Can I hide my LinkedIn company Page?

With over 740 million members, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform. As such, it’s an extremely valuable tool for promoting your business and attracting new customers. Creating a LinkedIn Company Page allows you to establish your brand’s presence on LinkedIn and effectively market to its extensive userbase.

However, you may wish to temporarily hide your LinkedIn Company Page for a variety of reasons. For example, you may be undergoing a rebranding process or reviewing your social media strategy. Fortunately, while LinkedIn doesn’t have a built-in option to hide your Company Page, there are a few workarounds you can use.

Why Would You Want to Hide Your LinkedIn Company Page?

Here are some common reasons businesses may want to temporarily hide their LinkedIn Company Page:

• Rebranding – If you are rebranding your company with a new name, logo, messaging, etc., you may want to hide your old Company Page while you create a new one.
• Strategy Pivot – Perhaps your social media strategy is shifting and you want to evaluate analytics before relaunching your Page.
• Mergers & Acquisitions – Your company may be going through a merger or acquisition, necessitating changes to your LinkedIn presence.
• Crisis Management – You may need to temporarily deactivate your Page to mitigate reputational risks during a PR crisis.
• Under Construction – Your Company Page may be undergoing maintenance and you want to hide it while you make backend changes.

Temporarily hiding your Page gives you breathing room to revamp your branding, messaging, images, and overall strategy without publicly showcasing an outdated presence.

How to Hide Your LinkedIn Company Page

While LinkedIn doesn’t have an option to hide or deactivate Pages, you can essentially accomplish the same effect through these methods:

Unlink Your Website

Your LinkedIn Company Page includes a website link directing visitors to your company site. Unlinking this website connection removes the ability for users to access your Page through your external website:

1. Go to your Company Page and click “Manage” in the admin toolbar.
2. Select “Company Info” in the left sidebar.
3. Delete the website URL under “Company Details.”
4. Save your changes.

Without the website link, visitors will get a 404 error if they try accessing your Page through your company site. However, it will still be accessible to those searching LinkedIn directly.

Remove Your Company Page URL

Eliminate any public listings or external links to your Company Page URL. This includes:

• Your company’s website and blog
• Your other social media profiles
• Your email signatures
• Any print marketing materials

Without publicly posted links, it will be much harder for people to find your Page. However, removing the URL doesn’t prevent access by those who already have the direct link or stumble upon it in LinkedIn’s directory.

Block Search Engine Indexing

You can request search engines like Google not to index your LinkedIn Company Page so it doesn’t appear in results. Add a robots.txt file to your website’s root directory with the following:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /linkedin-company-page-url

Replace “linkedin-company-page-url” with your actual Page URL. This asks search engines not to crawl or index that page.

Make Your Page Private

LinkedIn allows you to make Company Pages private so only approved followers can access them. To privatize your Page:

1. Go to your Company Page and click “Manage” in the toolbar.
2. Select “Settings” in the left sidebar.
3. Under “Page Visibility,” toggle the slide button to “Private” mode.
4. Save your changes.

This will prompt all current followers to request access if they want to continue seeing your Page. You can then approve or deny each request individually.

Pros and Cons of Hiding Your LinkedIn Page

Before hiding your LinkedIn Company Page, consider these potential advantages and disadvantages:

Pros

• Prevents outdated branding and messaging during transitions
• Lets you revamp your Page without public visibility
• Stops promoting an Page that may have reputation issues
• Allows flexibility to pivot strategies without explaining changes
• Enables maintenance without annoying visitors with errors

Cons

• Limits brand exposure and visibility during the hiding period
• Could signal business problems to public if hiding for long times
• May damage SEO if Page has been indexed by search engines
• Requires rebuilding followers/engagement when relaunching Page
• Prevents driving traffic to website and offers during downtime

Overall, hiding your page gives you greater control over your brand messaging and reputation. But it also creates short-term costs by limiting promotional capabilities. Strike the right balance for your unique situation.

Best Practices for Hiding Your Page

If you do opt to hide your LinkedIn Company Page for a period, follow these best practices:

• Tell existing followers you’re temporarily hiding your Page and why so they understand the change.
• Keep the hiding period short and purposeful to minimize SEO and engagement drops.
• Develop a plan for relaunching so you can hit the ground running when live again.
• Consider redirecting website traffic to an alternative landing page in the interim.
• Analyze your metrics before, during, and after being hidden to assess the impact.

With strategic planning and communications, you can successfully hide your Page without losing too much ground. Be transparent, keep stakeholders informed, and have a revamped Page ready to launch as soon as your purpose has been achieved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pause my LinkedIn Company Page?

There is no official “pause” function for Company Pages. But you can essentially pause your page by unpublishing it through the methods above like unlinking your website and making your page private.

Is it bad to hide my LinkedIn Page for SEO?

Hiding your page could negatively impact SEO if it has been indexed and built up authority over time. But a short hiding period is unlikely to significantly damage your overall SEO performance.

What happens to my Company Page followers if I hide it?

Followers will not be able to access your hidden page. If you make it private, they can request access once you relaunch it. If you unlink it entirely, you’ll have to rebuild followers from scratch.

Can I recreate my LinkedIn Company Page?

Yes, you can delete your existing Company Page and then create a brand new one from scratch. This gives you a fresh start but also requires completely rebuilding your presence.

Does hiding my page remove it from Google?

It will not automatically remove it but you can request removal using a robots.txt file. However, pages may still briefly appear until search engines recrawl and update their indexes.

Conclusion

Hiding your LinkedIn Company Page is a viable temporary option if you need to revamp your branding, messaging, or overall strategy without public visibility. Unlinking your website, privatizing your page, and blocking search indexing can essentially “hide” your page until you’re ready to relaunch it. However, be aware this reduces your brand exposure and requires restarting follower engagement when live again.

Overall, use page hiding judiciously for short strategic periods to maximize control over your branding without losing more visibility than necessary.

With careful planning and consideration, temporarily hiding your Company Page can be an effective brand management strategy on LinkedIn. Just be sure to weigh the pros and cons and optimize the timing to succeed.

Creating and maintaining an impactful LinkedIn presence takes time, effort, and skill. But it’s a critical way to reach the platform’s 740+ million members. If you ever need extra help managing your Company Page or entire LinkedIn strategy, consider working with a digital marketing agency or social media manager. Their expertise can amplify your brand and attract more business across the world’s top professional network.

In today’s digital world, perception is reality. That’s why controlling what’s visible about your brand online is so important. With the right temporary hiding tactics, you can revamp and relaunch your LinkedIn Company Page on your own terms. So don’t be afraid to pull it down for a bit if that’s what you need to ultimately boost your business in the long run.