Mastering the Art of an Effective LinkedIn Headline

While posting any content on LinkedIn, if you wish your audience to get hooked up with your content, your LinkedIn headlines are your everything. Catchy and attractive headlines are the things that can break or make the value of your content. Because these are the only lines that the customer remembers, and that is how they tend to build their trust in your business.

To understand the importance of creating the best LinkedIn headlines, you must go through the art of writing headlines. Though there are several ways of writing headlines, writing them with some principles and tips can make them the most creative ones. Let us move ahead in this article and learn how to write clever headlines that can grab the audience's eyes. 

What is a LinkedIn Headline?

LinkedIn headline is nothing but the line visible just under your name in your LinkedIn profile. The LinkedIn headline is like a book cover describing your career story. 

Therefore, it should be readable and fascinating enough to attract the attention of recruiters interested in your profile and offer you jobs. Writing your LinkedIn headlines allows you to showcase your previous experience and critical skills. 

It would be best to keep it simple, short, and at least 220 characters. Creating an effective headline tells the audience about your professional legacy, making you stand out and present your creativity.

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Importance of a LinkedIn Headline

Below are some of the reasons explaining why LinkedIn headlines are essential for your and your audience:

• It is simply like a one-liner resume of yours. 
• It tells the audience what you do professionally and what you have to offer them.
• It represents that you are a trustworthy user of LinkedIn.
• It communicates with the audience as your professional identity.
• A well-crafted LinkedIn headline allows you to interact with potential customers and potential employers.
• It is visible in the Google search results.

What to Include in Your LinkedIn Headline?

You can write the below in the LinkedIn headline:

• A few details about your current organization you are working with and your professional designation there.
• Include the number of years of experience in your current field.
• Mention the city and state you live and work in.
• Include at least three industry-specific keywords.
  

Number of Characters Allowed in LinkedIn Headline

LinkedIn extended its headline section recently in 2020, from 120 to 220 characters, including the spaces. So there is enough space to describe your professional history and leave an excellent first impression on the reader. Including relevant keywords in the headline is always recommended to stand out in Google search results.

What are the Mistakes to Avoid While Writing LinkedIn Headlines?

Below are some of the headlines mistakes that you should avoid:

• Never use generic terms in your headlines
• Avoid using emojis in the headlines
• Do not use buzzwords, and do not overstuff the headlines with relevant keywords.
• Avoid using cliches phrases in the headlines.
• Do not write the default headline suggested by LinkedIn.
• Don’t get too long or too short while writing your headlines.
• Do not add sentence-breaking icons like “!”, “;” and “_.”
• Avoid using excessive capital letter words
• Proofread your headlines to verify the typing and grammatical errors.
  

Strategies to Write Captivating LinkedIn Headlines

Good headlines get more clicks, so you need to follow the below tips or strategies for creating attractive LinkedIn Headlines:

✅Keep it Short and Straightforward

The perfect LinkedIn headlines are the ones that speak to the point. So you need to ensure that you write clear headlines and not make it a joke. Just keep it up to the end, sweet and crispy. The headline should convey “what is there in you to offer.”

✅Be Clear About Yourself

Include your core skills and qualities that are different from others because, through your headlines, you are just advertising yourself to the audience. Therefore it is essential to showcase your unique values in them. 

✅Add Keywords

Including relevant keywords in your LinkedIn Headlines increases your chances of appearing in Google search results. Attractive keywords are extra job titles, skills, and words relevant to your job profiles. Therefore, adding these gives you multiple clicks on your profile, 

✅Ensure the Headlines are Relevant to the Audience

Include the name of the company you are working with. They should leave a strong impression on the reader in the first look itself when you highlight your critical skills and expertise and include the industry-specific keywords that make it relevant for the reading audience on LinkedIn. 

✅Be Honest

See when the potential recruiters are looking at your LinkedIn profiles so they can verify your background. So it is essential to be honest in your headlines and never bluff about your professional career. Never include anything on which you haven’t worked or are not qualified. 

✅Express your Personality

Make your LinkedIn headlines looks professional along with showcasing your personality in them. This helps in letting you stand out in front of the audience.

✅The Headline Should be Easy to Read

Avoid using jargon in the headlines; they should be written in simple English. You can include bullet pointers to make them more specific and easily read.

✅It Should Continuously Be Updated

LinkedIn profile headlines should express your recent professional career details rather than the old ones. Keep on regularly updating your headlines.  

How to Update Your LinkedIn Headline?

You need to follow the below step-by-step guide when you want to update your LinkedIn headline:

Step 1: Log in to your LinkedIn profile. Once you log in, you will land on your profile homepage.

Step 2: on the top left corner of the screen, you can view your profile picture; click on it. 

Step 3: Now, you can view the below edit option for your LinkedIn headline. Click it, and you can make the headline changes then.

Step 4: Make the required changes and hit the “save” button. After this, your new LinkedIn headline will be ready.

Types of LinkedIn Headlines

There are two situations when you create LinkedIn headlines: you are looking for a job or offering your products or services to the audience. So depending on this, below are the two main types of LinkedIn Headlines:

• LinkedIn Headlines for the People Looking for Jobs

As we all know that LinkedIn is a vast professional network where job seekers can easily search and apply for several exciting and enjoyable job roles. There was a recent survey that proved almost 95% the potential recruiters refer to LinkedIn as their primary resource while looking for candidates for their company.

Therefore it is essential to make your headlines attractive so the potential employers can quickly get to know your core skills and expertise. 

