How to view your LinkedIn profile as someone else?

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Your LinkedIn profile is a digital representation of your career. Seeing your page from someone else's perspective helps to ensure that it makes an irresistible first impression on potential customers, employers, and connections.

Viewing LinkedIn profiles as others see them is simple, and you don't need a premium LinkedIn account. Today, we will share a step-by-step guide to viewing your own LinkedIn profile as other visitors see it.

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How to view your LinkedIn profile as someone else

To find out how your LinkedIn profile appears to other users and people who found it on Google, take these steps:

1. Go to your profile: On the LinkedIn homepage, click on Me icon at the right corner of the page.
2. Settings & Privacy: From the dropdown menu, choose the Settings & Privacy option. After that, click on Visibility from the left sidebar.
3. Edit public profile: Choose Edit your public profile option to view how other users view your LinkedIn profile. In this mode, you can manage profile visibility settings. For example, you can hide your profile picture from people who are not LinkedIn users and make some sections in your own profile not visible, thus managing your LinkedIn profile visibility. All changes will save automatically.
4. If you don't want people outside LinkedIn to see your profile, turn off the Your profile public visibility toggle switch.

GIF source: https://blog.linkboost.co/content/images/2021/11/pubprofile.gif

Other ways to view LinkedIn profiles anonymously

1. Go to the private mode in your internet browser. Copy and paste your LinkedIn URL (for example, https://www.linkedin.com/in/YOURNAME) into the address line. Thus, you will see it as people who found you via search engines. Make sure to set the custom URL - below, we will explain how to do this.
2. Ask for a trusted connection to view your LinkedIn profile. Reach out to a professional in your industry or a recruiter, and ask them to evaluate your profile. An external visitor can comment on your private profile characteristics, recommend what to add & what to remove, and help refine the impression your profile makes.

How to set up a custom URL on LinkedIn

A custom LinkedIn URL contributes to your personal brand and helps create a better professional impression. You can set it up in less than a minute:

1. Click on the Profile tab in your LinkedIn account.
2. Go to Edit public profile & URL in the top right corner of the page.
3. In the URL box, add your name.

GIF source: https://blog.linkboost.co/content/images/2021/11/customurl-1.gif

For more helpful tips and professional advice on boosting your LinkedIn presence, check out our LinkedIn profile updating guide.

Why view your LinkedIn profile as others see it?

If you are still wondering "What are the reasons to view your LinkedIn profile as others?", here are some explanations for you:

Make a stellar first impression

For people who open your profile for the first time, your LinkedIn page is the representation of who you are. So, you want to be sure that each section they see makes an irresistible impression and encourages them to contact you. It is especially important to work on your profile's public visibility if you are looking for job opportunities.

Think about how recruiters scan multiple profiles. Say, they open someone's profile and it immediately lists achievements, top skills, endorsements, and contributions to articles. If your LinkedIn page doesn't boast such details, it might lose the competition. When you view a profile from incognito mode as a new page, you see what profile details to add and what to remove for a perfect impression.

Avoid popular LinkedIn mistakes

Even seasoned professionals make mistakes on LinkedIn that can cost them interviews. Adding an unprofessional profile photo, making your About section too dry or casual, or not updating the profile regularly are only a few of them. If your profile has issues, you will struggle to build a professional network and land opportunities.

When viewing your LinkedIn profile as others, you can faster spot these mistakes and correct them proactively.

Give your profile a reality check

You want the new audience to resonate and align with who you are professionally. However, if you haven't updated it for a few years, your profile description is probably out of date. As you view your profile from someone's perspective, ask yourself if those descriptions align with who you are now and your current goals. If not, it's high time that you changed your profile description and other personal data.

Now that you know how to adjust privacy settings and view your profile as others, you will probably want to give it a quality update. Here's how to do this.

5 Tips to quickly update your LinkedIn profile

1. Upload a new profile picture. If you are still using a picture from seven years ago, it's time for a change. Use a high-quality, professional picture when you smile and look at the camera. Make sure it has a neutral background and you are wearing something that you typically wear for work.
2. Update your job title. LinkedIn automatically displays your most recent job title and company in search results. The good news is that you can own your title. Update it with something that better reflects your current goals or boasts your achievements. For example, Marketing Manager | Boosting online visibility for e-commerce brands.
3. Do a keyword search. Recruiters will search and browse profiles based on specific keywords. Your profile needs to have those keywords to appear in the search. Research the most relevant LinkedIn keywords for your career and add them smoothly to your profile text. People with Premium accounts can do this faster, but you can do your research on other online resources.
4. Remove any private or sensitive data. LinkedIn is less formal than a resume. So, you can be open about your hobbies, passions, interests, and other engagements outside of work. However, keep out any private information, for example, details about your personal and family life, health, politics, religion, and other controversial topics.
5. Add new chapters of your professional journey. If you changed jobs, took online training, or achieved something impressive, add this valuable information to your profile. Make sure that all sections of your profile are up-to-date and that you haven't missed anything important. It will give you a better chance to impress potential employers and help with networking purposes.

As you see, viewing your LinkedIn profile as others (either in your visibility settings or in incognito tab of web browsers) gives you essential insights to strengthen your profile and make it an efficient tool for your job-hunting or network purposes.

Not happy with your LinkedIn account?

If, after viewing your account from incognito browsing mode and updating it you still believe it doesn't represent you perfectly, we can help. Our expert will develop original, keyword-rich content for each profile section. Work one-on-one with your writer until you are 100% satisfied with how your account looks! Chat with us to claim your special discount code.