Don’t Make this Simple Error on LinkedIn
I just had a client whose LinkedIn profile wouldn’t come up in Google searches, despite the fact that he has an relatively unusual name. Nor did he appear in the LinkedIn search directory. We couldn’t figure it out – until we realized that he had included initials after his name. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and thinking it would help with recruiters, he included those initials after his name, listing himself as Joe Brown, PMP (not his real name).
Unfortunately, the search technologies thought that PMP was part of his name, so when you search ‘Joe Brown’ in Google, his profile doesn’t appear.
This is easy to fix – he can just remove the initials from his name and add them to the ‘Professional Headline’ which comes up right after his name. Once Google reindexes his page, he’ll start to appear in the results.
But now you know – no initials after your name on LinkedIn!
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Louise Fletcher
thanks for the tip- I can see how it would be easy to overlook that.
Must be something else or perhaps a simple “,” might help. Google Cor Lageweg and the first entry is Cor’s linkedin page with the PMP moniker.
Good point Rich, but I think Cor’s name may be so unusual that nothing would stop him showing up!
My client’s name wasn’t quite that unusual, and the issue wasn’t just with Google but also with LinkedIn’s internal search. Speech marks around his name didn’t help.
But just a few days after removing the ‘PMP’ he is showing up in LinkedIn’s search results. He’s not yet showing up in Google, but I would expect that to take longer.
I still think it’s safer to eliminate initials from your name and just add them to the sub-header – they will still show up in any recruiter searches but won’t jeopardize your search results.
Louise, great little tip for LinkedIn. It’s great to do some simple searches from the point of view of a recruiter to see how often your name pops up in the searches. This goes for LinkedIn or your personal portfolio/site.
That’s a great tip Scott. It’s also helpful because you can see what the recruiter sees. For example, go into LinkedIn and run a search for the type of position you’re seeking. See if your name comes up, and if it does, what else shows in the search results? Would what you see make you want to click through to the profile if you were a recruiter? If not, how can you change it?
i registered with LinkedIn a few days ago yet when i google my name it doesn’t show up. do you know how long it takes before that happens?
I’ve sent their customer service a few e-mails but so far no replies
thx in advance
Hi A.G,
It will take some time – no one can really tell you how long but Google indexes fairly regularly. Just make sure that you add lots of contacts and fill it all in fully and before long, you’ll show up.