LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. It’s a great platform for networking, building your professional brand, researching companies, and discovering professional opportunities. One useful LinkedIn feature is the ability to search for and find professionals, companies, jobs, content, and more. However, LinkedIn doesn’t provide a direct way to export your search results. So is there another method to save LinkedIn searches and extract the data?
The short answer is yes, there are a few different ways to export your LinkedIn search results. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the following topics in detail:
- Why you may want to export LinkedIn searches
- Limitations of LinkedIn search and native export capabilities
- Using the LinkedIn Sales Navigator to export searches
- Browser extensions and plugins for exporting LinkedIn
- Copying and pasting search results
- Using web scrapers and data extractors
- Getting leads and contact info from LinkedIn with tools
- How to export InMail messages
- Important considerations for ethically exporting LinkedIn data
Let’s dive in!
Why Export LinkedIn Search Results?
Here are some of the main reasons you may want to export your LinkedIn search results:
- Conducting sales prospecting and extracting lead contact info
- Recruiting – compiling candidate search results and profiles
- Market research on companies, competitors, or industry trends
- Monitoring brand and product mentions across LinkedIn
- Academic research and data analysis
- Journalism and reporting purposes
- Competitive analysis of other professionals and groups
- Building targeted email distribution lists
- General business intelligence purposes
The ability to save, track changes in, and analyze your search results data allows for valuable business insights you can’t get just from searching alone.
Limitations of LinkedIn’s Export and Search Capabilities
Unfortunately, LinkedIn intentionally limits users’ ability to export data. Here are some of the key limitations:
- No native export function for search results. You can’t save result lists directly from the platform.
- Maximum of 1,000 results per search. Your exports will be limited at this threshold.
- No search operator or filter for InMail messages.
- Sponsored results mixed in. Your search exports will contain both organic and paid results.
- Search changes over time. Relying on one-time scrapes misses updates.
- No API access for individual LinkedIn users. Only partners have access for development.
- Scripts and bots risk getting blocked. Scraping should be done ethically and in moderation.
Fortunately, there are still methods to export different slices of LinkedIn data. But you’ll need to use third-party tools or services to get around native limitations.
Exporting with LinkedIn Sales Navigator
One of the best ways to export your LinkedIn search results is by using LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This is LinkedIn’s premium sales tool designed for prospecting, managing leads, and integrating LinkedIn data into your CRM and sales workflows.
With a Sales Navigator account, you gain enhanced search filters, unlimited search history, tagging capabilities, and customizable export options for search result data.
Here are key points on using Sales Navigator to export LinkedIn:
- Save up to 2,500 search results and edit/tag saved lists
- Export saved lead lists directly to a CSV file
- Choose which profile fields to include in your exported CSV
- Re-export saved lists to get updated profile info
- View search history and individual profile changes/updates
- Integrate exported data directly into Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics
The main limitations of LinkedIn Sales Navigator for exports include:
- Only full profile results can be exported – no content or news exports
- Requires a paid Sales Navigator account ($79+/month minimum)
- Maximum of 2,500 results per exported list
- No browser extensions for easy one-click exports
But overall, Sales Navigator is the best LinkedIn-approved method for conveniently exporting and integrating batches of profile data into your CRM and workflows.
Browser Extensions and Plugins for Exporting LinkedIn
A number of third-party developers have created browser extensions and plugins that add one-click exporting capabilities for LinkedIn.
These browser tools identify and extract the profile data from LinkedIn’s pages when you’re logged in and browsing the site. When you find a profile or set of search results you want to save, you simply click the extension’s icon in your browser to export the data.
Some popular LinkedIn data extractor extensions include:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Extractor – Exports profile lists into a CSV file with customizable fields. (Chrome, Firefox)
- Data Miner – Extracts names, positions, companies, locations, and URLs. Has filters to remove sponsored results. (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
- Dux-Soup – Configurable scraper to extract profile fields into CSV/Excel. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
- ScrapeStorm – Visual scraper with LinkedIn templates to copy data from profiles and search pages. (Chrome)
Key benefits of using these browser extensions include:
- One-click exports and faster scraping without coding skills
- Customized scraping of profile fields, positions, URLs, etc.
- Ability to scrape some profile data even without logging in
- Tend to be more affordable than full software scrapers
Potential limitations to be aware of:
- Many work only on desktop browsers, not mobile
- You still need to do individual exports for each desired page
- Extensions can break when LinkedIn makes site changes
- Scripts may get detected and blocked if overused
But browser extensions provide one of the quickest and lowest-effort ways to get exports of LinkedIn profile data you find while browsing and searching the site.
Copying and Pasting Search Results
For one-time, ad hoc exports, you can also simply copy and paste your search results out of LinkedIn.
Here is a step-by-step guide:
- Run your desired LinkedIn search for people, companies, jobs, content, etc.
- Manually scroll through the results list, copying the profile names / URLs of the results you want to save.
- Paste the copied results into a simple text file or spreadsheet.
- Repeat the scrolling and copying process until you’ve compiled your desired list of results.
- Save your spreadsheet or text file export outside of LinkedIn.
Benefits of this manual copy-paste approach:
- Simple, no tools required
- Gives you full control to pick exactly which results to export
- Avoids scripts that may get blocked by LinkedIn
Downsides to be aware of:
- Extremely time consuming and labor intensive
- Only captures limited profile data – just names and URLs
- Easy to miss or duplicate results while scrolling
- Doesn’t allow automating repeated searches over time
So while the copy-paste method can work in a pinch, it’s not a scalable solution for capturing large exports or monitoring changes over time.
