There are a few little-known ways to optimise your LinkedIn profile and claiming your customised url (also known as a vanity url) is one of them.

Sounds fancy! Why do I want one?

It makes your LinkedIn profile page easier to find and remember, plus it looks more professional so you can use it for cross promotion and marketing.

This 3 minute video explains what a custom url is, why you need one and how to add one to your LinkedIn profile for some extra professional goodness!

For more LinkedIn tips, take a look at my previous post 7 Tips to maxmise your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is the professional social network with a strictly business focus. Its popularity is growing at an astonishing rate with a new member joining every second! It currently has over 80 million users in 200 countries across every industry.

Most professionals use the social network to gain exposure and credibility, maintain contact with business connections, or connect with other professionals through personal introductions who may otherwise be beyond their reach. But there is so much more to it! You can seek advice; research companies; track the health of an industry (or company); check out potential clients, joint ventures and employees, plus there are the SEO benefits that increase the search engine results of your website or blog.

The beauty of LinkedIn is that maintaining a profile doesn’t need to be as time intensive as other social networking sites. Many people simply have a visible profile, like an online CV, that demonstrates their experience and expertise. (Although, by adopting this simplified strategy you will miss out on many of the great features and opportunities available there). In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re in, if you’re in business you should be on it! Here are 7 quick ways to maximise your profile to help you stand out on LinkedIn.

1. Add your photo. This will personalise your page, and allow for easy identification in the LinkedIn network activity feed, groups and in the event of meeting your connections face-to-face. Don’t use a logo or illustration here, use a true representative photo of you. And, I don’t mean you hanging off a bar with a drink in your hand – remember LinkedIn is a business network.
2. Expand on your job title. Adding some descriptive keywords to your job title will increase your visibility enabling you to attract relevant search traffic – both within LinkedIn and in the search engines like Google. For instance, if you are a ‘coach’, specify your speciality and add the relevant keywords eg. ‘Personal Development and NLP Coach’.
3. Complete your profile fully. On your Edit profile page there is a handy ‘profile completeness measure’ to the right. Ideally, you want this bar to show 100% complete. The measure will identify incomplete areas of you profile and what action you need to take. Adding your business summary, work history and education will show a full picture of your career and experience allowing for more connections. Your LinkedIn profile is your online CV and a great tool for showing potential business associates, customers or employers a snapshot of your capabilities and expertise.
4. Ask for recommendations. Testimonials are a guaranteed way to build credibility and trust, so ask your clients and associates to recommend you. These recommendations will be visible on your profile, plus you can link to your LinkedIn recommendations on your website, email signature or simply send it to your prospects. Remember to pay it forward and recommend others you have worked with – these will also show on your profile, it demonstrates generosity, and is simply a nice thing to do!
5. Make connections. Reach out to current and former business connections, clients, previous employers and industry contacts you meet while networking or through other social and business networking sites. Start building your network – the bigger it is, the further your reach and business opportunities.
6. Claim a vanity url. When you open a LinkedIn account the url link to your profile page will look something like this:

   http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/alicia-cowan/11/949/816

   Ideally you want it to look more like this, with your name (if it’s available) or the closest match:

   Better, don’t you agree? Not only will it help you optimise your name in the search engines but it also creates an attractive and memorable web address for your profile to use on your business cards, website and email signatures. You can claim your vanity url through your edit profile section.

7. Create anchor text for the links to your websites. On your profile page you are given the opportunity to add 3 links to other sites you own. That could be your website, blog, other social media profiles. Use them all. It’s a great opportunity to market your business, and when used effectively, creating valuable back links to your website or other online presence. It’s a bit of a secret gem – I’m amazed at how few people actually know how to use this function!

   You have the option of choosing the anchor text to be ‘personal website’, ‘company website’, ‘blog’, ‘RSS feed’, ‘portfolio’ or ‘other’. By choosing anything but ‘other’ will add no value in SEO terms (if you search for ‘company website’ in Google do you know what happens? You get over 600 million results for a search term with real no value). So, by choosing ‘other’ and selecting your desired anchor text (ideally this would be your name or company name with some additional keywords) you will create your juicy backlink.