile with keywords, you will want to measure their impact. The two metrics you should review are profile appearances and profile views; you can find these by:
Opening your profile.
Selecting Show all analytics.
Profile appearances are all instances where your name and headline appear on LinkedIn, including in search results, posts, comments, and network recommendations.
You want a high number for this because it means that your visibility is high, and more visibility can lead to more opportunities.
Note: LinkedIn further classifies appearances as All appearances and Search appearances.
To get deeper insights, use filters:
Where you appeared
Top companies your searchers work at
Top job titles of your searchers
Job titles you were found for
Profile views are all instances where someone has visited your profile. The platform will list your five most recent visitors within the last 90 days. If you want to see the full list for up to 365 days, you will need to purchase LinkedIn Premium.
Besides the number of profile views, you can see where your viewers work, their job titles, and where they found you. If you don’t see anything on your Analytics tab, check whether your visibility settings allow profile insights.
After reviewing your metrics, you can adjust your keywords to further improve your search visibility.
If your views are high but your appearances are low, you should add keywords throughout your profile to appear in more search results.
If your appearances are high but your views are low, make your headline more engaging with keywords so others are encouraged to visit.
Tips for Natural and Effective Keyword Usage
Keep these tips in mind to approach LinkedIn keyword optimization naturally and effectively:
Avoid keyword stuffing. Repeating the same words or phrases too many times makes you sound robotic, which leaves a poor impression on others. It is better to space out your keywords, mix different types, and prioritize quality over quantity.
Use keywords in context. Outside of the Skills , you should integrate keywords into full sentences and ensure they read naturally. This way, you can prevent your profile from appearing spammy. When in doubt, read what you have written out loud and ask yourself, “Do each of these keywords serve a purpose?”
Refresh keywords. Industries, tools, and skills evolve, so the keywords that make your profile discoverable today might be less effective in six months. By updating your keywords, you signal to LinkedIn that you are active and present yourself as a current, engaged, and relevant professional to others.
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Closing Thoughts
Now that you know how to approach LinkedIn keyword optimization, you can polish your profile, boost your search visibility, and improve your networking prospects.
Having a more prominent presence on the platform means clients and employers can come to you rather than the other way around. You might also get referrals from other professionals or learn about openings that are not posted on traditional job search sites. In return, a few well-chosen and strategically placed keywords go a long way in supporting your job hunt.
LinkedIn Keyword Optimization FAQs
#1. What are the best LinkedIn keywords for job seekers?
The best LinkedIn keywords for job seekers are skill-specific, value-based, and location-based keywords. These will help you spotlight your value and work preferences, so employers can gauge your fit right away.
#2. How many keywords should I include in my LinkedIn profile?
You should include around ten to 15 well-chosen keywords throughout your LinkedIn profile. Remember to mix the different types and weave them naturally into your Headline, Summary/About, Experience, and Skills sections.
#3. How often should I update keywords on LinkedIn?
You should update your keywords on LinkedIn every few months or when your goals, skills, or industry trends change. Keeping them fresh ensures your profile stays relevant and shows up in the right searches.
#4. Do keywords really help recruiters find my profile?
Yes, keywords really do help recruiters find your profile. The stronger your LinkedIn SEO, the more likely your profile will appear at the top when others search on the platform. A completed one gets 30% more weekly views, so make sure you fill out all your sections.
