How IT contractors can get LinkedIn to take a shine to them (clue: hack the algorithm)

Does having a good LinkedIn profile attract contract work? You’re probably expecting my answer to extol the virtues of how the better your LinkedIn profile is, the better and greater in volume the opportunities attracted will be.

But I’d like to shed a slightly different light on this area ahead of my webinar this Wednesday - free for ContractorUK readers - on how you can upgrade a good LinkedIn profile to a killer LinkedIn profile. writes Matt Craven, founder and winning work expert at The CV & Interview Advisors.

Your profile is not enough

I should start by saying that having a great LinkedIn profile is super important.

But on its own, your LinkedIn profile is just one of a billion that is lost in a sea of other profiles.

The words on your LinkedIn page written into your Headline, About section, Positions, and elsewhere are meaningless -- unless someone is reading them.

Now, the (welcome) caveat here is that some of the words you choose will trigger searches and that will render you visible. But only to a small extent!

How to hack the LinkedIn algorithm to win more contract work

And really, it’s the LinkedIn optimisation tactics that you employ that will get the most eyeballs on your profile.

Good thing that my Wednesday webinar is entitled ‘How to Hack the LinkedIn Algorithm to Win More Contract Work.’

So once people land on your profile and start reading, that’s where the words become super important, and your LinkedIn profile should be written with your target audience's psychology in mind.

Words for words’ sake is not going to get you results. But a message that is perfectly aligned with your target audience's needs will.

Be aware, this is quite hard to get right

The website comparison

Think of your LinkedIn profile as a shiny new website lost in the ether of the internet. It could be a super fantastic, all-singing website with amazing content, but without it being SEO-optimised or having some form of paid advertising, nobody is going to see it! And I mean ‘nobody’ – not a sausage! This is a well-known fact and it’s why businesses invest in both SEO and paid-advertising.

Draw these parallels with your LinkedIn profile.

So yes, make sure the content is highly compelling, but also participate in your own version of SEO to get eyeballs on your awesomeness.

Remember, like a website released onto the world wide web, a well-written LinkedIn profile isn't going to attract clients and recruiters all by itself.

So what will?

LinkedIn algorithm

In a nutshell, you need to do things that positively trigger LinkedIn’s algorithm, so that LinkedIn takes a shine to you -- and promotes you above others in searches and results.

One of the best ways to do this is to use LinkedIn as it is intended.

This means connecting with people, writing content, and sharing or liking posts.

 Just a few minutes a day, using LinkedIn as it is intended, will send positive vibes to the algorithm and improve your visibility.

Keywords

When recruiters and clients are searching for contractors and freelancers, they will type keywords into their search box. This could be anything from ‘project management’ to ‘HR policy’.

If those keywords exist on your profile, you may appear in searches; if they don’t, you won’t.

These words can appear in the text you write, in job or project titles, and in the ‘Skills & Endorsements’ section. Make sure your profile is keyword-rich and that will boost your visibility.

Thought Leadership

There are lots of other activities that you can embroil yourself in that will positively trigger the LinkedIn algorithm, and no, I don’t mean those sorts of activities!

A tried and tested way to both pull people onto your LinkedIn profile and then actually impress them once reading, is by posting useful content such as articles, whitepapers, and presentations. And then giving your take on it, even if just briefly.

You could even consider running webinars or live streams that beam your expertise out to the world.

More info

To get more in-depth information on how to boost your LinkedIn presence to win more high-paying contracts, join our upcoming webinar on Aug 21st where we will be looking at:

✅ What recruiters see when you appear in their searches – it’s quite different from what you see, and will completely change how you write your profile.

✅ The narrative marketing techniques that will keyword-optimise your profile and impress the heck out of clients when they read your profile.

✅ How the huge Skills & Endorsements update back in 2023 is still not being taken advantage of by contractors and the simple steps you can make in minutes to boost your visibility.

✅ How your user behaviour affects the LinkedIn algorithm and how you are prioritised in searches.

✅ The dark art of getting your posts noticed and how to drive engagement within the golden hour.

✅ How you can use LinkedIn’s premium licenses to proactively build your contractor or freelance business.

You can register for free here and if you want to find out if your LinkedIn profile really measures up against 2024 best practices, you can get a free and confidential 1-2-1 review of your profile here.