Get your free LinkedIn Link

LinkedIn allows you three valuable links out to your world and while no HTML formatting allowed the links out are live and include your choice of anchor text and do not contain a nofollow, if marked as “Other” upon creation.  Be sure to add links back to your own Web site and blog if you have them using keyword rich anchor text.  Go to edit your profile and go to sites in the dropdown select “Other” when adding them, which will allow you to change the default “My website/company/blog” text to the name of your company or whatever you would like.

But those links won’t help unless you customize your page to be publicly viewable especially the links part.  Then Google can index it and follow the links.  The “public page” URL is good to use your name.  If your name is already taken, try hyphens or adding a geographic locator to your custom URL.  Get your name quickly or someone else will unless your last name is Fondrk, theres only like 5 Fondrk’s in the USA the rest are in Finland.  Not only does it make it easier to tell to others your URL, it may further help your page’s click-through rate in the SERPs.  

Here are some other tips for getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile:
• Add as much of your work history and education as you feel comfortable, I even added my high school job (it actually helped me reconnect with my old boss because he listed it too!)
• Make as much of your information publicly available as you feel comfortable (the worst thing that could happen is ridicule over the fact that you were a subpar bus boy at the country club).
• Participate in the different areas of LinkedIn and be sure to visit the site at least once a week to see what is happening within your network, post questions and your friends may answer or find they have the same question.•
• Check out the “Profile Views” to get an idea on who may have been checking out your profile.