For home business owners and freelancers LinkedIn offers a huge opportunity to promote your business network and build your professional online presence through influencers. However when you initially joined LinkedIn you were given a long hard-to-remember profile URL. this could be a problem When trying to share it with other people you want to connect with. The solution is to create a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile to make it easier to identify and use.

By customizing your URL you will change:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOURNAME/5/792/58a

to:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOURNAME

or:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOURBUSINESSNAME

(Capitalization is to show you what you can change. Your Linkedin profile URL does not need to be capitalized.)

Why You Might Want a Custom LinkedIn URL

There are several reasons to create a custom URL on LinkedIn. One is for search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines including Google use keywords in URLs to help it decide which pages to serve in search results. The URL for http://www.linkedin.com/in/freelancewriterohio will have a A search using the keyword Freelance Writer Ohio has a better chance of ranking better in Google than the first URL of http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname/5/792/58a

Another reason to create a custom Linkedin URL is ease of use and identification. Having a line of numbers at the end of the URL can seem confusing and difficult and more likely to be ignored. And a URL with your or your business name at the end will make it clear what it links to. although LinkedIn URLs are not as simple as they might be and custom URLs are still easier to remember than default URLs.

Choosing Your Custom URL Profile Name

When creating a custom URL you have several options. One is to use your name such as Joe Smith. Another option is to use your business name. Finally you can use a combination of the two such as Joe Smith Freelance Writer. Some things to consider when deciding what to use include:

  • What brand are you playing? Would you like your or your company name to be the focus of your efforts? How do you want to be famous in the professional world?
  • How easy is it to use? While combining your name and business allows you to use both it also creates a long URL that can be difficult to use if people have to enter it (i.e from a business card).
  • Will your name change? Traditionally this has been a bigger problem for single women who get married and decide to take their husband’s name. However I’ve seen many couples add a hyphen to their name in which case it affects males as well. In this case it may be better to use your company name.

You can change your LinkedIn customer URL up to 5 times within 180 days; however this is not recommended. Changing your URL first means you have to update it wherever you used the old URL. Others using the old URL will have a hard time finding you. Finally after 180 days Others can use your old URL which may direct your customers and customers to someone else instead of you. For this reason choose a name that you know you’ll be able to use long-term.

How to create a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile

The following instructions apply to your public profile.

  1. Log into LinkedIn.
  2. On the main menu bar at the top of the page hover over Profile and select Edit Profile.
  3. Hover your cursor over your current profile URL below your profile picture. A settings icon will appear next to the URL. click it.
  4. On the right side of the page you’ll see a section that displays your public profile URL. Click the edit icon next to it.
  5. Enter the custom name you want to use in the URL in the edit box. You can have 5 to 30 letters or numbers but no symbols or special characters (ie no * or !). Your custom name is not case sensitive so both JoeSmith and joesmith can be used in the URL. Click when done save.
  6. If your custom URL isn’t already in use you’re all set. If it is in use you need to submit a new custom URL. You can add a middle initial or company name or type to create a unique URL. For example if JoeSmith is occupied you can use JoeQSmith JoeSmithSellingWords or Joe Smith Copywriter.

Be sure to update your new LinkedIn URL on your website blog and other marketing materials.