LinkedIn Tips: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

“Make it easy for the right people to find your LinkedIn Company Page by adding SEO terms in the description and ‘Specialties’ sections.”    – LinkedIn

Think of the LinkedIn Company Overview as an elevator pitch to your customers and prospects.  Its purpose is to entice the reader to look further into your company’s products and services.

What Makes a Good LinkedIn Company Description?

The LinkedIn introduction, or company description, is the foundation of the overview.  Make sure it answers these 3 questions:

1. Who is your company?
2. What does your company do?
3. Why is your company important and valuable to the reader?

#3, the “Why”, is the most crucial element of your LinkedIn description.  It’s success or failure will determine whether or not the reader stays on your page or swipes to the next one.

Be laser focused on powerfully and succinctly stating your company’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition); what products or services do you provide customers that they can’t get anywhere else? Strategically use the most effective keywords in your description; keywords in LinkedIn impact your SEO performance on searches both within LinkedIn and on Google (and other search engines).

Here’s an example of a good LinkedIn company description on Mashable’s company page:

Mashable is a leading source for news, information & resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable’s 45 million monthly unique visitors and 25 million social media followers have become one of the most engaged digital networks in the world.

Now I’m intrigued to read on…

Optimize Your LinkedIn Specialties

Think of the Specialties section as the infrastructure to your LinkedIn SEO strategy.  It should essentially be a list of all your most relevant keywords.  Strategically choose keywords that your potential customers would look for, as opposed to choosing keywords that make your company look good.  Save the branding rhetoric for other portions of the Company Page; you should use the Specialties section as a SEO blueprint that will give your company a prominent listing in relevant searches.

Here is an example of a good LinkedIn Specialties section on IBM’s company page:

Specialties
IT Services, Consulting, Business Analytics & Optimization, CRM, ERP, security, software, strategy, storage, disaster recovery, enterprise architecture, BPM, Smarter Planet, Outsourcing, semiconductors, microprocessors

The rest of the Company Overview needs little marketing acumen; it basically consists of factual directory data:  Website, Address of Headquarters, Type of Company, Company Size, and Industry.

If you have written a compelling Company Description and a strategically sound Specialties section, you’re in the game… your readers will continue their quest to learn more about your company.

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