Is Your LinkedIn Profile Search Engine Friendly?

LinkedIn is one of the world’s most respected social media platforms for business networking. Chances are, you have a LinkedIn account yourself. When you created your account, LinkedIn assigned a default URL or web address, 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. Is your LinkedIn profile search engine friendly? Can a hiring influencer type in your name and find your profile easily? Yes! It’s quick and easy to do.

I strongly recommend that my clients customize their LinkedIn URL to consist of just their first and last name. Simple, easy to type, shorter to include in your resume, and it makes it so much easier for hiring influencers to search for you online.

It takes a few seconds, but it can make a huge difference in the long run for your career. Worth the time and effort!

1. Sign in. Sign into your account.
2. Hover over Profile in the black bar at the top of the page to see a drop down menu.
3. Click Edit Profile
4. Underneath your picture you will see the default URL in tiny font. Click the gear shaped settings button to the right of your current URL. It will turn blue as you hover over it and offer the label: Update Your Profile Settings
5. You should now see your Public Profile On the right side of the screen is a box labeled Your public profile URL. The text under that label says “Enhance your personal brand by creating a custom URL for your LinkedIn public profile. Underneath that text will be a suggested custom URL with your first and last name. To the right of the suggested URL is a blue pencil edit button. Click that edit button.
6. The URL edit window pops up and allows you to edit your URL to your taste. For those with common first and last names (such as Mary Smith), you might need to add a middle initial, suffix, or prefix to stand out. For me, there were many other users named Martin Buckland, so my final customized URL was my first initial plus my last name: http://ca.linkedin.com/mbuckland/. This customized URL is simple, concise, and aligns with my email address and my brand.
7. Save the new URL to your profile.

Your new, updated, search engine friendly URL is now ready to be added to your contact information on your resume, cover letter, bio, and any other career management tools you’ve created.