Wouldn’t it be nice to rank #1 on Google for a certain keyword in your industry or niche?

It would be amazing, and that’s why brands spend a lot of money every month to SEO agencies in hopes of making the front page of Google for a certain keyword.

I knew this concept was powerful as well, but realized the more I taught others this concept of ranking high on LinkedIn, they got excited about it!

Ranking High on LinkedIn

When you look at the image below, you will see that I rank first when you type in the keyword “sports” on LinkedIn.  For me this is very important as I want to dominate the online space with my site SportsNetworker, and the Sports Executives Association.  I want to be known as a credible resource in the sports industry, and by ranking first out of over 600,000 results for the word “sports” on LinkedIn this allows me to stay at the head of the pack in the sports business world.

5 Keys To Rank #1 On LinkedIn

This is a simple process to rank on the first page of search results in the “people search” section on LinkedIn.  Although this doesn’t work every time, it works most of the time and I’ve seen it well over 100 times happen for people in real time.  There are five places you need to put your keywords when you use this strategy:

1.  Headline

Your headline is the first thing people see when they go to your LinkedIn profile, therefore (in my mind) it’s the most important or most relevant part.  If your headline doesn’t have your keywords in it, then you are missing the biggest section of the equation.

2.  Current Work Experience

Your current work experience is the next most relevant thing because it is what you are currently doing in business.

3.  Past Work Experience

You start to notice that this works in the top to bottom approach within your profile.  Start from the top, and working your way through your profile to the bottom.

4.  Summary

Your summary is the meat of your profile, or the body of your speech.  Make sure it looks clean and you don’t just add a line of key words next to each other or it won’t represent your personal brand well.

5.  Specialties

This is the section you want to add a number of different keywords to showcase your talents in short phrases.

I go into more detail about each section during my video interview with the sassy Amanda Coolong and good friend Efren Toscano on the TechZulu show below.

There are a number of other reasons LinkedIn can help you improve your reach within your industry or niche, simply starting a LinkedIn group will help your build a loyal fan base of potential customers in no time.  Take advantage of this powerful site by optimizing your profile full of key words, then start using the other amazing features it has to take your brand or company to the next level.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of LinkedIn.

When I co-wrote the LinkedIn book LinkedWorking nearly a year ago with Frank Agin, there were around 30 million users.  It has doubled to 60 million since then and it also has the highest average household income per user over the top social networking sites (currently $109,000 per user).

These stats excite me, and they should excite you as well if you are serious about your personal brand, your career, and your business.

Are you serious about that?

If so, then LinkedIn is THE place to bring your briefcase, build amazing relationships and get down to work.

Whether you are using LinkedIn aggressively, or you don’t even have a profile, there are a number of questions you should be asking yourself Read the full story

There are two main approaches people have when connecting with others on LinkedIn.

1.  Is to connect with only those you know well

2.  Is to connect with everyone

Sure there are cases in between, but for the most part those are the two main strategies people use.

There was some recent discussion about a ProBlogger guest article I did on using LinkedIn to drive traffic back to you website, and the main reason why some only apply #1 is because they don’t want to jeopardize their top connections by having to forward along introductions from those they may not know that well.

However, you don’t have to forward all of your introductions, and you are missing a HUGE opportunity if you don’t connect with those you may not know very well.  Watch as I explain in the video below:

There are 6 main reasons you want to connect with everyone on LinkedIn: Read the full story

It’s a fact that Gary Vaynerchuk is completely dominating almost everything he is involved with.  He is a NY Times Best Selling Author, runs a killer media agency with cool and collected brother A.J., has a unique wine show, and everything he is passionate about seems to crush the competition (except for his NY Jets, lol).

However, Gary made some comments a while back saying he was going to start taking LinkedIn to the next level this year, and in my opinion he hasn’t done it yet.

I know Gary is one of the busiest people on the planet right now so I understand this may not be a top priority.  I do believe Gary could really start taking all of his projects and businesses to the next level if he implements 13 of the things I noticed wrong with his LinkedIn profile.

This video was created (out of pure love) specifically to show Gary what he can do to improve his profile and start helping that playoff beard fulfill its real purpose, but I want the rest of you to pay close attention to some of the slight changes you could be making as well.   These changes I demonstrate may just give you that extra opportunity you need to take things to the next level this year.

I realized I left one BIG point out of this video, and that was using the events section on LinkedIn.  I know Gary has a number of book signings, speaking gigs, and wine events around the country and he has not used the events section to its fullest potential.

I recently helped promote an event he had during his book signing in St. Louis.  I sent out a few messages and was able to get over 400 people to RSVP on LinkedIn, and there was a great turnout during the event (see 413 RSVP numbers in image).

I don’t think he was able to get that many to ever RSVP for an event on Facebook, and we all know Twitter doesn’t have an option for events.  Using the events section on LinkedIn is the 13th point of this post.  Think LinkedIn isn’t worth paying attention to? Look at the numbers and think again.

Do you see anything else Gary should be changing or implementing on LinkedIn?  Better yet, were there things I mentioned that you should be doing to your LinkedIn profile that you didn’t think about before?  If so, please let me know what they are in the comments below and start crushing it on LinkedIn.