Profile Essentials
| Element | Best Practice |
|---|
| Profile Photo | Professional headshot, face takes 60% of frame, smiling — +21x more profile views |
| Headline | Not just your job title — include value: "Software Engineer | React + Node.js | Building tools for 10M users" |
| Banner Image | Branded visual — Canva template, 1584x396px. Blank = wasted real estate. |
| Custom URL | linkedin.com/in/yourname — cleaner, more professional, better for Google |
About Section
| Component | Content |
|---|
| Hook (first 2 lines) | Who you help, what you do — these lines show before "See more" |
| Credentials | Years, companies, achievements with numbers |
| Call to action | "Open to senior engineer roles in NYC" or "DM me about React consulting" |
Experience Bullets
| Instead of | Write |
|---|
| "Responsible for the checkout system" | "Built checkout system handling $50M/year in transactions, reducing cart abandonment 35%" |
Content Strategy
| Content Type | Frequency |
|---|
| Industry insights | 1-2x/week |
| Personal wins/lessons | 1x/week |
| Comment on others' posts | Daily — 5 meaningful comments |
Pro Tip: Your headline is LinkedIn SEO. Don't write 'Student at University of X' — write 'Aspiring Data Scientist | Python, ML, SQL | Seeking 2025 Internships.' Recruiters search by skills, not job titles. Make yourself findable.