LinkedIn is more than a place to connect with your co-workers and colleagues, it’s a place to tap into existing professional networks and market your products and services. Increasing your visibility on the platform through search engine optimization (SEO) can propel your business by directly reaching people who are already searching for you.

According to the platform, 80% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn. What’s more, 40% of B2B marketers in one survey indicated LinkedIn was the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads — companies that post weekly on LinkedIn see a 2x higher engagement rate. 

With the right social strategy, you can take advantage of LinkedIn’s search engine to get your content and your brand in front of more prospects. Take a look at these tips to help you optimize your LinkedIn strategy and boost your company’s LinkedIn SEO.

Why is LinkedIn so important? 

LinkedIn is a valuable resource that, when used right, can help your business grow. With 810 million members using this professional platform worldwide, an ad on LinkedIn can reach 14.6% of the world’s population! This is especially important since four out of five people on LinkedIn drive business decisions. Marketers see major results when using LinkedIn for organic social media and content marketing.  

LinkedIn is effective to boost your brand awareness and reputation, improve engagement, generate web traffic and leads, and more. However, it is important to note that optimizing your LinkedIn page will not improve your website’s ranking on external search engines like Google, but it will improve traffic to your website and indirectly boost your ranking on the search engine results page (SERP). 

Use these tips to craft a LinkedIn SEO strategy that works. 

#1. Create a compelling LinkedIn Page 

LinkedIn Pages (the equivalent of a company’s profile) are discoverable by users. People on LinkedIn follow pages to stay updated with company posts, job vacancies, and other important announcements.  

Create a new page for your brand or update your existing page to ensure it includes all relevant company information people need to know and to ensure the page is searchable. LinkedIn users can search for pages based on keywords or attributes. You’ll want to add page elements like: 

• A profile photo and banner
• “About Us” section 
• Location 
• Industry  
• Your website link 
• Company size 
• When you were founded  

Follow the prompts on LinkedIn’s profile setup to help make sure you complete as many sections as possible. According to LinkedIn, complete pages see a 30% increase in weekly views.   

#2. Focus on thought leadership 

A thought leader is an individual or organization that is recognized as an authority in their industry or field. Consumers want to feel like they can trust you and establishing your company as a thought leader is one way to foster this trust.  

What does thought leadership content look like? The content you share should be highly relevant to your target audience. It should also be unique to your organization. This content might take the form of: 

• Blog posts
• Infographics 
• eBooks 
• Webinars  

Your feed should be consistently updated with engaging and valuable content, showing potential customers that you’re more than a static profile page. 

#3. Publish LinkedIn SEO Articles 

Use LinkedIn Articles to publish case studies, market research data, or anything else that provides value to your audience. Long form content (1,000 words or more) will get your expertise across and help with reader engagement. 

Do some basic keyword research and include words or phrases in your article that people commonly search for. Find keywords by brainstorming topics your readers might be searching for and then using a tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find related search terms with a high volume. You can add links to your articles to drive readers to your company website for conversion, too. 

LinkedIn also provides analytics so you can review reach, engagement, and firmographic analytics on your article. This will help you figure out what kind of content performs best so you can publish more of that type of content in the future.  

#4. Join LinkedIn groups 

People use LinkedIn groups to network with other businesses and contacts. Joining groups in your industry can be an effective way to expand your network, increasing brand awareness and engagement, as well as giving your brand a sense of authority. 

Position your company as a thought leader by strategically engaging in your groups; offer support to other users, and answer questions with useful information. 

You can also create your own group where people can network in your industry. Owning a LinkedIn group will help your company be more discoverable on LinkedIn, as well as increasing your leadership and authority. Set basic ground rules for your group and make sure it’s searchable. Then you’ll need to continue moderating the group over time. 

#5. Be consistent 

Studies have shown that brand consistency on social media can increase revenue by 10-20%. Do your best to share regular posts on LinkedIn to help boost your SEO.  

Create a simple content calendar for your LinkedIn account, aiming to post at least three times a week (some of these can be reshares). Then use a social media scheduling tool to batch create your content.

It’s also important to consistently engage with other accounts. This will help your company stay top of mind.  

Get more leads through LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is an extremely valuable resource to generate leads and increase brand awareness. If you aren’t already using LinkedIn to grow your business, now is the time to start! 

At Extu, we provide content and automation tools that help boost your LinkedIn SEO marketing strategy. Our LinkedIn Publisher is designed to help you attract new followers by automatically sharing professional and helpful content to your LinkedIn network. This tool consistently schedules and posts your monthly campaign content on the platform — all that’s needed from you is a quick approval.

Start delivering insightful content to your audience on LinkedIn with the Extu Digital Marketing Program. Learn more and sign up via our GoTu Grow program page.