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Published August 8, 2019
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Over the last few years, as I’ve delivered LinkedIn Courses, LinkedIn Consultancy services and spoken at events, many people have asked me how to interpret their weekly search stats figures.
And what do I tell them?
‘Don’t bother,’ I say. ‘They’re utterly useless!’
With the stats being weekly, one can assume that it is beneficial to check these LinkedIn stats regularly however… the illustration to the right shows my ‘stats’ taken on one recent morning. LinkedIn tells me these are the keywords my searchers used to find me.
As you might imagine I work pretty hard for my Profile to be accurate, explaining to people what I do. So why then does LinkedIn present me with No.1 – ‘Student’ (!), ‘Chief Executive Officer’, ‘Training Specialist’ and ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ – as the keywords responsible for me being found?
I don’t even have the word ‘student’ in my Profile!
Is it just me, or does anyone find this data useful and accurate for their needs? Do you?
Indeed, Business Growth Marketing Specialist Simon Reed commented on my LinkedIn post about this issue:
“I agree, LinkedIn needs to sort this out especially if we’re on the paid version.”
It’s interesting that paying the platform money doesn’t seem to guarantee accurate LinkedIn stats! In my opinion, the paid-for LinkedIn Premium is only worth having IF you are maximising the free version of LinkedIn. If not, you will no doubt be wasting your money.
Marketer Sonia Begum told me:
“[LinkedIn Weekly Search Stats] it’s super useless. I got found for the keyword search “doctor”. I’m not a doctor.”
LinkedIn Profile Writer and Social Selling trainer Mark Stonham added:
“Agreed Nigel, the search stats are worse than useless. Like you, the words I’ve supposedly shown up for are inaccurate. Solicitor was a recent one. What I’m not seeing is whether people find me for anything related to LinkedIn or social selling. I can’t believe people aren’t searching for those phrases. So why am I not being told I’ve been found for them?”
Meanwhile, Food Business Consultant and Mentor Jo Crebbin informed me:
“Agree Nigel Cliffe – I got found for the keyword search ‘finance director’ which clearly I’m not!!”
LinkedIn Coach Bruce Johnston also wrote about how he found LinkedIn’s weekly search stats to be extremely limited and wildly inaccurate…and that was almost two years ago! So, I’m not alone in being found on LinkedIn using keywords which, if not inaccurate, don’t make much sense!
It is worth noting that, while I may not find the weekly search stats under ‘search appearances’ very beneficial, I do find the ‘Who viewed your profile’ very valuable as this is frequently the source of new opportunities for me, perhaps because the data informs me of specific people who have viewed my profile rather than data that is more generic in nature.
LinkedIn state that the information available within their Search Appearances stats “can be used to surface professional opportunities that are relevant to you” and advises that if the company of a LinkedIn member who has searched for you is of interest, you can visit their LinkedIn Company Page to see current job postings, and follow up with the hiring managers who you can contact for more information.
In addition, if you wish to improve your search appearances or be found with different keywords, there is a blue link at the bottom of the ‘weekly search stats’ section saying ‘Want to improve future search appearances?’ where LinkedIn recommends making sure that your Profile is updated with your most recent information.
Incidentally, the LinkedIn Help page responded with a fairly generic comment on my post on this subject saying:
“Hello Nigel, we appreciate you reaching out about this and are sorry to learn of any frustration caused. Our team will be happy to take a closer look if you would like to send them the specifics. Here’s how: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask Thank you and have a lovely day!”
As much as I appreciate LinkedIn Help responding, I can’t help but feel that my post about the inaccuracy of these LinkedIn stats and the subsequent comments merit more than me simply asking the ‘Help Desk’ about it. I circulate amongst passionate LinkedIn users who love the platform, but equally, it is frustrating that I have yet to find a way to escalate matters like these in a way that really makes a difference.
Watch this space on if LinkedIn takes further action to improve weekly search stats, I guess…
LinkedIn Consultant Petra Fisher raised a fascinating point that perhaps LinkedIn displays my Profile in search results as it believes it is associated or related to the keyword or phrase people are using to search for other Members on the platform, rather than my Profile containing the exact word they use to search.
“Although these things always baffle me as well, I had a curious look at your profile. Your summary has the word ‘educate’ 3 times and [in] your first job role twice. It doesn’t seem to be that far-fetched to link ‘educate’ and ‘student’. Still useless, but then again, why would anyone search for ‘student’ in the first place? It stays a mystery how LinkedIn does this.”
Perhaps the solution then lies between Members making sure their Profile content is as up-to-date and relevant as it can be, using keywords that are well searched for and get frequently used in the industry they operate in and LinkedIn’s algorithms and AI getting more intelligent?
You can find out more about how to search for frequently used keywords here.
Whether you find the LinkedIn stats helpful or accurate for your requirements, Digital Strategist Mark Longbottom hit the nail on the head when he commented on my post about this matter and said it’s best to be active and sociable on LinkedIn rather than hope people will find you and I couldn’t agree more – being active, social, relevant, engaging, value giving and authentic ensure you make good use of social platforms, especially LinkedIn.
On how I can help you turn your Linkedin profile into multiple opportunities in a few hours.
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