LinkedIn: Does Your URL Need A Facelift?

You've heard it before: It's all in a name. Hopefully YOUR name.

Are you new to LinkedIn?

Just never got around to smoothing over those unfinished details?

Social networking through social media is becoming more and more important...

LinkedIn Is The Professionals' Social Network

100 million members.
1 new profile ever second.
Average salary: $109,000.
Influencers and decision-makers.
More and more opportunities for company engagement.

Does Your LinkedIn URL Need A Facelift?

I led a corporate training on LinkedIn - and engaging on the social network - and saw that many professionals are walking around with long, impersonal, URLs with lots of unnecessary numbers stuck in their LinkedIn web address. Yikes!

This is great to get you started, and helps LinkedIn identify with you, but:

These are hard for you to remember.
They are hard for others to navigate and remember.
They're just plain ugly!

Here's a video tip to help guide you through making your LinkedIn URL individual to yourself:

So, is your LinkedIn URL more pretty now?

Easier to remember, perhaps?

Look "cuter" on your business card?

Please tell me if this video helped you, and of any questions you have in the comment box below! :)

Interested in expanding your network? I'd love it if you connected with me!

15 Replies

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Pingback: 5 LinkedIn Practices For Great Word Of Mouth
By cebu seo specialist on 16th March, 2012

I have a linked in account and I am so glad that it’s really helps me lots specially in my career. Thanks for sharing this to us.

Reply to cebu
- By Keri Jaehnig on 16th March, 2012
  
  Hi there, Thank you for reading, and for sharing your thoughts. LinkedIn really can work a lot of magic for a social network — If you work it strategically. I hope to see you here again, ~Keri
  
  Reply to Keri
By Janet Callaway on 31st July, 2011

Keri, aloha. Great tutorial video, Keri. My URL is my name; easy to remember. That being said, I definitely have some tweaks to do over on LinkedIn. Since I don’t use it much, I tend not to think about it. Yomar’s comments were, as always, most helpful. Love the way that man expresses himself. Keri, enjoy a terrific weekend. Aloha. Janet P.S. I see you joined Google+; I thought you were going to hold off on that. Did the “pressure” get to you?

Reply to Janet
By Yomar on 26th July, 2011

Simplified URLs certainly help humanize web pages and, on the flip side, there is SEO value as search engines tend to look at the first few characters and start to truncate long strings.. Certainly, it makes you think quite a bit. A simple solution is setting up domains with masking or 301 redirects to drive traffic to key content. This is particularly great because you can use keyword-rich domains and/or shortened naming conventions to target content you have already created; thus, you are essentially repurposing old content and making it more user-friendly. I’m fortunate that my two main online monikers, Yomar and Yogizilla, are quite unique.. So I know my brand is relatively protected. I jumped on LinkedIn pretty early in the game. I wonder if similar sites will pop up. When you pass on new sites, there’s a risk that your brand can be compromised by posers and pretenders… But that’s for another discussion. I’m glad to be a part of LinkedIn, though I still have lots of revamping to do. I reckon I still have some old data on there somewhere. It’s hard to keep up with all these social profiles! ;o)

Reply to Yomar
- By Keri J on 27th July, 2011
  
  @openid-84350:disqus , Thank you for this helpful insight. I’m sure people don’t think the re-direct options as much as they could. ‘Tis true – if there is a specific name or brand that you want to keep consistent, as soon as possible, reserve it on the social networks! There are similar sites to LinkedIn, but we do not hear of them so much. Branch Out attached to Facebook seems pretty popular right now. Have you gotten involved there? Thanks again, Yomar, ~Keri
  
  Reply to Keri
  - By Yomar on 31st July, 2011
    
    Nope. I’m barely active on LinkedIn so spreading myself thin on that type of site would be silly.. That’s a case where I want to stick to where my people are.. and you’re all on LI, so I’m happy there! …Plus we’re all getting on Google+ so YAY! =oD
    
    Reply to Yomar
    - By Keri J on 31st July, 2011
      
      Yes, YAY – I finally made it to Google+. I’ll look for you! 🙂
      
      Reply to Keri
By Klaudia on 21st July, 2011

I agree Laurinda – you need to need to think what personalized URL is the best for you. Whether it will be your name/your company name/ etc. – I think it’s all about the easiest way to find you on Linkedin. Keri – great idea with making the video (step-by-step how to set personalized URL). Laurinda – ohh those sacrifices 😉

Reply to Klaudia
- By Keri J on 22nd July, 2011
  
  @twitter-54269479:disqus Great reply to Laurinda! I think it is perfectly fine to have a LinkedIn URL that is depict of your personality or intellectual assets, as long as it instills a positive digital footprint. Thank you for your compliment. I’ve found making the video tips is fun, and I hope they help people. Thanks for stopping by! ~Keri
  
  Reply to Keri
By Laurinda Shaver on 20th July, 2011

The thing about picking your URL, you need to pick something professional. See, personally I like to called goddess (nickname with long back story) but it doesn’t quite present the image I want to have to refrain. Sigh. Sacrifices we make.

Reply to Laurinda
- By Janet Callaway on 31st July, 2011
  
  Laurinda, would love to hear the story. Probably a good choice to pass on using Goddess!
  
  Reply to Janet
- By Keri J on 22nd July, 2011
  
  @LaurindaShaver:disqus , (I actually tried to reply to this via my Droid – twice – and it didn’t take…) Thanks hopping in the conversation! You can still have a profile with the word “goddess” in the link – Just gotta make it good! 🙂 ~Keri
  
  Reply to Keri
- By Keri Jaehnig on 21st July, 2011
  
  Laurinda, I am sure you could find a good URL with the word “goddess” in it. Shall we brainstorm? Gray to see you – Love your wit!
  
  Reply to Keri