LinkedIn has become one of the most popular platforms for professionals, job seekers, recruiters, and employers. Not only this but LinkedIn’s internal search engine is now one of the main tools recruiters use to find candidates’ profiles.

However, if you’re a job seeker, there are certain things you need to do for your profile to appear in recruiters’ search results.

We go through the various ways you can make sure your LinkedIn profile not only shows up in search results but ranks higher too.

How to appear in more LinkedIn searches

The first is likely the most important.

Keywords, keywords, keywords

This is probably the main thing that will help people find you in LinkedIn’s search engine.

It can’t be stated enough how crucial it is to have relevant keywords on your LinkedIn profile, and your job title is the most important keyword of all of them.

For example, if you are currently or were formerly a Metallurgist, your LinkedIn title should be ‘Metallurgist’, and this is the primary keyword of your profile.

It is tempting to many to make their title something more fun or colourful, like ‘Metal Master’, thinking this will help them stand out. But this isn’t your actual profession and won’t get you found. And you can’t stand out if no one can find you in the first place.

Think about how recruiters search for candidates – by job roles and skills. They aren’t typing ‘Ninja’ or ‘Guru’ into the search bar.

In addition, include keywords in your profile by adding hard skills, areas of expertise, and qualifications that are relevant to the role you’re seeking.

For example, a metallurgist would include things like Engineering, Aluminium, Failure Analysis, and so on. These are things that recruiters and prospective employers are more likely to type into the search bar.

Pro tip: It is recommended to list at least 5 skills to increase your chances of being discovered in LinkedIn searches.

In fact, LinkedIn stated that users who mention 5 skills or more on their profiles are contacted by recruiters and other members 33 times more than those who don’t.

You can add up to 50 skills – however, some experts argue that you shouldn’t have too many skills on your LinkedIn profile, although it may depend on your industry and the stage of your career.

Make sure you complete your profile

Simply fill in all the fields on your profile – that includes a profile picture. This is basically an extension of the point about keywords – having more information on your profile means you can get in more keywords.

Not only this, but a complete profile is key if you want to look professional to recruiters or employers who visit your profile.

Turn off the ‘Private’ settings

Your profile needs to be publicly visible if you want a chance of getting seen by prospective hirers and recruitment consultants.

This is because when you set your profile to “Private”, people will not be able to see it unless they are logged into LinkedIn – and many employers and recruiters do not log in to search or view profiles on the site.

To ensure people can view your profile without being logged into LinkedIn, go to Settings & Privacy, which you can see on the drop-down menu when you click on your small profile picture on the top-right of the site pages.

From there, click on the “Visibility” tab. From there, you’ll see various options for parts of your profile that you can make either public or private. Select the ones that make it public to everyone, whether or not they’re logged into LinkedIn.

Make more connections

Being well-connected on LinkedIn by having a wide network will make you more likely to pop up in search results. Increase your discoverability by inviting more people to connect with you on the platform.

LinkedIn’s search engine only shows the person using it their first, second, and third-degree connections in its results – in other words, people connected to them or their connections.

(However, this is not the case if the searcher is using LinkedIn Recruiter (which is paid) or searches for someone by name.)

Display your location

Add your city and country to the ‘Location’ section of your LinkedIn profile intro. Make sure to include your city as just including your country alone will make you far less likely to be discovered by recruiters.

Recruiters and employers search for candidates using LinkedIn Recruiter, which allows them to find professionals with various criteria. ‘Location’ is one of the primary criteria used to filter candidates.

When a recruiter looks for candidates in specific locations, they are going to be looking in specific areas like cities or country regions that match the location of the job – although this can vary when it comes to searching for FIFO mine workers, for instance.

So if a recruiter is seeking say, a candidate for a job in Nairobi, Kenya, these two locations are keywords, and members that have these on their profile will show up in the recruiter’s search.

Pro tip: If you are looking for a job in a different area to the one you live in, according to LinkedIn it is acceptable to show your location as that area.

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