Linking your LinkedIn profile to your Google account can be beneficial in several ways. Most importantly, it allows you to showcase your LinkedIn profile in Google search results. When people search for your name on Google, your LinkedIn profile will appear prominently in the results. This gives your LinkedIn profile more visibility and helps establish your professional online presence.
Why Link LinkedIn to Google?
Here are some of the key benefits of linking your LinkedIn profile to Google:
- Improves your personal SEO – Having your LinkedIn profile show up in Google search results helps you stand out. It gives people more information about you professionally when they search for you online.
- Increases discoverability – Linking to LinkedIn makes your profile easier to find for recruiters, business connections, and others who may search for you on Google.
- Shows your professional background – Displaying your LinkedIn profile provides a summary of your work history, skills, education, certifications, and other credentials.
- Builds your brand – Linking your profiles creates consistency and strengthens your personal brand across multiple platforms.
- Leverages your network – People who view your LinkedIn profile from Google can see your connections and get a broader view of your professional network.
Overall, integrating your LinkedIn with Google helps you create a stronger professional presence online and expands the reach of your LinkedIn network. It’s a simple process that offers valuable visibility benefits.
How to Link LinkedIn to Google
Linking your LinkedIn account to Google is a straightforward process. Here are the steps to connect your profiles:
- Go to LinkedIn.com and log into your account.
- Click on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of your homepage and select ‘Settings & Privacy’ from the dropdown menu.
- On the account settings page, click ‘Visibility’ on the left sidebar.
- Under the ‘Profile visibility off LinkedIn’ section, click ‘Edit public profile settings’.
- Check the box next to ‘Allow search engines to index your public profile’.
- Scroll down and click ‘Save Changes’.
Enabling this setting allows Google and other search engines to index and display your LinkedIn profile in results.
The next step is connecting your Google account:
- Go to Google.com and make sure you’re signed into your Google Account.
- Click on the profile icon in the top right and select ‘Manage your Google Account’.
- On the left sidebar, click ‘Personal info’.
- Under ‘About you’, add your LinkedIn profile URL in the ‘LinkedIn profile’ field.
- Click ‘Save’.
Once you enter your LinkedIn URL and save your Google Account details, your LinkedIn profile will be connected to your Google profile. Now it will have the potential to show up as a top result when someone searches for your name on Google.
Verify your LinkedIn-Google Connection
To check that you have successfully connected your LinkedIn profile to Google, do a Google search for your own name in quotes (“Your Full Name”). Your LinkedIn profile should appear near the top of the search results.
Here are some tips to help your LinkedIn profile rank higher in Google results:
- Make sure your LinkedIn profile is completely filled out with detailed work history and all relevant information.
- Use your full name on your LinkedIn profile, matching how people would search for you.
- Include past work positions, education, skills, volunteer work, certifications, and other credentials.
- Have at least 50+ connections in your LinkedIn network.
- Be an active LinkedIn user who engages regularly with content and your connections.
The more complete your profile is and the more LinkedIn activity you have, the better chance it has to rank at the top of Google search listings.
Troubleshooting LinkedIn-Google Linking Issues
In some cases, you may go through the steps to connect your LinkedIn profile to your Google account but are still not seeing LinkedIn show up in Google search results. Here are some things you can try:
- Re-confirm profile visibility settings – Go back into your LinkedIn account settings and double check that your profile visibility is enabled for search engine indexing.
- Check Google profile – Verify your LinkedIn URL is correctly entered in the LinkedIn profile field of your Google account personal info.
- Allow time for indexing – It takes some time for Google to crawl and index changes, so allow 24-48 hours after connecting profiles.
- Clear Google cache – Try clearing your Google search history and cache so Google does a fresh crawl.
- Use incognito browsing – Do a Google search for your name in an incognito browser window in case your account or settings are influencing results.
If you still don’t see your LinkedIn profile showing up, you may need to do some additional optimization:
- Add your full name to your LinkedIn public profile URL to match Google search query.
- Include professional keywords like your job titles, skills, certifications in your profile.
- Build up your LinkedIn presence with more connections, engagement, recommendations, etc.
- Ensure your LinkedIn profile is completely filled out. The more robust it is, the better chance of ranking highly.
Maintaining Your Linked LinkedIn-Google Connection
Once you have successfully connected your LinkedIn account to Google, you’ll want to make sure the linkage is maintained properly over time. Here are some tips:
- Periodically check search results for your name to confirm your LinkedIn profile is still showing up.
- When you update your LinkedIn profile, check a few days later that Google search results reflect those changes.
- If you change your public profile URL on LinkedIn, make sure to update that in your Google account as well.
- Continue building your LinkedIn presence by engaging regularly, joining groups, and adding new connections.
- Monitor your LinkedIn privacy settings and keep your profile visible to search engines.
- If you change names, employers, or other key profile info, keep both LinkedIn and Google updated.
Properly maintaining the connection between your LinkedIn and Google profiles ensures your LinkedIn presence remains visible and accurate in Google search results over time.
Using Other Tools to Increase Visibility
In addition to directly linking your LinkedIn profile to Google, there are some other tools and options to improve LinkedIn visibility in search and elsewhere online:
- SEO browser extensions – Tools like Linkclump and MozBar can help you identify and fix SEO issues with your LinkedIn profile.
- Google Search Console – Add your LinkedIn profile URL here to see how Google is crawling and indexing your profile.
- Google Analytics – Adds tracking code to understand your LinkedIn profile visitors and traffic sources.
- Bing Webmaster Tools – Similar to Search Console, but provides insights for the Bing search engine.
- Other social profiles – Link to your LinkedIn profile from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media accounts.
Using tools like these along with directly linking to Google can give your LinkedIn profile the best possible exposure and visibility across search engines and social networks.
Conclusion
Linking your LinkedIn profile to your Google account provides valuable SEO and visibility benefits. By displaying your professional LinkedIn profile prominently in Google search listings, you can enhance your personal brand and online presence. The linking process is straightforward, but does require keeping both profiles up to date. With some optimization and maintenance of the connection, you can leverage LinkedIn and Google together for better professional SEO and discoverability.