LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social networking platform, with over 800 million members worldwide. As a LinkedIn user, your profile allows you to establish your professional identity, connect with other professionals, and find new opportunities. But what kind of visibility does your LinkedIn profile have? Can people see who views your public LinkedIn profile?
Who can see your LinkedIn profile?
Your LinkedIn profile has different privacy settings that control who can view it:
- Public profiles can be viewed by anyone on the internet, whether they have a LinkedIn account or not.
- Private profiles can only be viewed by your 1st-degree connections on LinkedIn.
Most LinkedIn profiles are public by default. That means anyone can see your profile information, photo, work experience, education, skills, accomplishments, interests, and more.
Can you see who views your public LinkedIn profile?
The short answer is no. LinkedIn users are not able to see who views their public profiles. This helps maintain privacy and prevent misuse of profile viewing data.
Here’s an explanation of how profile viewing works on LinkedIn:
- Your 1st-degree connections can see that you viewed their profile, and vice versa. But other LinkedIn members cannot see who specifically views their profile.
- While you can’t see individual viewers, LinkedIn does show you an aggregate number of profile views over the last 90 days.
- You can see more detailed analytics on who has engaged with your posts and activity, but not a list of who views your profile.
- LinkedIn Premium account holders get access to more profile visit metrics, like a geographic breakdown, but still not individual viewers.
- Some third-party browser extensions claim to show you who viewed your profile, but LinkedIn has not verified their accuracy.
Essentially, LinkedIn is designed to protect user privacy when it comes to profile viewing. The platform allows you to see overall engagement metrics, but not data on individual viewers.
Why doesn’t LinkedIn show who viewed your profile?
LinkedIn has explained that not showing individual profile viewers comes down to user privacy and preventing misuse of data. Here are some of the specific reasons LinkedIn keeps profile views anonymous:
- Viewing data could be misinterpreted if taken out of context.
- Users may worry about who viewed them or feel like they’re being watched.
- Viewers may not feel comfortable connecting for fear of being labeled a “stalker.”
- Sales professionals could misuse the data to excessively target individual viewers.
- Scammers or bad actors could leverage the data to identify targets.
- Users may obsess over or try to game their viewer count if individual data is exposed.
While some users want more transparency, LinkedIn has prioritized privacy and preventing misuse of data when it comes to profile viewing. The metrics provided aim to give users useful insights without compromising privacy.
What profile viewing data does LinkedIn provide?
While you can’t see who exactly is viewing your LinkedIn profile, the platform does provide users with visibility into useful viewing metrics and trends. Here is a breakdown of the profile visit data you can access:
| Data Provided | Description |
|---|---|
| Profile views in past 90 days | The total number of times your profile has been viewed over the last 90 days, including anonymous viewers. |
| Recent visitor metrics | Charts showing your profile views by seniority level, industry, company size, geography, and more for viewers in the past 90 days. |
| Viewer demographics | Percentage of your viewers by seniority, industry, company size, job function, and geography. |
| Who’s viewed your posts and activity | See the profiles of specific members who have interacted with or viewed your posts, shares, comments, and other profile activity. |
While not exhaustive, these metrics can provide helpful insights into who is engaging with you on LinkedIn. You can use the data to gauge your reach and influence.
Strategies to increase profile views
While you can’t see individual viewers, you can employ some strategies to increase the number of visitors to your LinkedIn profile:
- Customize your LinkedIn URL and include it in your email signature and online bios.
- Engage actively with your network by liking, commenting, and sharing posts.
- Join relevant LinkedIn Groups and establish yourself as an expert.
- Publish your own posts with compelling content that gets engagement.
- Optimize your profile with keywords to be discovered in LinkedIn search.
- Connect with more people to expand your 1st-degree network on LinkedIn.
Who can see who viewed their LinkedIn profile?
While most LinkedIn members cannot see who specifically views their profile, there are a couple of exceptions:
- 1st-Degree Connections: You can see when your direct connections on LinkedIn visit your profile, and they can see when you view theirs.
- LinkedIn Recruiters: Paid LinkedIn Recruiter accounts can see who specifically has viewed their LinkedIn profiles.
Beyond the above exceptions though, the vast majority of LinkedIn members do not have access to data on who views their profile. LinkedIn limits viewing data to protect privacy and prevent misuse.
Does LinkedIn notify someone if you view their profile?
Whether LinkedIn will notify someone that you viewed their profile depends on your relationship:
- If you are directly connected to the member, they will receive a notification when you view their profile stating that you “checked out their profile.”
- If you are a 2nd or 3rd degree connection, LinkedIn will not notify them of your profile view.
- If you have no connection to the member, LinkedIn also will not notify them when you view their profile anonymously.
Essentially, the only time someone will get a notification you viewed them is if you are a 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn. In all other cases, your profile viewing will be anonymous.
LinkedIn profile viewing FAQs
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about who can see your LinkedIn profile and associated viewing data:
Can LinkedIn see who views my profile?
Yes. While you cannot see who views your profile, LinkedIn itself collects all profile viewing data to inform their analytics and platform insights.
Is there a way to see who viewed my LinkedIn profile?
There is no official way within LinkedIn’s platform to see exactly who has visited your profile. Some third-party browser extensions claim this ability, but may have limited accuracy.
Can I pay to see who viewed my LinkedIn profile?
Currently, there is no paid product or feature that allows normal LinkedIn members to view who has looked at their profile. Only Recruiters can see individual profile visitors.
Why did my LinkedIn profile views suddenly drop?
It’s common for your rolling 90-day view count to fluctuate up and down. This could be due to changes in your activity and engagement, or shifts in algorithmic visibility. Don’t worry about minor drops as they rarely indicate problems.
How often does LinkedIn update profile view counts?
Profile view counts are updated once per day. It can take up to 24 hours for new profile views to be reflected in your rolling 90-day view metrics.
Conclusion
To summarize, normal LinkedIn members currently cannot see exactly who views their public profiles. This is by design to protect user privacy and prevent misuse of personal data. While you can’t access individual viewer information, LinkedIn does provide aggregated metrics to help you gauge your profile reach and engagement.
Focus on creating an optimized, compelling profile that engages your network. Avoid getting distracted by trying to determine who may be anonymously looking at your profile. Use the information LinkedIn does supply to continually improve your presence and influence on the platform.
