Try a little experiment with me, will you?

Search for your own name on Google.  What results pop up?

Chances are, your LinkedIn profile is near or the top of the results page. (Unless you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, which means you need to get busy creating yours!) When Google’s algorithm determines what search results are most relevant to display, it evaluates a number of factors including a websites “authority”, or how credible a source it is on the particular search topic. And Google considers your LinkedIn profile to be a pretty authoritative source of information about you.

So how do you use this to your advantage? There is an easy way to “draft off” LinkedIn’s Google power to boost your own business authority. It’s all about keywords, my friend.

Brainstorm for a moment. What are the keywords that people would use when searching for the service that you offer? If you don’t know (or even if you think that you do know), ask half a dozen of your ideal clients and prospects what specific words and phrases they would use to search for a service like yours.

Next, add them to your LinkedIn profile.

There are five LinkedIn profile sections that you want to load up with your keywords and phrases:

  • Professional “Headline”
  • Current Work Experience
  • Past Experience
  • Summary
  • Specialties

If your business provides strategic planning to entrepreneurs, you would use keyword phrases like ‘strategic planning’ as often as possible in those five key LinkedIn profile sections. Really pack ’em in. Be sure to throw in a couple of variations, too, like ‘strategy consultant,’ ‘strategy planning’, too.

Your fame-boosting assignment:

1. Talk with 5-6 of your ideal clients and prospects and ask them what words they would type into Google or LinkedIn to find a business or service like yours.

2. Edit your LinkedIn profile’s five key sections, using those keyword phrases as often as possible (while remaining readable, of course!)

3 Comments

  1. Zony on March 5, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    This is a salient article. I write LinkedIn profiles for a living and, as such, come across a lot of profiles. It’s striking how few are polished. In addition, many are written in a dry, perfunctory fashion. The essence of social media is to have a social, personable quality. As such, if you don’t mind that I add this to your advice: make sure the first few sentences are warm, likable, and have stopping power. A profile is a marketing opportunity so be sure to craft it as such.

  2. Lily on May 20, 2013 at 5:19 pm

    This is so awesome! I realized how much was missing from my various sections in terms of keywords and how it had been a while since I had updated the growth my practice has experienced! Thanks as ever for powerful, easy to implement LI advice.

    • Lori on June 7, 2013 at 9:48 am

      Delighted, Lily!

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