LinkedIn SEO: How to Turn Your Profile Into a Recruiter Magnet

Fact: 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates. But here's the secret: They use "LinkedIn Recruiter"—a backend tool that works like a search engine.

If a recruiter types "SaaS Sales Manager" and you call yourself "Guru of Growth," you will not appear in the results.

1. The Headline (Prime Real Estate)

This is not just for your job title. It follows your name everywhere (comments, posts, connection requests). Formula: Job Title | Core Skill 1 | Core Skill 2 | Unique Value Prop.

• Bad: "Marketing at Stark Industries"
• Good: "Senior Product Marketer | GTM Strategy & B2B SaaS | Launching Products that Scale"

2. The "About" Section (The Hook)

Don't paste your resume here. This is your personal brand story. Write in the First Person ("I", not "John").

• What solves do you solve?
• What makes you different?
• Call to Action: "Reach me at hello@email.com"

3. Experience (Keyword Loading)

Recruiters search for hard skills. Your experience section must contain them. Don't just write "Managed team." Write "Managed team using Agile Scrum, Jira, and Notion." The algorithm scans these descriptions for keyword density.

4. Skills & Endorsements (The Algorithm Signal)

LinkedIn lets you list 50 skills. Use all 50. This is purely for the SEO algorithm.

• Pin the top 3 most relevant to the job you want.
• Ask 3 friends to "endorse" you for those top 3. It validates the skill to the algorithm.

5. The "Open to Work" Settings

You don't need the green photo frame (which can sometimes look desperate, controversial opinion). BUT, you must go to Settings > Open to Work and set it to "Recruiters Only." This signals the algorithm to push your profile to the top of Recruiter searches without alerting your current boss.

6. Activity is Visibility

When you comment on a post, your profile is shown to that person's network.

• Comment on industry leaders' posts.
• Don't just say "Great post." Add value. "Interesting point, I've found that X also works..."

Summary

LinkedIn is a passive funnel. Build it right once, and it brings leads to you while you sleep.