I recently made a minor change in my LinkedIn profile and have increased my appearance in search results by 46%. The change I made was simply adding the phrase "value adding" to my profile headline.
Which other keywords do you consider must haves in your profile? Obviously there are industry specific ones, but how about generic ones and do the generic ones even benefit you in the end? My actual profile views have remained constant after the change.
First and fore-most you have to make sure your name, as people will search for it, appears in your headline and bio. Second, you should make sure to get a unique url with your name as well. This will improve your search results dramatically, especially when people know they are looking for you and use your name as their search term.
As far as generic keywords, I think that can be a bit arbitrary in terms of improving the number of "hits" you get. It really comes down to understanding who you want to connect with on LinkedIn and what they search for...
I agree with Ken ... there really aren't "generic" keywords that work for everyone. A much better strategy is to focus on what you do well ... and what your audience needs from you ... and use those keywords.
I agree with Cindy and Ken. I think having a headline that pinpoints the jobs you are seeking and do well is important as is having a unique value proposition--problem, your particular solution and then a call to action.
I totally agree with Cindy, the most important thing to do is to look at the job postings that you are interested in, identify the key phrases in the job description, match those to your own strengths and change the way your job skills are phrased on your linked-in profile. Of course, make sure that those skills are really your strengths such that you can deliver.
After making those changes, a lot more potentials employers found my profile and emailed me regarding open positions that I would be interested in.
I agree with all of you but about Ken's comment I think he is right there are some key words that are important in our profile that will support the potential employers search.
I agree with the comments made. Being generic doesn't cut it anywhere especially in today's competitive labor market, but at the end of the day, I read in here that, it is all about who knows you - not who you know or what you know. So by having some generic keywords that are searched by many it increases your visibility and you will be known by more people.
Unless you are doing nothing else but talking to recruiters and companies that want to hire you I can't see how that is a bad thing?
I found this article very helpful.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2013/12/05/fourteen-steps-to-improve-your-linkedin-presence-in-2014/
