Your LinkedIn URL is important.
It serves as the primary address of all your efforts on the platform and it’s how your prospects get to you.
Imagine if you needed to get somewhere and someone just gave you the coordinates.
Technically, you could still get there, but isn’t a real street address just so much easier?
That’s the logic behind prioritizing it.
You can’t be caught growth hacking with the default URL that LinkedIn assigned you.
You’ll need a custom one.
Today, we’ll show you how you can change and switch out your default URL, and how it helps your general optimization.
Why Change It Out?
A custom URL can tell you a lot about a person.
First of all, it comes off as professional. A custom LinkedIn URL is sometimes overlooked because it’s such a small detail compared to optimizing other parts of your profile.
However, if you rock a custom one, it shows prospects that you pay attention to little things. Remember, people who pay attention to detail are also labeled as hardworking and more professional.
Secondly, it’s great for branding yourself (or your company.) It makes you easy to find you, and it sets you apart from the rest of the LinkedIn users who still use a default URL.
It makes more sense to have your name plastered on your LinkedIn URL rather than a bunch of random characters with your default one. It looks better on your footers and business cards, and you can drop it like a website.
How to Create a New LinkedIn URL
If you’re on your LinkedIn feed. You will want to head over to your profile page.
On the upper right-hand corner, you’ll find an option to “Edit public profile & URL,” click on that option.
This will take you to a new tab where you can make edits to other parts of your profile.
Look at the upper right-hand corner again and you’ll find a section called “Edit your custom URL,” now click on the pencil icon.
Now, you’re free to edit your URL in any way that you want.
There are limitations, you can only use letters or numbers (you can also use a dash to add words), and it has a maximum character count of 100.
(Whatever you do, please don’t finish the character count. That’s just terrible.)
Click on “Save”
And, there you have it, you now have a custom URL!
Note: it takes a while for search engines to crawl your page so don’t expect it to be visible on your search engine for a bit.
What Can I Put In My LinkedIn URL?
There are different ways to structure your LinkedIn URL.
The basics are to include your name, but if you have a common name you can try different variations such as putting your last name in before you first.
For example, linkedin.com/in/LASTNAME-FIRSTNAME
If you find that different variations of your name are already taken, you can stick in your middle initial.
You can also use your full form last name.
Another way to add flair is to use a nickname.
Adding numbers is also a good way to differentiate from the crowd. Check out how Tim Tebow does it with his former jersey number.
If you want to add some branding to the mix, you can even put in your job title or professional designation somewhere in the mix.
Something like, linkedin.com/in/FIRSTNAME-growthhacker or linkedin.com/in/drLASTNAMEmd
Startups and teams who want to get their name out there ad have streamlined branding can opt to have their team members adopt the company name or acronym in the URL.
For instance, linkedin.com/in/FIRSTNAME-COMPANYNAME
Finally, you can come with something completely unique that tells the world who you are, like:
linkedin.com/in/THEGROWTHMASTER
Our last tip is to make sure that everything is short enough to fit in common publication materials where you can use your URL. Long URLs aren’t necessarily the prettiest things in the world, and if you’re going for recognition, longer URLs are harder to remember.
Keep it short.
Where Else Can I Use My LinkedIn URL?
As long as your profile is complete and optimized, your custom URL serves as a portable portfolio that you can conveniently give to anyone on-the-go.
You can use it in a variety of scenarios and people commonly use their custom URLs in company or personal publication materials.
For business cards, the addition of your LinkedIn URL allows for a quick way for potential leads to access a more detailed profile of you if they’re checking you out.
A custom URL also makes a great addition to any landing page that has your contact details because it allows people to check for social proof. It also serves to show prospects that there are actual people behind the company.
For resumes, it serves as a tool for getting potential employers to reach out to you. In fact, in today’s world, the lack of a LinkedIn account can be detrimental to the hiring process.
And, if you’re doing outreach to hack your growth, it’s a convenient way of explaining who you are in your email footer without taking up too much space.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to your custom URL.
A quick tip is to include it wherever you include your other personal links.
Other Tips
- If you’re using custom URLs on other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. it makes more sense to use the same suffix on your LinkedIn – provided that you follow the guidelines above. This allows you to keep your brand streamlined and it helps with your search engine visibility.
- Avoid changing out your URL one too many times. Apart from the fact, that you only have a number of times that you can change it out in 180 days, it wrecks the streamlining of your other URLs.
- Include your LinkedIn URLs in your contact QR codes if you use those for your business cards.
Takeaways
The personalized approach is the only way to go.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your custom URL, headline, or your outreach email.
Small details such as this make all the difference in the big picture. You can’t dream big if you don’t take care of the little things.
These little things help you stand out.
If you don’t stand out, you won’t be able to compete.
And, if you can’t compete…
Well, we all know what follows after that.
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