There’s no doubt that LinkedIn can be a valuable tool in making business contacts, but as it turns out, it’s useful in another way as well. LinkedIn can be helpful with SEO Orange County businesses, so if you haven’t been taking advantage of it yet, now is the time to get on board. Here are some tips to get you started.

LinkedIn is among the top sites that Google indexes, and that’s not to be taken lightly. Keywords are your friends here, so use a site like Moz.com to find out the words and phrases that people are using to search for your products. Once you know those keywords and phrases, use them as naturally as possible in your LinkedIn profile.

Name your banner, your headshot, and any images throughout your profile. The reason this is a good idea is because Google searches images and puts a lot of emphasis on them in the ranking process. You’ll also want to try and include those keywords and phrases again in your names for the images. That’s a sure way for people to find your profile, and it’s a big step toward optimization. Also, try to use those same keywords in the “projects and publications” section, if it’s at all possible to do so. Any extra chance to work those keywords into another spot on your profile should be taken.    

Try to add as much as you can to the “skills” section, because Google indexes those heavily as well. Your top three skills should be the ones that are most likely to be searched. Also, name images that you upload to your newsfeed. Those images will be sought for and found by Google, so tag them using your handle, you logo, and your name…anything to make them as identifiable as possible.    

If you’ve done all this, you’ll be in good shape to get the most you can out of LinkedIn for optimization. Make sure all of your information stays up to date, and post articles and new content on your profile whenever you can, as this is always going to be attractive to search engines.