How to Build a LinkedIn Profile That Gets You Noticed in 2024

LinkedIn has become an indispensable platform for professionals that continues to grow in importance each year.

Today, merely having a profile is no longer enough to stand out. You need an optimized, eye-catching one that demonstrates your skills, experiences and accomplishments. A compelling LinkedIn presence can lead to networking and business partnership opportunities, recruiter contacts, and a broader awareness of your personal brand.

This article will explore how to build a LinkedIn profile in 2024. We’ll start from the basics of setting up an appealing profile, optimizing it for maximum visibility, and finally using LinkedIn features to boost your connections and engagement with other professionals.

Keep on reading.

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The Basics: How to Build a LinkedIn Profile

Crafting a strong profile involves a combination of one-time profile setup, regular maintenance, and daily engagement. First, you start with the basics.

Upload Great Profile Picture

Your profile picture is the first thing people notice, so make sure you look both professional and approachable. It should also capture who you are.

While a headshot in formal business attire may work for some, think about what would authentically represent you best in your industry. For example, if you are a designer, you may select a photo showing your unique personal style rather than strict corporate wear.

Set a Profile Banner

The banner photo at the top of your profile is a valuable opportunity to showcase your personal brand. Feel free to get creative. Use images that speak to your profession – maybe your company logo, a snapshot of your workspace, some industry-specific graphics. Just nothing too personal like vacation pics.

If you’re feeling stumped , select one of LinkedIn’s banner templates. It’s better than leaving the space empty and looking like your profile is in progress.

Get a Custom URL

Claim a custom URL like LinkedIn.com/yourname to establish your personal brand and make it easy for people to share your profile link. Do this under “Edit your custom URL” in public profile settings.

Give High Priority to Your LinkedIn Profile Headline

Your headline appears right below your name. Use keywords relevant to your industry and role so the audience can easily identify your background at a glance. Include important details like your years of experience and/or specialty areas.

Craft a Compelling Summary

The summary section enables you to share your background, accomplishments and goals. Write an overview of your current role and professional attributes. Use bullet points to highlight important details that you want to immediately convey. Share what motivates you and what you’re seeking next in your career journey.

Highlight Your Skills

Strengthen your LinkedIn profile by adding skills to showcase your capabilities. It also helps with LinkedIn search visibility so that you appear irrelevant skill searches. You can add up to 50 skills, ranked by proficiency level.

Sync Your Profile

Enable profile syncing to automatically update your LinkedIn content and contacts. This ensures all your professional activity remains cohesive across platforms. Activation is in “Settings & Privacy” under “Syncing options.”

Get Verified

Build credibility by getting verified on LinkedIn. This adds a checkmark badge to your profile so people know you’re a real professional. Verified members get 60% more profile views on average – this option is free. You can find verifications under “Account preferences.”

Go Public

Adjust your settings to have a public profile accessible to anyone on LinkedIn. This opens up networking potential compared to limiting access. Under settings, choose Visibility as “Public”.

Keep Location Updated

As you progress through your career, update your LinkedIn profile location with new companies and roles. This keeps your profile authentic and active. Recruiters prioritize candidates with current, updated profiles and locations.

Optimized LinkedIn Profile: The Best LinkedIn Profile

Once your base profile is built out, it’s time to amplify your LinkedIn presence through regular updating and activity.

Add SEO Keywords

Adding keywords throughout your profile is key to getting discovered in LinkedIn searches. The goal is to organically incorporate terms that align with your background. However you should avoid keyword stuffing.

The built-in toolbar also makes it easy to identify highly searched terms with low competition.

Areas to work in keywords:

• Headline
• Summary
• Experience descriptions
• Recommendations
• Skills section

Update Skills and Experience

As you gain new skills and accomplishments, immediately update these sections so your LinkedIn profile reflects your growth in real-time. Your audience as well as recruiters like to see profiles that are active and have engagement.

Carefully tailor your skills, expertise and experiences based on your current objectives. As your goals adapt over time, routinely update what abilities and accomplishments should take the spotlight.

Post Regularity

Post regular updates with career news, articles, advice and other content. Having some sort of a personal content strategy will make the process easier and show viewers that you’re active on the platform. Share content at least 2-3x a week for visibility.

Review Your Contact Database

If you are a pro-user, LinkedIn provides analytics on who’s viewed your profile. Review this list of contacts and consider reaching out to build relationships, based on your goals.

Request Recommendations

Ask managers, colleagues, clients or others you’ve worked with for recommendations. Genuine opinions of your work build credibility and get your profile noticed.

Enhance Visibility Through Activity and Collaboration

Participate in Collaborative Articles

Co-authoring thought leadership pieces with other influencers is a good way to spotlight your expertise.

Over time, regularly co-writing and publishing collaborative articles can earn you an exclusive Community Voice badge signaling your impact and position you as a credible voice that decision makers turn to through shared articles.

Strategically Leverage Endorsements

Endorsements allow connections to validate skills you have listed on your profile with just the click of a button. An endorsement is essentially a keyword tied to a skill that you’ve listed in the Skills & Expertise section of your profile.

Offer to authentically endorse others for abilities you have directly witnessed them demonstrate. Likewise, request endorsements from colleagues, managers, or clients who can genuinely vouch for your areas of expertise.

However, keep in mind that not all endorsements carry equal weight or truthfulness. While they offer a quick way to signal skills, focus on quality over quantity. Seek 3-5 endorsements from those who have directly experienced your smarts in action. That support speaks volumes to more than 50 random endorsements.

Engage With Other Professionals’ Content

Actively liking, sharing, and commenting on posts from industry thought leaders, business pages and peers is a win-win. It helps expand your visibility and cement your value and participation in the community.

Follow Your Interests

The LinkedIn community consists of professionals across a myriad of industries, specialties and interests. Leverage your profile by connecting with those who share your unique passions, skills and knowledge as this will allow you to build more meaningful relationships.

Showcase Your Specialized Services

Your LinkedIn profile is the perfect platform to highlight any specialized services, certifications, training programs and other talents that help differentiate you. It allows viewers a chance to get to know you and your skills on a deeper level as well.

Personalize Your Connection Requests

While LinkedIn enables many valuable connections to occur organically, you may also choose to directly reach out to contacts with customizable invites that give details on your background, services and talents, while also explaining why that specific person matters. This thoughtfulness can’t sparkmore fruitful conversations and stronger relationships.

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Wrap Up

With over 930 million members, LinkedIn is the premier platform for business professionals. By taking time to build the best LinkedIn profile possible, you can craft a stand-out presence that enables networking, career growth and visibility to new opportunities in 2024 and beyond. Focus on the basics first, then optimize your profile even further by engaging with other members.