LinkedIn is the ultimate tool for B2B lead generation. Company pages are important, but as is your personal account. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile can make a huge difference to your discoverability and success in establishing yourself on the platform as a thought-leader, which is probably your goal if you’re practicing the inbound/content marketing methodology. So how exactly do you optimize? Here are 11 top tips that will have you ready for lead generation in no time.

1. Use your links wisely.

Go into your contact info and you’ll see an option to update your profile’s links to your blog, website, and other domains. Make sure you’ve got up-to-date, working links so any potential lead has the tools in front of them to do more research.

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2.  Ensure your profile is completed.

This one’s a no-brainer. Have a professional photo, ask and give recommendations, polish your job descriptions and provide links to your work. How can you expect your B2B lead generation strategy to work with a wonky selfie?

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3. Keyword-optimize your job titles.

Don’t tell lies, but changing your title from ‘blog manager’ to ‘inbound marketing strategy blog manager’ can make a big difference. The same can be said for ‘content ninja’ rather than ‘copywriter’.

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4. Maximize your group membership.

This will expand your network and improve your profile SEO. Since the group names appear on your profile, search engines will crawl the titles. LinkedIn has a limit on the number of groups you can join, however, so make sure what you are joining is relevant.

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5. Optimize your job descriptions.

Instead of writing out full paragraphs with every intricate detail of your duties, use bullet-pointed lists that incorporate a variety of relevant keywords. Formatting your descriptions with bullet points also makes your profile more readable.

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6. Aggressively expand your network

If your LinkedIn network is one-fourth the size of your Facebook connections, it might be time to search your email contacts and start growing your network. But make sure you’re connecting with industry professionals, not just your friends and family.

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7. Claim your vanity URL

The fundamental SEO benefits of claiming your vanity URL may be minimal, but doing so is just good business. It allows you to be found more easily by real-life connections and looks impressive to prospects. A clean, custom URL is also much more attractive on business cards.

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8. Don’t stuff in keywords

Repeating the same keyword over and over won’t help with SEO and it makes your profile a less compelling read, appearing spammy and obvious to your audience. You should try to use a range of related keywords because search engines and platforms are clever; they understand that the words mean the same thing.

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9. Promote your profile elsewhere

Include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your email signature, your Facebook, Twitter accounts, and any other websites you maintain to create inbound links. Not only will this boost your sense of authenticity on other sites, but it gives others the chance to connect with you.

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10. Build Recommendations

Turns out, recommendations may have more benefits than just making you look likable to potential employers. 10 or more recommendations will elevate your profile’s search ranking.

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11. Leave no field blank

Your LinkedIn profile shouldn’t leave too much to the imagination. Fully optimize your honors and awards, languages, skills, and education in the ways discussed in this post. By doing so, you’ll increase your visibility and authenticity which will, in turn, enhance your chances of lead generation through LinkedIn.