Whether you’re on a job search or looking to grow your professional network, improving your LinkedIn profile is a useful place to start.

With nearly 600 million users, LinkedIn offers plenty of opportunities to connect with other professionals and find work opportunities.

Making small changes to your LinkedIn profile can help it stand out and look more polished.

Look for grammatical issues

Your LinkedIn profile may show a wide variety of skills and experiences, but one grammatical error could keep a recruiter from reaching out to you.

It never hurts to read through your profile and check for mistakes. You might be surprised to find that you’ve misspelled a word or put in a wrong date. It’s better that you catch the error than a potential employer.

Remove old or unnecessary job experiences

If you haven’t been on your LinkedIn account in a while, chances are it contains some unnecessary or outdated information.

Scroll through your experience section and determine whether everything listed is related to the field of work you’re interested in. Unnecessary experiences might be cluttering your page and making it harder for recruiters to focus on the qualifications that really matter.

While you’re at it, check to make sure your current position is current. You wouldn’t want to miss out on opportunities because your profile indicates you’re unavailable.

Add a profile photo

Not only does having a profile photo give your LinkedIn account a sense of trustworthiness, but it also results in up to 21 times more profile views and nine times more connection requests, according to LinkedIn.

Your profile photo should be as high quality as possible and of only you — not any of your friends, family or colleagues. This will enhance your credibility in the eyes of potential employers and help you cultivate a polished online presence.

Add a background photo

Like a profile photo, a background photo gives your page credibility and provides people with an idea of who you are. Whether it features your favorite hobby, your inspirational quote or the skyline of your favorite city, your background photo will help you stand out.

Update your skills

Skills demonstrate your capabilities and help set you apart from other candidates.

Browse through what you have on your profile to see if there are any glaring holes or recently gained abilities that you’ve yet to add.

After that, take a look at the skills section on the profiles of others in your industry. You might gain some inspiration or realize you’ve been missing a critical item.

Create an about section

An often neglected component of a LinkedIn profile is the about section, which is essentially a cover letter for anyone looking to hire you. While it might be a nuisance, writing a few paragraphs about yourself and including your skills shows you are motivated and willing to put in the effort to make your profile as good as it can be.

Find new connections

You may think your LinkedIn connections should only consist of your friends and coworkers, but it’s also an excellent platform for networking and meeting new people.

Take advantage of LinkedIn by reaching out to experts in your industry. They may offer you advice or share tips on how to succeed in the industry, which could translate to real-world connections.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Paige