• LinkedIn Headlines for the Entrepreneurs

Several individuals on LinkedIn are willing to sell their products or services through LinkedIn and are looking for potential customers for their businesses. So they can include relevant keywords related to the skills of the audience.

Best Practices for Drafting LinkedIn Headlines

Below are some of the best practices for creating the finest LinkedIn Headlines:

✅Be concise

Your LinkedIn headline should communicate your identity and experience as a professional. Ensure to keep it short and straightforward.

✅Understand Your Audience

Understanding the audience and knowing what they are looking for is essential. Therefore, you should use such language and industry-specific keywords for your headlines to idealize your professional career and be recognized in the market. 

✅Include your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Including your USP allows you to stand out in the audience. Your headline should speak to the unique and critical skills you have.

✅Highlight your passion

Whatever field you belong to, showing your passion creatively in your LinkedIn headlines gets you a lot of contacts. So include 1-2 phrases that prove your passion for your profession. 

✅Frequently update your LinkedIn headline

Keep updating your LinkedIn headlines with your achievements as you progress in your professional life. 

✅Creatively separate your keywords

Do not overboard your headlines with keywords; they should be easy to read for the audience.

✅Get creative

Your headlines should be creative and attractive too. You can do this by stating one-liners about your achievements. 

Templates for Writing LinkedIn Headlines

While writing your LinkedIn headlines, you need clarification about what to write and what not to write. So to help you with that confusion, you can refer to the below templates:

👉Template 1: Current Job and the relevant keywords

This is for the people currently working in any organization but looking for a job change. 

Format: "Your Job Designation in the current organization | Keyword 1, Keyword 2, Keyword 3."

For example: "Recruiter with Tata | HR, Recruiting."

👉Template 2: LinkedIn headline based on the skills

This is for the people who are looking for jobs and are describing their core skills in their headlines,

Format: "About your industry or Field | Skill 1, Skill 2, Skill 3."

For example: "Sales Analyst in B2C Commerce | sales development, inbound sales."

👉Template 3: LinkedIn headlines based on the experience

This is for the people looking for jobs and mentioning their relevant experience in their field.

Format: "Professional in your industry | Skills 1, Skills 2, Skill 3."

For example: "8 years of previous experience in Java development | software testing, SQL, problem-solving"

👉Template 4: LinkedIn headlines offering services beneficial for the audience

This is for the business owners providing products and services for the audience's benefit.

Format: "Details of what you do in that company."

For example: "I provide accounting solutions at CMS Accountants."

👉Template 5: LinkedIn Headlines, including CTAs

This is for the people who need a response or action from the audience.

Format: "Current Job Title | link to your profile."

For example: "freelance writer at SAMS | Link to my blog posts. "

LinkedIn Headlines Examples

It’s clear now that LinkedIn is the most influential and powerful networking tool in the market, and your LinkedIn Headline is the only thing that decides your success on this powerful platform. You can get inspired from some of the below examples of LinkedIn headlines: email

Examples of Headlines for Job Seekers

So for job seekers, it is critical to include the industry-specific relevant keywords they have previous experience with so that the potential recruiters looking for those core skills can contact them. 

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Examples of Small Business Owners

Small business owners on this powerful platform seek new potential business customers. 

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Examples of the Students

Below are examples of the headlines of the students building their LinkedIn profiles with limited professional experience. 

Examples of Project Managers

This is an example of a project manager showcasing how the LinkedIn profile of a project manager should look like.

Examples for Entrepreneurs

This is for entrepreneurs willing to sell their products or services to their target audience.

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Examples of People Involved in the Sales Business

This is for the salespeople who are looking for new customers for them.

Examples of HR Managers

Below is the headline example for the HR managers of companies.

Example of Freelancers

This is for the people who are working as freelancers for one or more organizations.

How can I make my LinkedIn Profile Attractive?

LinkedIn professional profile is all that peaks about your personally and professionally both ways. So below are some tips that can help in making your LinkedIn profile attractive:

👉Add your profile photo.

Follow the below while adding photos to your LinkedIn profiles:

• You must dress appropriately for your LinkedIn photos and not wear loud colors.
• Add photos with a simple background.
• Do not upload blurry photos.
• The size of your LinkedIn photo should be 400px x 400px and 8MB.

👉Include a short and crisp LinkedIn Headline on your profile

Follow the below to write the best headlines:

• Add your core working domain.
• Sell your USP.
• Include your qualification.
• Use some industry-specific keywords.

👉Write an interesting professional summary

Include the below essential things in your summary:

• Details of your niche.
• From where you have studied and where have you worked?
• Details about your career progressions
• About any job switches you have done in the past,
• What are your areas of interest, including personal and professional both?

👉Write about your skills and expertise

You include details about your core skills and experience in your professional background in your resumes, similar you have to add here too. The word limit of this section is 2000 words. So here, you should make three sub-sections:

• Your educational details
• Your core skills
• Your professional level of experience

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👉Include some visuals in your profile

Adding visuals to your LinkedIn professional profile makes it interactive and dynamic and stands out in front of the audience. You can use some photos, videos, links, or blogs relevant to your profile for visuals. 

👉Keep your profile updated

Your LinkedIn profile should continuously be updated with relevant and current personal and professional background information.

Conclusion

We all know that LinkedIn Headlines are essential to your profile because they tell the audience what you have and are capable of. So by following the above tips, you can succeed in creating the best headlines for your profiles that can get more and more audience interested in you or your business.