Writing a Strong LinkedIn Profile: Headline, About, Skills and More

LinkedIn describes your profile as "a professional landing page for you to manage your personal brand." For many people it's the page that turns up when a recruiter, client or new colleague looks them up, so a little care goes a long way.

You don't need tricks or templates to write a strong profile. LinkedIn's own help center explains what each section is for, and most of the work is filling those sections honestly and specifically. This guide walks through them in order, using LinkedIn's official help pages for the platform details and plain advice for the writing.

Menus and labels change from time to time. If a step below doesn't match what you see, LinkedIn's help center has the current instructions.

Start with the photo and cover image

The introduction section at the top of your profile is what most visitors see first. LinkedIn's help center says that "a good profile photo increases the credibility of your profile," and the reason is simple: people want to see who they're connecting with.

Choose a recent, well-lit photo where your face is clearly visible and fills most of the frame. LinkedIn also lets you add a background image to personalize your profile. It's optional, but a simple image related to your work, or even a calm background, looks more finished than the default.

Write a headline that says what you do

Your headline is the text below your name. LinkedIn notes that it's "displayed in search results and can be separate from the title of your current position." It's usually created when you add a current position, but you can rewrite it to promote an area of expertise. LinkedIn also says you can use it to call out other statuses, for example if you're unemployed or retired.

A useful headline answers "what do you do, and for whom?" in plain words. For example, imagine a payroll specialist who has moved into training. "Payroll Specialist at a regional hospital" is accurate, but "Payroll specialist who trains new HR teams on multistate payroll" tells a visitor much more. Skip strings of buzzwords; specific nouns do more work than adjectives.

To edit it, LinkedIn's steps are to click the Me icon, choose View Profile, click the Edit icon in your introduction section and change the Headline field.

Use the About section for your story

LinkedIn says the About section is where you "express your mission, motivation, and skills to people who view your profile." Its profile tips suggest keeping it to one or two paragraphs, and say bullet points are fine if you'd rather not write paragraphs.

A simple structure works for most people:

1. One or two sentences on what you do now and the kind of problems you solve.
2. A few concrete examples of work you're proud of, described without confidential details.
3. What you're looking for or open to, such as roles, projects, speaking or collaborators.

Write in the first person, keep sentences short, and read it aloud before saving. If it sounds like a press release, simplify it.

Fill in Experience accurately

The Experience section lists jobs, internships, contract work and similar positions. LinkedIn's help center is clear that associations listed there "must be accurately labeled and must reflect professional experience with the named organization." It gives examples of what shouldn't be included, such as being a customer or user of an organization's products or services.

For each role, describe what you were responsible for and what changed because of your work. Lead with results you can state honestly, and keep each entry to a few lines. You can also attach skills to each position, and they'll appear in your Skills section too.

One practical tip: LinkedIn notes that if you've enabled the Notify Network option, your network may be informed of the changes you make. If you're doing a big cleanup, check that setting first so your connections don't get a stream of updates.

Add skills, featured work and recommendations

These three sections back up what your headline and About section claim.

• Skills. LinkedIn says you can add up to 100 skills, and that keeping a relevant list "will help others understand your strengths and match you with the right opportunities." Your connections can endorse skills you list. Rather than chasing the maximum, list the skills you'd want to be hired for and remove ones you no longer use.
• Featured. This section showcases samples of your work. According to LinkedIn, you can feature your LinkedIn posts and articles, links to outside websites such as a blog or portfolio, and uploaded media such as images, documents, presentations and videos. You must already have published a post or article on LinkedIn to feature it.
• Recommendations. You can request one from a connection's profile or from the Recommendations section of your own. LinkedIn's form asks for your relationship, your position at the time, and includes a personalized message you can edit. Use that message: remind the person of a specific project so they can write something concrete. LinkedIn says there's no limit to how many you can request, that accepted recommendations are visible to your network by default, and that you can hide ones that don't suit your goals.

Claim a custom URL and check your public profile

LinkedIn assigns every profile a public URL, and you can create a custom one. The help center says custom URLs "are available on a first come, first serve basis" and that you can only have one at a time. To change it, open your profile and click the Edit icon next to Public profile & URL. A custom URL based on your name is easier to share on a resume, email signature or link-in-bio page.

Your public profile is what people who aren't signed in to LinkedIn, and search tools such as Google or Bing, can see. Not every section can be shown publicly, and on the Public profile settings page you can turn eligible sections on or off. Two details from LinkedIn are worth knowing:

• After you change your public profile, LinkedIn says it "can take several weeks or months at times" for search tools to detect the changes and refresh, and LinkedIn doesn't control that process.
• Disabling your public profile hides it from people who aren't members and from search results, but LinkedIn warns it could also make account recovery harder if you lose access to your primary email address.

Keep it current

LinkedIn offers a profile strength meter to show which sections are still missing. Beyond that, a quick review a few times a year keeps the profile honest: update your headline when your focus shifts, add new work to Featured, and retire skills and entries that no longer represent you.

Key takeaways

• Treat the introduction section, with your photo, headline and background image, as the part most visitors will actually read.
• Write the headline as a plain answer to "what do you do, and for whom?" It can differ from your job title.
• Keep the About section to one or two short paragraphs with concrete examples.
• LinkedIn requires Experience entries to reflect real professional work with the named organization.
• Use Skills, Featured and Recommendations as evidence, and personalize recommendation requests.
• Claim a custom URL, review your public profile settings, and expect search engines to take weeks or longer to reflect changes.

Sources - LinkedIn Help, Create a good LinkedIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a554351 - LinkedIn Help, Edit Your Headline — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a542926 - LinkedIn Help, Request a recommendation — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a546682 - LinkedIn Help, Manage your profile Experience section — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a593695 - LinkedIn Help, Add and remove skills on your profile — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a549047 - LinkedIn Help, Manage featured samples of your work on your LinkedIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a550399 - LinkedIn Help, Manage your public profile URL — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a542685 - LinkedIn Help, LinkedIn public profile visibility — https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a518980