If there’s one trend in the social media landscape that any marketer should be aware of, it’s this: LinkedIn is booming.
Boasting over 300 million monthly active users, the platform is a much-coveted space for businesses across the globe. But how do you make your company visible to this vast audience?
It’s simple – tap into the power of LinkedIn SEO.
LinkedIn SEO vs. LinkedIn Ads – Which One Is Better for Your Business?
Let’s take a step back for a second and explain why we’re suggesting you focus on LinkedIn SEO optimization instead of LinkedIn ads. After all, both can be used to boost your visibility and drive traffic to your company page or website.
There are two main reasons why we recommend focusing on LinkedIn SEO over LinkedIn ads.
First, LinkedIn SEO is lighter on your budget compared to LinkedIn ads. As you can see in the chart below, running ads on LinkedIn is pricey with the median CPC of $5.61 being much higher than the median CPC across other social media platforms:
LinkedIn search engine optimization, while demanding on time and effort, is still a cheaper option compared to LinkedIn ads.
The second reason why you should focus on LinkedIn SEO is that the benefits of proper optimization last for months – as opposed to the rather short-term effects of LinkedIn advertising campaigns.
So, if you’re ready to learn the ropes of LinkedIn search engine optimization, jump right into the next section!
The Basics of SEO for LinkedIn Company Page
If you’re on LinkedIn, you likely already have your official LinkedIn company page. If you’re new to LinkedIn, we recommend you set up your company page ASAP, as that’s where you’re going to perform the SEO magic.
Now, many people associate SEO optimization with keyword stuffing. But while leveraging keywords surely is important, it’s not the only element of optimizing your LinkedIn company page.
Before you dive into keyword research, make sure that your LinkedIn page is user-friendly. Your page should be appealing enough to retain users who will visit it as a result of your SEO efforts.
Here’s what you can do to spruce up your LinkedIn company page:
- Add a high-quality profile picture, clearly showing your company logo
- Upload a compelling banner image, for example, one showing your product or team
- Create a catchy tagline that captures your brand personality (and includes keywords!)
- Fill out the “About” section with relevant, up-to-date information
Check out this insightful video for more tips on setting up an effective company page on LinkedIn:
Once your page is all set up, it’s finally time to roll up your sleeves and start digging for keywords.
How to Find The Right LinkedIn Keywords for Your Company Page?
Unfortunately, there are no SEO tools that would allow you to quickly find relevant LinkedIn keywords. This means that in order to optimize your company page for search, you’re going to have to find keywords in a different way.
Start off by looking at the list of keywords your website is optimized for, and identifying the broadest keywords that you can later use on LinkedIn. Why broadest? There’s limited space for copy on your LinkedIn company page, and you don’t want to use it all up by adding hyper-specific, lengthy long-tail keywords. Broad keywords will also help you appear in more searches.
For instance, if your website is optimized for the “best content marketing tools 2019” keyword, you might want to go with just “content marketing” on LinkedIn.
In the example below, you can see that Brooks Wealth did just that – they sprinkled their company name and description sections with broad keywords.
After you list your broad keywords, it’s time to check their search volume on LinkedIn. As mentioned before, there are no tools that would show you the exact search volume for different LinkedIn keywords, so you’ll have to rely on LinkedIn’s search results.
To start off, type in one of your broad keywords into the search bar in the top left corner and hit “See all results for [your keyword].”
You will see a certain number of results that include companies, groups, and people that LinkedIn deems relevant to you.
But because you want to optimize your company page, you should check specifically the volume of searches in the “companies” category. To do that, simply select “companies” in the search filter bar.
Voila – now you can see how many company pages show up for the “content marketing” keyword.
If the search volume is right for you, use that keyword on your company page. Then, rinse and repeat the process for other keywords relevant to your business.
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Need some keyword inspiration? Check out the “try searching for” section on the bottom of the page with your initial search results to see LinkedIn’s search term suggestions.
We also recommend visiting some of the top pages yielded for your searches to see the related keywords they’re using. For example, The Content Marketing Association included keywords such as “storytelling” and “branded content” on their page dedicated to content marketing.
How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Page for Keywords?
Once you round up all of your keywords, it’s time to add them to your LinkedIn company page.
Where exactly can you include keywords?
- Tagline (character limit: 120)
- “About” section (character limit: 2,000)
- Status updates (character limit: 700)
Out of these three areas, the arguably most important one is the tagline (or headline), as it’s one of the first things visitors to your page notice – which is why you should ensure it’s keyword-rich and reflective of your brand personality.
A good example illustrating such an approach is TopRank Marketing’s LinkedIn tagline. It clearly highlights the company’s values while also including a critical keyword.
The exact same principle applies to the “About” section. It should include relevant keywords and provide essential information at the same time – something that TopRank Marketing did just right:
Finally, make sure you optimize your status updates. While they won’t appear in LinkedIn search results, they can still surface in Google or Yahoo, which is why it’s important that you add keywords to your statuses too.
In a nutshell, LinkedIn search engine optimization closely resembles website optimization: it’s all about conveying useful information through relevant, engaging, and keyword-rich content.
LinkedIn SEO Tips You Need to Know
Leveraging keywords on LinkedIn is hugely important – but it’s not the only thing you can do to improve your LinkedIn SEO optimization. Here are some quick tips that will help you boost the visibility of your LinkedIn company page across search engines:
- Keep your company page up-to-date – make sure that the information on your LinkedIn company page is fresh as search engines tend to downrank outdated sources.
- Publish updates on a regular basis – posting frequently signals to search engines that your page is active, which is an important ranking factor. Check out our comparison of affordable and even free social media management tools to manage your LinkedIn updates, as well as all other social media accounts in one place.
- Spark interactions through engaging content formats – show ranking algorithms that users enjoy your content by generating engagement through native videos and informative text-only posts.
- Include links to your company page – drive traffic to your company page by linking to it from your articles and email signatures.
- Tap into employee advocacy – encourage your employees to add your page to their current work experience section on LinkedIn, and link to your page from the content they publish
LinkedIn SEO Done Right: 3 Examples You Should Follow
Now that you know the theory of SEO for a LinkedIn company page, it’s time to take a look at some practical examples.
Here are three companies that have winning LinkedIn SEO strategies in place:
1. MRI Software
MRI Software’s company page has all the strategic keywords in the right places. The company explicitly states what their offering and target market are which makes their page super clear and easy-to-understand.
2. Vegan Scene
Just like MRI Software, Vegan Scene cleverly optimized their LinkedIn company page for keywords. They also provided a detailed overview of the boutique’s history, vision, and product range which allows their customers easily access all the information about Vegan Scene in one place. And that’s exactly what LinkedIn SEO optimization is about!
3. SpaceX
SpaceX included all of their breakthrough accomplishments, such as returning a spacecraft from the Earth’s orbit, in their “About” section. As a result, every time users are searching for those events, they have a chance to land on SpaceX’s LinkedIn page. Smart, isn’t it?
The Takeaway
If you were wondering how to optimize your LinkedIn company page for SEO before reading this article, we hope you have all the answers now.
All that’s left to do is put what you’ve learned into practice. The effort is well worth it – a properly optimized LinkedIn page can become a major driver of traffic to your website, and help you win new customers in the long run.
See also: How can I increase my sales on LinkedIn?
