5 Reasons Why Your LinkedIn Headline & Summary should be Google Friendly

I spent 3 weeks recently searching the back end of LinkedIn on Google. One Boolean search string after another, tinkering with the stuff I’ve learned from recruiting experts like Geoff Webb, Glen Cathay and Jonathan Campbell.I had to find a series of specific skill sets and previous employers and LinkedIn’s Advanced search wasn’t giving me any love.

Why? LinkedIn’s advanced search shows the most completed profiles, not the most relevant.

Searching LinkedIn Key Words, Skills, Head Line Profiles, and Experience – I needed to find a needle in a hay stack.

Frustration was inevitable especially when I ran across uncompleted Headlines and ambiguous Summaries.

My advice to people wanting to be found on LinkedIn is thus. If you want to be found, keep in mind that a Boolean search for skills and experience on Google will capture the FIRST 7-8 lines of your LinkedIn profile.

1. Make sure your professional head line states what you do. Use professional key words the describe your vocation. 2. Keep the first lines of your Summary fact based and 100% aligned to your work/service/product. Google will capture only the first few lines and if you’re saying how enthusiastic and energetic you are,that won’t matter to a recruiter/consumer whose parsing through data. 3. List your work experience first. Volunteer work and special events should be listed as an afterthought not in the chronology of your experience. 4. Don’t list education at the beginning of you summary. If your brand is premised on education, by all means, most of the people I was looking for, education was secondary. 5. In Experience Describe what your Employer, Company, or Service does. If you own an HR Consulting company called Sunrise Consulting – no one will guess what you do.

Here are some examples of the profiles I mention above:

Weak: Name Name – Canada | LinkedIn ca.linkedin.com/in/namename Toronto, Canada Area – Organizational and Leadership Development Professional | HR and Talent Management Enthusiast Enthusiastic and vibrant student graduated from the University of Toronto with … in Human Resources, Organizational Development & Leadership Consulting

Medium : Name Name – Canada | LinkedIn ca.linkedin.com/pub/namename Toronto, Canada Area – Managing Director at _____Consulting Inc. _____Consulting Inc. is a full-service human resources and organizational design …. Senior Director, Organizational Development … – Toronto, Canada ..

Strong: Name Name, MBA – Canada | LinkedIn ca.linkedin.com/pub/namename Toronto, Canada Area – Principal Consultant Name Name has over 15 years of consulting experience specializing in … corporate finance, organizational design, business transformation and … Works at ____ a global leader in Human Capital consulting from their Toronto offices and is involved in …