If you’re using LinkedIn to search for your next big career opportunity, creating a good LinkedIn headlines are one of the best ways to get noticed.
Your LinkedIn profile headline will be one of the first things that potential employers or recruiters notice when they look at your page. But there’s lots of competition out there. There are tons of LinkedIn users profiles with similar goals to you – they want to network with other professionals and to stand out from the crowd.
That means that if you want to get more views, and more success on LinkedIn, you need to come up with a headline that gives you the edge.
Writing a generic headline just isn’t enough. And it’s a mistake that could lead you to miss out on career or business opportunities. So, what is a good headline for LinkedIn?
Let’s take a look at how you can optimize your headline for LinkedIn to increase your chances of success.
What Is a Headline on LinkedIn?
Your professional headline on LinkedIn refers to the text below your name in the introduction section. Your headline displays in search results and is separate from your current position title.
Typically, LinkedIn users leverage headlines to promote an area of expertise or showcase a new or current position.
LinkedIn headlines are essential since it:
- Tells visitors your chief job and strengths;
- Offers them a reason to connect with you;
- Portrays you as an industry leader;
- Motivates viewers to click on your profile.
How to Write a LinkedIn Headline
Stand out from your competition by creating the perfect professional SEO optimized headline. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a professional headline on LinkedIn:
Keeping your LinkedIn Headline Simple
Curate a relatable yet attention-grabbing headline to encourage viewers to click on your profile. Remember, your main goal is to convey your primary skills and how you do your job.
Be Clear, Compelling, and Specific
LinkedIn provides its users with approximately 120 characters to explain their roles. Focus on being clear and specific about yourself, your job, and your skillset.
Offer Unique Value
Ensure your LinkedIn headline offers viewers unique value when they land on your profile.
Be a Little Boastful
Consider showing off your skillset in your LinkedIn headline to draw attention to your profile. Boasting about your honors and awards is an easy way of telling visitors about your accomplishments.
How to Edit a LinkedIn Headline
Here’s how you can edit your LinkedIn headline:
- Visit your LinkedIn homepage;
- Select the ‘Me’ icon present on the top of your LinkedIn homepage;
- Choose the ‘View Profile’ button;
- Click on the ‘Edit’ icon;
- Select the ‘Headline’ field within the ‘Edit’ intro pop-up.
Types of LinkedIn Users
How you tailor your headline will depend on your circumstances, as well as what it is you’re looking for.
There are different types of users on LinkedIn. And they will use the site for different purposes.
How you choose to write your headline, the language you use, and the skills you promote will all depend on which type of user you are.
Employee
The employee category of LinkedIn user is one of the most competitive, and there will be lots of people fighting for potential employers’ attention.
That means that, if you want to stand out, you need to focus on your skills and achievements, and why employers should approach you over the competition.
Freelancer
The gig economy is growing. More and more people are turning to freelance as a way of working more flexible.
However, with the increasing number of freelancers joining the market, the competition is also growing rapidly.
That means that, if you want to find new, exciting opportunities on LinkedIn, you need to make a great first impression.
What’s different about you? Why should companies or individuals approach you over someone else?
As freelancers have to compete over individual jobs, anything you can do to outshine others will help you become more successful.
Self-employed
As with freelancers, self-employed users rely on finding individual jobs to succeed. That means that they have to make sure they stand out at all times.
In order to attract the best clients or customers, self-employed users need to focus on what they can offer that others can’t. Creating good headlines for LinkedIn can help you get noticed.
Related article: How are Self-Entrepreneurs Using LinkedIn?
Contractor
Contractors have to rely on individual contracts for employment, and, unlike employees, sometimes have to wait for new work and opportunities to become available.
Because of this, optimizing your headline to get noticed as quickly as possible is crucial. Otherwise, it can mean waiting for long periods of time in between jobs.
Volunteer
If you’re looking for a volunteering opportunity, LinkedIn can be used to highlight your previous experience, describe skills, and what you’re looking for in the future.
You should include as much detail as you can but in a clear and concise way. Focus on the key points: what volunteering you have taken part in before, and what you’re interested in doing next.
Intern
Interns tend to be individuals that are either just leaving education, are new to a particular industry, or are making a career change and trying to seek experience in that area.
If you don’t have paid experience in the role you’re searching for, you need to find alternative ways to stand out from your competition.
It could be by focusing on your passion, drive, enthusiasm, or other traits. Or, you could focus on your other achievements are reasons that you would be a good fit for the role.
