LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 810 million members worldwide. As a professional looking to advance your career, having a strong LinkedIn presence is invaluable for making connections and standing out to recruiters and hiring managers.
One of the key features of LinkedIn is the ability to view who has looked at your profile. This allows you to see which colleagues, recruiters, or companies may be interested in you or your background. However, this feature is only available to LinkedIn Premium subscribers.
LinkedIn Free vs. Premium
With a free LinkedIn account, you can view the last 5 profiles that have visited yours. The profiles will not include a name or photo. Essentially, you’ll see “Someone from [company name] viewed your profile” without knowing exactly who it was.
With a Premium account, you get insight into who has viewed your profile, including their name and photo if you’re connected. Premium accounts come with the ability to see all profile views from the past 90 days. There are three Premium tiers:
- Premium Career – $29.99/month
- Premium Business – $49.99/month
- Premium Sales – $64.99/month
The Career tier will show you the number of profile views and who viewed you. The Business and Sales tiers will also show you how many times each person has viewed your profile within the 90 day window.
How LinkedIn Tracks Profile Views
When someone views your profile, LinkedIn logs their account ID and time of visit. This data allows them to show you the names and frequency of viewers within the last 90 days if you have a Premium account.
It’s important to note that LinkedIn’s tracking isn’t perfect. Profile views may not always be logged for various reasons:
- The viewer is not logged into their LinkedIn account when viewing your profile
- The viewer quickly clicks into your profile and backs out
- The viewer has their profile tracking settings disabled
- LinkedIn’s tracking system fails to log the visit
So while Premium will show you profile visitors, it likely won’t capture every single view. The data should give you a helpful sampling of who is interested in you and your work.
Why Viewer Tracking Matters
Being able to see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile can provide several benefits:
- Understand what companies or people are interested in you
- Gain insights into what experience or skills attract viewers
- Identify active recruiters or hiring managers looking at your profile
- See what connections are checking out your profile and reach out to them
- Prompt you to update your profile to keep viewers engaged
Essentially, the viewer data gives you indicators of who may want to connect with you, hire you, or learn more about your background and interests.
Tips for Getting More Profile Views
If you want to increase views of your LinkedIn profile, here are some proven tips:
- Include keywords recruiters search for in your headline and experience descriptions
- Write an informative summary tailored to your target roles
- Be active posting content and engaging with other users on LinkedIn
- Join relevant LinkedIn groups and participate in discussions
- Connect with more people in your industry and local area
- Follow companies you’d be interested in working for
Having an eye-catching profile photo, background image, links to projects, and recommendations can also help attract more profile views.
Should You Pay for Premium?
Here are some factors to consider in deciding if LinkedIn Premium is worth the cost:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| View full names and frequency of profile visitors | Cost of $29.99+/month is expensive for some users |
| See visitor data for 90 days | May not capture every profile view |
| Identify recruiters and hiring managers viewing you | Features overlap with free account |
| Monitor who looks at you after applying to jobs | To realize full value, being active on LinkedIn is still required |
Premium can provide more insights compared to the basic free account when it comes to seeing who has viewed your profile. This data alone may be worth the price for some job seekers and professionals.
However, Premium isn’t essential to have a strong presence and make connections on LinkedIn. You can still build an impressive profile and get noticed with a free account. But if you have the budget, Premium provides more information that can help strengthen your networking and career opportunities.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Premium unlocks the ability to see the full names and frequency of profile visitors over a 90 day period. This allows paying users to gain insights into who is interested in their profile and background.
While LinkedIn’s tracking isn’t perfect, Premium provides significantly more profile viewer data compared to free accounts. Professionals interested in advancing their careers can benefit from knowing which recruiters, hiring managers, and connections are looking at their profile.
Premium isn’t required to have a strong presence on LinkedIn. But for those actively networking or job searching, the profile viewer insights can be well worth the monthly subscription cost.
Tracking profile views and understanding what attracts them is highly valuable. Premium gives professionals and job seekers an additional edge when it comes to managing their brand and maximizing opportunities through the world’s largest professional network.
At the end of the day, LinkedIn is about making connections. Premium provides the tools to better understand those wanting to connect with you, which can ultimately help advance your career.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a free LinkedIn account show profile views?
A free LinkedIn account will show you the last 5 profiles that have viewed yours, without name or photos. Only Premium accounts can see the full names and frequency of profile visitors within the last 90 days.
Is there a free way to see who viewed my LinkedIn profile?
