Have You Customized Your LinkedIn URL?

It has become the norm to have at least one online profile as part of your career management plan and the most preferred site for that purpose is LinkedIn. When you initially created your LinkedIn account you were automatically assigned a default url, typically a combination of your first and last name followed by a list of default characters such as: http://ca.linkedin.com/mbuckland/12/abc/345de.

I recommend all my clients revise the default by removing the unnecessary default characters to create a simple url consisting of simply their first and last name.

This is a simple 60 second process but many users do not realize this customization option is available to them or how it can be done, so in this blog I’m sharing the steps to customize your LinkedIn url.

Step 1:
Sign into your LinkedIn account and go to: Profile, Edit Profile.

Step 2:
Underneath your picture you will see the default url. Click on the blue Edit button immediately to the right of the url.

Step 3:
You are now on the Public Profile page. On the right hand side is a column titled “Customize Your Public Profile”. Scroll down until you see the blue hyperlink Customize your public profile url. Click on the link.

Step 4:
The url box will pop up and allow you to remove the unnecessary default characters after your name. For those with common first and last names (such as Mary Smith), you might need to include a middle initial to create a customized url that is unique to you however the goal is to create a url as close to your first and last name as possible. For me, there were many other users named Martin Buckland, so my final customized url was a combination of my first initial and last name: http://ca.linkedin.com/mbuckland/. The new url is shorter, concise and aligns with my email address and a host of other online profile url’s. It’s now become a part of my personal brand but personal branding is a whole other blog topic.
So, in 60 seconds, you’ve now created a crisp, customized LinkedIn url unique to you. Make it a part of the contact information in your resume, cover letter, biography, signature line, and any other career management tools you have created.

For more information on using LinkedIn for job search and other tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile to achieve a high profile ranking, visit the blog section of my website using “LinkedIn” as a keyword search or contact me directly at martin@aneliteresume.com, 905-825-0490 or 866-773-7863.