Selecting key words for your LinkedIn profile is a rather simple process.
Consider what words people would type in the search tool bar of LinkedIn to find you.
1. Brainstorm keywords
Let’s say you are an Employment Lawyer in Chicago.
In this case, I would suggest the following key words:
Employment
litigation or litigator
attorney or lawyer
Chicago
There are several other descriptive key words that describe this lawyer’s practice but let’s start with these above.
2. Test keyword usage
Testing key words informs you of the popularity and competition of key word usage within your network.
A. Go to the Home Page.
B. Select the People Search option on the main search tool bar.
C. Type and search “Employment Litigation”. Notice the amount of search results for these key terms. 316,000 is a lot of competition for this key word choice. But it also reveals that people also use this search. If you place this key word strategically enough on your profile you could be on the first page of search results. See Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for how to strategy on key word placement.
D. Now notice the search results for “Employment Litigator”. 7,500 vs. 316,000. You can choose either to compete for first page search results. Its a judgment call. There is no wrong answer. You can test the effectiveness of both based on your profile traffic.
3. Choose at least 2-4 primary key words
In the end, I would choose the following key words.
Chicago Employment Litigation Attorney
My reasoning behind this for each key word:
Chicago – I like to choose a location specific key word because it will help anchor the attorney if a law firm client is looking for local counsel. LinkedIn is now favoring location searches through local key words on LinkedIn profiles. The local key word does not restrict the attorney’s ability to be found. It only helps for him/her locally.
Employment – This is the most important key word. It precisely describes the practice area of law for the attorney. No other key word better describes this. It will give the attorney more visibility and profile strength even if the person search does not use the other key words used.
Litigation & Attorney – These words are arbitrary. They describe the attorney and will more likely help the profile being found. As mentioned before, you can test whether these are more effective (ie. getting on the first page of search results and driving more traffic to your LinkedIn profile) vs. variation of litigator & lawyer.
Many times if you effectively use attorney/lawyer and employment in a key word strategy you could get sufficient LinkedIn profile traffic and search page results simply simply with those one word usage.
The questions to ask are:
Am I getting the right kind of traffic?
Meaning what’s my goal?
Who am I trying to attract?
4. Select secondary key words
For employment attorneys, secondary key words could be:
- wage and hour
- collective action
- class action
- harassment
- discrimination
- trial
- labor
- FLSA
These key words are not your primary key words but should be sprinkled through out your LinkedIn profile.
Click here to learn key word placement strategy and get first page LinkedIn profile search results.
5. A final word on LinkedIn key word selection
Unlike Google, LinkedIn does discriminate according to how you spell your key words along with suffixes and prefixes. What I mean is the searches are spelling specific. You have to spell the word correctly, and the search will discriminate if your word is plural or has “ing”.
Attorneys vs. Attorney
Litigators vs. Litigating
Litigation vs. Litigating
Choose your key words wisely.
Now that you have your key words selected, click here to apply the Strategy for Optimizing your LinkedIn Profile and getting First Page Search Results.
Related Pages
4 Steps to Increasing Visibility on LinkedIn
How to Create LinkedIn Company Pages
Sourcing Attorneys through LinkedIn Groups
3 Steps to Sourcing Attorneys on Twitter
Using Job Boards to Source Attorney Candidates
5 Tips: Getting the Most from the Legal Recruiter Relationship
Legal Recruiting and the Search Agreement
Ethics, Legal Recruiting & Accountability
How to Select the Right Legal Recruiter
For more information on our legal recruiting services, contact us.
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