No, viewing full details of who has looked at your LinkedIn profile requires a Premium paid subscription. The free version will only show you the last 5 anonymous profile visits.
Does turning on anonymous browsing hide your profile views?
Yes, if you enable anonymous browsing under Privacy & Settings in LinkedIn, your profile visits will not show up to other users. This can limit your visibility when networking and job searching.
Can I see who looked at my LinkedIn profile before I got Premium?
No, LinkedIn Premium will only show you profile visitors from the point you upgraded and onward for 90 days. You cannot see any profile view history from when you had a free account.
Do profile views notify the person?
No, LinkedIn does not notify someone when you view their profile. The profile visitor tracking is completely anonymous unless the viewer has a Premium account.
The Value of LinkedIn Premium for Professionals
In today’s digital age, cultivating an influential online professional brand is invaluable. LinkedIn provides the world’s largest platform for every career field to build connections, demonstrate expertise, and get discovered by opportunities.
For established and aspiring professionals alike, standing out among over 810 million users is competitive. Investing in Premium access can give your profile an edge when leveraging LinkedIn.
Here are some of the key benefits Premium offers working professionals:
Deeper Networking Insights
Viewing who has checked your LinkedIn profile, including frequency, provides strategic networking intelligence. You gain visibility into what companies or professionals want to learn more about you and make connections.
These insights enable you to proactively relationship build by engaging mutual connections or contacting profile viewers. Strengthening your network is invaluable for career growth.
Targeted Profile Improvement
The viewer data also provides feedback on what strengths and skills most attract attention. This allows tailoring your profile to highlight the background that resonates most with your target audience.
For example, if you notice leadership roles generate views from execs, emphasize relevant achievements. The viewer intelligence informs profile enhancements to draw more opportunities.
Job Seeker Advantage
For professionals in a job search or open to new roles, Premium gives a leg up identifying and connecting with recruiters and hiring managers. Monitoring who looks at you after applying lets you proactively follow up.
Seeing companies frequently reviewing your background shows where you’re on their radar. Premium powers more focused networking and application efforts.
Company Research
When researching potential employers, Premium shows you which of their employees have already been scoping out your profile. This reveals who you know or should get to know during the interview process.
Using viewer insights for company relationship mapping can help negotiate job offers by networking with familiar connections.
Ongoing Brand Monitoring
Consistently tracking visitors provides professionals up-to-date metrics on who engages with their brand and how to refine it. Premium supplies data to maintain an influential profile that achieves your career goals.
The profile visitor notifications create opportunities to regularly update your background and progress.
Maximizing Your LinkedIn Presence
Here are some best practices for professionals looking to maximize the impact of their LinkedIn presence:
Complete Your Profile
Flesh out all sections 100%, including experience summaries, organization descriptions, skills, education, certifications, volunteer work, and interests. This provides a comprehensive view into your background.
Use Multimedia
Include a professional headshot, background photo, rich media, presentations, and work samples or portfolio links. Multimedia engages visitors.
Showcase Achievements
Detail key accomplishments, awards, patents, publications, and projects under each role. Demonstrating achievements proves your impact.
Customize Your URL
Claim a unique LinkedIn URL using your name to strengthen brand awareness. This makes your profile link more memorable.
Gain Recommendations
Build up your credibility through recommendations. Testimonials from managers, colleagues, clients or vendors highlight skills and impact.
Share Content
Post original articles, links, images, and videos to establish thought leadership. This expands your reach and surfaces your brand.
Engage With Others
Comment on posts, like content, and share updates to grow your audience. Proactively messaging connections strengthens relationships.
Join Groups
Join relevant industry and niche groups aligned to your interests. Participating builds specialty knowledge and connections.
Make LinkedIn Premium Part of Your Career Strategy
At its core, LinkedIn is meant to help professionals network, share knowledge, and unlock opportunities. To fully tap into the platform’s potential, view Premium as an investment in your career advancement and employer brand.
The profile viewer insights provide competitive intelligence you can act on for a greater advantage. While a free account has value, Premium unlocks key data for more strategic relationship building.
Given LinkedIn’s vast user base, standing out is not easy without paid tools. Premium allows control over how you’re discovered by your ideal employers and partners.
The monthly or annual subscription fee often pays for itself many times over from increased networking, positioning, and job seeking leverage. In our digitally connected age, personal branding matters.
Make monitoring and managing your professional online presence via Premium part of your long-term career strategy. Consistently investing time and resources into LinkedIn can yield huge dividends for years to come.
