It is very important to have a good LinkedIn profile, because potential clients and referrers will generally check your LinkedIn profile before deciding whether to do business with you. A good profile will impress and reassure potential clients and referrers, by making you look professional, knowledgeable and trustworthy. The stronger your profile, the easier you’ll find it to attract clients and referrals.

No, it is not the same. A CV gives a detailed overview of your job history. By contrast, a LinkedIn profile should be thought of as a marketing document rather than an online CV. So instead of using your LinkedIn profile to merely describe your skills and experiences, you should use it as a way to showcase your expertise and trustworthiness to potential clients and referrers.

The key to creating a good LinkedIn profile is to think of it as a marketing document rather than an online CV. With that in mind, your profile should have a professional photograph (not one of you at the beach) and a headline that explains who you help and how (not just your job title). In the About and Experience sections, provide detail about the clients you serve, the problems you solve, your experience and your results, while also including your contact details and potentially some testimonials too. You should also personalise your URL.

Key mistakes including writing an unimaginative headline (one that merely lists your job title, rather than describing who you help and how), using an unprofessional photograph, and failing to provide details about your skills and experience in the About and Experience sections. Other key mistakes include failing to complete your profile and failing to write your profile in a reader-friendly way. You should also take care not to make spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Your LinkedIn headline should explain who you help, and how, rather than state your job title. So if you own a buyer’s agency, “Director” would not be a good headline. This would be much better: “Experienced buyer’s agent who helps investors build property portfolios that generate $100k/yr in passive income.”

You should write the About section with potential clients and referrers in mind. So provide detail about the clients you serve, the problems you solve, your experience and your results, while also including your contact details and potentially some testimonials too. If you want to humanise the About section, you can include some personal information too – but not too much.

Just like the About section, you should write the Experience section with potential clients and referrers in mind. For your current role, provide detail about the clients you serve, the problems you solve, your experience and your results, while also including your contact details and potentially some testimonials too. (It’s fine if much of this information is similar or even identical to what’s in your About section.) For previous roles, exclude jobs that have no direct relevance to your current role – if you’re a buyer’s agent now, your experience as a barista a decade ago is irrelevant. For old jobs that do have relevance to your current role, focus on the parts that were relevant – so if our buyer’s agent was previously a bank teller, he should write about his experience with home loans and customer service and exclude his experience with credit cards and admin.

Avoid exaggerating about your skills or experience as this can harm your professional credibility. Similarly, refrain from expressing negative sentiments about past employers. Avoid bad language and opinions on controversial matters. Finally, don’t share too much personal information.

A custom URL makes it easier for potential clients and referrers to find, remember and connect with you. If your name is Nick Bendel, the URL that will be automatically assigned to your profile could look something like https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-bendel-541aa881. But you could personalise that to https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-bendel

You do not need to hire a copywriting agency to write your LinkedIn profile; LinkedIn offers guidelines you can follow to create one. However, if you use the services of a professional copywriting agency, you’ll probably end up with a better profile, which will help you attract more enquiries from potential clients and referrers.