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In today’s digital age, personal branding has become an essential practice to help you stand out against the competition and foster career success. Among the myriad of social networking platforms, LinkedIn stands out as the go-to platform for professionals to market themselves, showcase their skills and connect with like-minded individuals. If you’re beginning the search for new opportunities within communications, marketing, digital or change – whether it’s a permanent, interim or contract role – it’s vital to ensure your digital footprint portrays the best representation of your skills and expertise.

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Make Yourself Discoverable by Optimising Your LinkedIn Profile

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Choose the Right Keywords

Your headline section is one of the most valuable fields for LinkedIn’s algorithm, followed by the job title and summary. If you're openly looking for a new position, use this space to advertise yourself and insert keywords targeted to the role you're looking for - in the same way organisations use "we're hiring".

A good practice is to use standard job titles yet specific job titles, to assist with searchability. For example, "Immediately Available Head of Marketing - Luxury Sector” will be visible to recruiters in the search results without anyone having to open your profile.

Likewise, if you are a specialist in areas such as ‘Content’, Performance’ or ‘Product’, ensure this is highlighted on your profile to help headhunters understand your experience. The same goes for industries that place heavy emphasis on previous experience.

You might only have a few seconds to grab the attention of the someone scanning your profile, so it’s important to be clear about what you do and what you’re looking for.

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Customise Your LinkedIn URL

Take the time to customize your LinkedIn profile URL – it looks more professional, shows an eye for detail, and makes you more discoverable in the searches. Ideally, the URL should be your name, with dashes separating the words, because Google reads them as spaces.

Here’s how to do it:

1. On the top of your LinkedIn homepage, click on the Me icon and select View profile from the drop-down menu.

2. Go to the options on the right and click Edit public profile & URL.

3. Under the Edit your custom URL tab, click the pencil icon next to your current