LinkedIn is a professional networking site that continues to grow (currently more than 20 million members). It helps people and businesses get found on the web. Search engines like Google love to crawl and quickly index LinkedIn profiles. While there is plenty of information about why to get LinkedIn, like my recent post, too often little attention is given to empowering these online profiles from an SEO (search engine optimization) perspective.
Quick & easy SEO steps:
1) Edit your public profile URL
LinkedIn provides you with a public web address that looks something like this: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/179/368.
You have the option to modify this under “Edit My Profile”. Change it to a SEF (search engine friendly) URL (universal resource locator). For example, your customized URL can read as follows: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenfaber . You can use your personal name, company name or targeted keywords (if they are still available).
2) Link to your websites
LinkedIn allows you to add up to three websites. This can also be used for a blog or other information source on the web. Rather than simply using the generic headings for these inbound links to your online real estate (My Website, My Company, My RSS Feed etc…), select “Other” and create an anchored text. Customize the text (i.e. “WebFuel”) keeping search queries in mind.
Note: SEF URLs, anchored text and inbound links are the basis of good SEO.
Linkedin has already established some authority in search engines – now get rid of those generic links to help you get found in searches.
Once your profile links have been optimized, check out your Google search results.