Job seeker
A lot of job seekers make the mistake of using the word “unemployed” in their headline. This can be off-putting for potential employers.
Instead, job seekers should take note of how freelancers and self-employed users pitch themselves.
Although these users aren’t unemployed, they’re always seeking new opportunities. Therefore, they optimize their headline in a way that helps them find their next gig.
By using key job titles, experience, skills, qualifications, or other selling points in a heading, job seekers can maximize their chances of being spotted by recruiters.
Profit from the Good LinkedIn Headline
Creating a keyword-rich or benefit-focused headline is an excellent way of demonstrating your creativity and expressing value.
Once you create the perfect LinkedIn headline, consider adding a video testimonial and resume to make it increasingly engaging and unique.
A good LinkedIn headline incorporates the users’ job title, value, and skillset. It also gives prospects and recruiters a clear picture of your position, value, and current role.
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Optimized LinkedIn Headlines
What to put in LinkedIn headline? When you’re crafting good LinkedIn headlines, it can be helpful to look at others within your industry for inspiration.
You should never copy someone else’s headline. A good headline for LinkedIn is original and unique. It also needs to show your personality. But it can help if you’re stuck for ideas.
Your LinkedIn headline should be clear and to the point. It should sum up what you can offer an employer or client, and what makes your different from everyone else.
Try and paint a picture about what you do. What’s special about you? Try and avoid anything too generic.
In addition, try and include as many keywords as you can. This will help you to become more searchable, which will result in more views and, hopefully, more leads and opportunities.
Here are some optimized LinkedIn headline examples:
- “Self-employed pet clothing designer helping pet owners with trend-setting styles.”
- “Freelance graphic designer with 5+ years of experience helping restaurants design epic designs.”
- “Independent admin contractor experienced in the charity sector with high-quality administrative work in the fast-paced work environment.”
- “Culinary arts intern ready to take on a new challenge to cook delicious food for customers.”
- “Volunteer professional with a passion for feeding the hungry in my community every day.”
And as a bonus, here is a top 10 proven LinkedIn headline examples that bring results!
Biggest Mistakes People Make While Writing LinkedIn Headlines
Your LinkedIn headline is your brand statement and hence needs special attention when curating one’s profile. It’s the statement that tries to sell you to viewers, yet most people fail to give it the significance that it deserves.
It’s quite easy to get the headline part of your profile wrong by omitting crucial details or merely misunderstanding the context and purpose of the headline feature. Here’re some of the biggest mistakes users make when crafting their LinkedIn headlines:
1. Current Job Title
Most people make the typical choice of saving their current job title and contemporary employer as their headline. While it provides a quick idea about your current designation and commitments, it fails to give enough useful information that could have been accessed through an adequately customized headline.
Employers look for more info, such as your skills, experiences, and specializations. A good headline for LinkedIn will include these details and do significantly better in generating engagement than headlines containing just the company association and occupation title.
2. Not Even Creating One
Headlines left empty will be set to the current designation title and the name of the relevant employing organization by default. If you do not wish to bear the same potential losses as the mistake mentioned earlier, be sure to create a personalized headline yourself rather than leaving it for the app to handle.
3. Not Implementing Keywords
Keywords play a vital part in showing up your profile in search results. It is a good idea to include keywords related to your career objectives or the jobs you want to target. If you fail to do so, your profile will have little or no chances to appear at the top of search results in your niche. It means failure to use keywords in your headline can hinder your LinkedIn visibility.
4. Lying
Being dishonest in your headline is probably a sure-fire way to burn the bridges to career growth and business opportunities. Discrepancies between your profile and working experiences are easy to spot and impossible to forgive.
5. Not Catchy Enough
Your headline is your primary selling point. It’s the only thing separating your potential employment or lead from visiting your profile and engaging through communication. If your headline is dull, monotonous, lacking information, or devoid of key skills, LinkedIn users will be less likely to interact with you.
Employers often surf the platform in search of candidates to hire, and if the headline is not appealing or catchy enough, the candidate will probably slide out of consideration and fail to make the shortlist.
The same holds when it comes to prospecting. As a salesperson, you may send connection requests and messages to your prospects on LinkedIn. If your headline isn’t catchy, they’re more likely to ignore your request and messages.
Conclusion
Now you know exactly what to put in LinkedIn headline. Use a LinkedIn headline ideas from this guide to improve your profile and get noticed by users and algorithms.