Someone hears your name through a referral, sees a comment you have left or meets you at an event. They look you up on LinkedIn. Does the person they find reflect the business you run today?
You might have years of experience, happy clients and a strong reputation among the people who know you. Your profile needs to help someone discovering you for the first time understand that too.
Knowing how to optimise your LinkedIn profile starts with understanding the impression it creates. Before you spend an afternoon rewriting it, work out what someone needs to understand and where you might be leaving them guessing.
What should your LinkedIn profile communicate?
For a business owner, a useful profile should make three things clear. What you do, why someone should feel confident in your expertise and what they can do next if they are interested.
Think about a potential client arriving after a recommendation. They may already have a reason to trust you, but they still need to understand whether your experience fits their situation. Your profile can help them make that connection.
Look at yours with that person in mind. Could they explain who you help and the kind of work you do after a quick read?
Why a complete profile can still leave questions unanswered
You can have a photograph, a headline and an About section filled in and still leave a visitor with very little understanding of your business.
Perhaps your profile describes an old role, even though the work you want to attract has changed. Perhaps it lists everything you can do, making it difficult to see your particular strengths. Or perhaps it makes sense to your existing contacts but assumes too much knowledge from someone meeting you for the first time.
These are useful gaps to spot because they give you a reason for making a change. A profile that reflects where your business is now is much easier to use confidently when you introduce yourself, share an article or follow up after a conversation.
How to start improving your LinkedIn profile
Start with one part of the profile and ask what it tells a prospective client. Your headline is a good example.
“Founder at Example Ltd” tells someone your position. If they have never heard of the business, they still need to work out what you do. An HR consultant might make that clearer with “HR consultant for growing businesses | Helping founders manage people, change and growth”.
The useful change is the extra context. Apply that thinking to your own wording, using language your clients would recognise and claims you can support.
Then ask someone who is less familiar with your work to read the top of your profile. Ask what they think you offer and who they think it is for. Their answer can show you where your intended message is getting lost.
Which part of your profile needs attention first?
That depends on what you already have in place. One business owner may need a clearer headline. Another may communicate their work well but give visitors very little evidence of it. Someone else may have useful information scattered across a profile that needs a more obvious next step.
A general article can explain what matters. Reviewing your own profile helps you decide what deserves your time.
I created the free LinkedIn Profile Check-Up to make that easier. It takes you through nine quick checks and gives you practical suggestions to use when reviewing your profile. You answer the questions about your own profile, so you can focus on the areas that need attention.
It takes around three minutes and you do not need to log in to LinkedIn.
Take the free LinkedIn Profile Check-Up
Who is the Profile Check-Up for?
It is a useful starting point for business owners, consultants and service providers who want their LinkedIn profile to represent them properly. You may have left it untouched for years, changed the direction of your business or simply want a fresh look at what it communicates.
Once you have worked through it, choose one useful improvement and make it. You will have a clearer starting point than trying to change everything at once.