Claim Your Territory: Customize Your LinkedIn Profile URL

 

You have heard that it’s important to customize your LinkedIn profile URL (claim your vanity URL), but simply didn’t get around to it. Or, most likely, you don’t feel particularly motivated to take care of this as you don’t know why exactly it matters. So why is it crucial to customize your LinkedIn profile URL, you ask? 

This little URL is a link to your big (and for most people, the biggest) personal branding asset, your good old LinkedIn profile.

You will be adding this link to the header of your resume, to your digital signature, to your business cards and marketing materials, and, likely, to the call-to-action section of your blog posts – so doesn’t it make sense to make this link professional, memorable and easy to find? Let’s see.

• From personal branding perspective, a concise, clear, professional looking LinkedIn URL is a must have. You be the judge: what link represents me and my brand better: linkedin.com/in/maria-fafard-86a78c09kl or linkedin.com/in/mariafafard?
• You want to stand out in a positive way, don’t you? Then you want a memorable link, not a soup of letters and numbers that does nothing to promote your brand.
• From Search Engine Optimization point of view, there are few things that are as simple to do and as important as customizing this link. You are making it easier to find you on Google. Need I say more?
• As if all of the above were not enough, there is now a new, not so obvious reason to customize your profile URL – and it is especially important for users who are publishing on LinkedIn. Read all about it in my new article here: “You’re So Vain: Vanity URL for Your LinkedIn Articles.”

Now that you know why it’s important to personalize your LinkedIn URL, here is how to do it.

• Go to your profile. Your profile URL is displayed below your profile picture. Its standard format is http://www.linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname-xyz123.
• Hover over your URL to see a blue cog icon to the right of the URL. Click on the cog icon. Public Profile Settings page will open.
• Go to “Your public profile URL” section located at the top right of the page.  LinkedIn helpfully reminds you to “Enhance your personal brand by creating a custom URL for your LinkedIn public profile” – hey, that’s exactly what we are doing here. Click on the blue pencil icon to the right of your URL.
• A window will open displaying your current URL: http://www.linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname-xyz123. You will be able to edit the firstname-lastname-xyz123 extension. LinkedIn advises: “Your custom URL must contain 5-30 letters or numbers. Please do not use spaces, symbols, or special characters.”Choose your URL and click Save. A great option to choose is linkedin.com/in/yourfirstnameyourlastname (see my profile for an example).

That’s it, you are all done. Your vanity URL is easy to remember, easy to find and it looks stunning. Happy branding!

Hello, my name is Maria Fafard and I am delighted to meet you! I speak and write about thought leadership, blogging, personal branding, career strategy and LinkedIn strategy. If you have enjoyed my articles, please follow me here on WordPress, on LinkedIn and Twitter (@mariafafard), and check out my other blog MariaFafardWrites.Wordpress.com. For speaking inquiries, please send an email to maria.facilitator@gmail.com. Thank you. ~Maria

PS: This article has been updated on November 17, 2015 to bring it up to date with changes on the platform.