As many of you know, I teach LinkedIn to job seekers, as well as, business owners. When you are in job search mode, you are promoting a business of one – you. In the same vein as a business owner, you need to share the features and benefits of you to a potential employer.
Your headlines speak volumes about what you can do to solve that business owners problems. There are a couple of features in your profile that help you show up higher in search results and your headline is one of them. How many recruiters do you know that actively search for the key word “actively seeking” or “Still searching for work”? If you include the word “professional” when you are looking for a job, does that mean that you aren’t professional when you have a job?
While I was at a former employer, I wrote about a “purple squirrel”. That term has been given to that elusive job seeker who possesses 13 out of 11 sought after characteristics. This means that person will be incredibly difficult to find. If the characteristics for which someone is searching aren’t in your headline, summary, or skills and expertise, that recruiter or business owner might never find you.
A typical search by the average LinkedIn user includes one, possibly two keywords. If you don’t incorporate those specific keywords in your headline, summary, job descriptions, and have them high on your list of skills and expertise, you may never be found.
One way to overcome that challenge is to incorporate the top keywords with which you wish to be found into your headline. The best way to do that is to list in your headline the skills in your profile for which you have the received the most endorsements. 
Once you have them in your headline, make it easy to read by separating them with a vertical line. You can find the vertical line on a regular keyboard by using the “shift” key and the backslash key that is above the “enter” key.
Now when someone sees your profile, they just know the skills you possess, and hopefully you will be able to solve their problems and get that new job!
