LinkedIn profile audit - How to review and improve your presence

Your LinkedIn profile is often the first thing someone sees online about you and your business. Do you communicate your expertise properly? I created a checklist to help you run a quick audit.

Whether you’re a solopreneur or a business professional, having a complete and professional LinkedIn profile allows you to build connections, land your next business opportunity and showcase your work. With more than 900 million users, it is now seeing a comeback so you’d better make the most out of it.

👉🏼 You don’t need to spend hours to create the perfect profile (how do you even define ‘perfect’ anyway?)

All you need is a framework to guide you on what you need to improve.

Working in social media for 11 years, I’ve had many cases where I had to use LinkedIn to find a potential collaboration, connect with interesting connections, land a new job, or simply highlight my skills. There were also many cases where I helped senior stakeholders (C-suite), solopreneurs, and employees to improve their online presence.

While I was doing a couple of client audits recently, I created a checklist with the first things I notice when I look at someone’s profile.

Here’s a checklist to help you run a quick audit of your LinkedIn presence.

LinkedIn audit checklist to improve your profile

Profile Basics

• Professional profile picture 

• Customised background banner relevant to your profession or interests.

• Engaging and keyword-optimised headline.

About Section

• Detailed 'About' section with top skills and services offered.

• Clear call-to-action (CTA) for how to reach out or find more details.

• 'Talks about' section with hashtags for popular topics.

• Contact information is current and correct.

Featured Section

• Highlighted content such as posts, articles, or media that showcase your work

• Mention of services offered (if relevant)

Experience and Education

• Comprehensive work experience with descriptions of roles and achievements.

• Educational background is complete with institutions, degrees, and years attended.

• Certifications and licenses are listed if applicable.

Skills and Endorsements

• The skills section includes a mix of both hard and soft skills relevant to your industry

• Endorsements from colleagues and peers for your top skills are present.

Accomplishments

• Listed projects, publications, patents, courses, honours, and awards.

• Volunteer experience

Followers

• Review the number of followers to understand influence and/or channel activity 

• Review common followers to find relevant connections 

Content and Activity

• Regular posts and articles that are relevant to your profession.

• Engagement with other people's content through likes, comments, and shares.

• Consistent activity level, showing you're an active LinkedIn member.

Profile Customisation

• Custom URL for the profile.

• Profile sections are ordered to highlight strengths.

• Use of keywords throughout the profile for SEO. 

💡 Keep in mind: this is a quick check-in to see where you stand. The level of involvement and optimisation depends on how you want to use the channel and how invested you want to be.

Optimising your LinkedIn profile can take more than 15 minutes and it may need additional brainstorming on how you want to promote your work and your business.

Want a more detailed audit of your LinkedIn profile?

Book a Power Hour with me

Improve your LinkedIn profile and build a more strategic presence