From the course: Finding a Job on LinkedIn

Using keywords to boost visibility - LinkedIn Tutorial

From the course: Finding a Job on LinkedIn

Using keywords to boost visibility

- [Oliver] One of the most important things you can do to improve your visibility on LinkedIn is to use the right keywords. Recruiters and hiring managers often search for candidates based on keywords that they get from job postings. Also, LinkedIn's own tools, like Job Alerts, Recommendations, and even the Open to work feature, rely on keywords to help match you with opportunities. If your profile doesn't include keywords that describe the type of role you want, you might not show up, even if you're a great fit. So let's talk about where to add keywords and how to find the right ones. Now, there are four places that I think it's really important to work in keywords. The first is your headline. This is one of the most visible parts of your profile. You can include the job title you're targeting, relevant skills, or a short phrase that reflects your value. Here, I can see that Nick has Software Developer and then he lists some of his skills, as well as a service, Delivering Customer Focused Solutions. Next is the About section, and here, try to include some common phrases or responsibilities that show up in the kinds of roles you're interested in. You can work them in naturally as you talk about your experience and your interests. You can also work in keywords by adding some key skills that you have. This is a great place to add them in without looking like you're forcing them too much. If I go down below to the Experience section, this is another place where keywords matter. If you manage projects, use specific software, or work in a particular industry, make sure that language shows up in your descriptions, and then there's your Skills section. LinkedIn lets you add up to 50 skills and choose ones that match your goals and the kinds of roles that you're applying for. These will help you show up in search results and recruiter filters. Now, how do you know which keywords to use? Well, one of the best ways is to look through job descriptions for roles that you're interested in. I'm going to go here and click on a job posting, and in that, I can see here About the job, Work You'll Do, and so on. These are filled with keywords and the ones that are particular to this job. So make sure when you read these over that you're pulling out some of the common language and the keywords that define the job. You can also look at profiles of people who already have these roles or who are leaders in the industry. Here's Ray, for instance, who's a developer that specializes in AI. Now, I could look here at his account, his About section and more to find keywords that he's using that I want to include in my profile. Another good option is to use generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, to help you identify keywords for your industry or target. You might add a prompt that says something like this, "Give me 20 keywords that are commonly used in LinkedIn profiles for software developers and software engineers." I'll hit Search, and like that, it gives us a list of keywords that I can start to check if they're in my profile or not. Now, this doesn't mean that you need to force every keyword into your profile. In fact, make sure you're not forcing them. They should appear naturally. Just make sure the language you use reflects what recruiters are actually searching for. You're still writing for humans, but those humans often find you through Search. Use keywords.

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