Web Scraping Tools and Software
For advanced LinkedIn scraping and data extraction, software tools and scripts provide the most powerful capabilities. Also referred to as web scraping, data mining, or web harvesting – these techniques programmatically extract information from LinkedIn profile pages.
Here are some examples of software tools with LinkedIn scraping features:
- Octoparse – Visual web scraper where you can record and automate extracts of LinkedIn data.
- ParseHub – Non-technical web scraping tool with LinkedIn templates.
- Mozenda – Data extraction platform offering LinkedIn connector templates.
- Import.io – Integrated web scraper with browser add-on to extract LinkedIn data.
- ScrapeHero – Managed web scraping API with LinkedIn profile parsers.
- Python Scripts – Python libraries like BeautifulSoup and Selenium can scrape LinkedIn.
- Node.js Scripts – LinkedIn scrapers built with Node libraries like Puppeteer and Cheerio.
Key advantages of using web scraping software and scripts:
- Automate data extraction from LinkedIn at scale
- Flexibility to customize exactly what fields and pages you want to scrape
- Handle cookies, pagination, redirects, and other complexities automatically
- Refresh and run extraction repeatedly to get data updates
- Integrate scraped LinkedIn data into databases and business systems
Potential challenges to keep in mind:
- Scripting can require technical expertise
- Scraping should be done ethically and in moderation to avoid overuse
- LinkedIn blocks obvious bot activity, so scripts must act slowly and blend in
- Requires more computing resources to scrape at scale
- Software costs can add up for large scraping projects
Overall though, web scraping represents the most powerful approach to truly unlock and leverage LinkedIn data for a wide range of business use cases.
Tools for Exporting LinkedIn Leads
In addition to general profile scraping capabilities, some tools specialize in extracting leads data from LinkedIn to power your sales and recruiting workflows.
These tools integrate directly with your LinkedIn activity and connections to proactively harvest lead contact information at scale.
Some top tools in this category include:
- LeadIQ – Chrome extension that captures lead contact info as you browse LinkedIn.
- RocketReach – Finds emails and phone numbers for LinkedIn profiles in your pipeline.
- Lusha – Browser extension to discover contact details for all your LinkedIn connections.
- Seamless.ai – Lead enrichment tool to identify contact info from LinkedIn profiles.
- AeroLeads – Lead generation tool that extracts contact info from LinkedIn.
Key features offered by these lead extractor tools:
- One-click capture of lead contact data while browsing LinkedIn
- Email finding capabilities paired with browser extensions
- Automated enrichment of custom LinkedIn lead lists
- Prioritized exporting of your 1st and 2nd degree connections
- Integration with Gmail and email outreach tools
Benefits these tools provide:
- Faster access to lead contact information for outreach
- Prioritize extracting from relationships within your network
- No need for separate exports of contact info
- Time savings reaching out to top prospect leads
Things to watch out for when using these tools:
- Results limited based on your own direct connections
- Avoid overuse that would trigger spam risks
- Data accuracy varies across different tools
- May need manual verification before outreach
But specialized lead intelligence tools can provide valuable time savings in capturing and compiling new prospect contact information from LinkedIn at scale.
Exporting LinkedIn InMail Messages
A unique LinkedIn data export need is saving InMail messages you’ve sent and received. LinkedIn’s InMail system allows you to directly message other members, even without connecting.
Unfortunately, there is no native LinkedIn option to export or backup your InMail history. And most third-party scraping tools don’t offer capabilities to export InMails either.
However, there are a couple potential solutions:
- Browser Extensions – Some extensions like Socxray claim to capture your InMail messages for export. Support varies.
- Email Forwarding – You can manually forward important inbound InMails to yourself via email.
- Legal Requests – LinkedIn may provide your data including InMails in response to legal demands.
But overall, InMail exports are highly limited versus the other LinkedIn data we’ve covered. Selective forwarding to yourself may be your best path to preserve important messages.
Ethical Considerations for Exporting LinkedIn Data
While various methods exist to export LinkedIn data, it’s important to do so ethically and legally. Here are some key points to consider:
- Always respect LinkedIn’s Terms of Service – don’t attempt breaches or hacks.
- Use data exports for legitimate business/personal needs, not just mass data collection.
- Consider privacy – only collect public profile information individuals have consented to share.
- Use rate limiting and random delays to avoid overly aggressive scraping.
- Attribute/cite properly when republishing profile data excerpts.
- Be transparent in how you plan to use exported profile data.
- Delete data that’s no longer needed – don’t hoard old exports forever.
The best practice is to collect, use, and refresh LinkedIn exports only to the minimum extent needed for your professional purposes. With ethical exports in moderation, LinkedIn can still serve as a valuable source of business insights.
Conclusion
Despite LinkedIn’s limitations, with the right tools and techniques you can effectively export and back up various types of search data from the platform. Key options include:
- Using Sales Navigator’s exports for saved searches and lead lists
- Browser extensions that allow quick scraping of profiles
- Web scraping software and scripts for heavy duty automation
- Contact info tools to build lead lists from your connections
- Selective manual copying and pasting in a pinch
The best approach depends on your specific needs and technical capabilities. But this guide covers a full range of methods to get your LinkedIn search results out for further business analysis and outreach. With the right exports, you can maximize the value of LinkedIn data to generate more leads, close more sales, recruit top talent, and gain competitive intel.