LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. As a professional networking and career development site, LinkedIn allows you to create a profile, connect with other professionals, find jobs, follow companies, and more. One of the key features of LinkedIn is the ability to view who has looked at your profile – this allows you to see who is interested in you and your professional background. However, viewing your profile viewers requires having a LinkedIn account. So can you see who viewed your LinkedIn profile without an account? The short answer is no. LinkedIn requires you to register and create an account before you can access insights about your profile viewers and analytics. Without logging in, you will not be able to see the full details of who has visited your profile recently.
Why You Can’t View Profile Visitors Without an Account
There are a few reasons why LinkedIn restricts profile viewer analytics to registered account holders only:
Privacy for Members
LinkedIn prioritizes privacy for its members. Allowing anyone to see who has looked at their profile, without requiring an account, would violate this privacy. Members choose to share their professional details within the platform, with the understanding that their data will be protected. Letting unregistered users access information about profile views would undermine this privacy.
Drive Account Creation
LinkedIn, like most social networks, wants to grow its user base. By limiting profile viewer analytics to account holders only, it encourages professionals to sign up for an account so they can gain these insights. It is a way to convert visitors into registered members.
Premium Feature Incentive
Seeing all your profile viewers (rather than just the last 5) is a premium feature restricted to paying members. You can only access the full list of viewers who have looked at your profile in the last 90 days if you upgrade to a premium account. This exclusive data is used to encourage more users to purchase premium subscriptions.
What Can You See Without an Account?
While a full profile viewer report requires logging in, there are still a few insights an unregistered user can glean:
Public Visitor Count
Your profile shows a counter displaying how many times it has been viewed in the past 90 days. This public number gives a general sense of how much interest your profile is garnering. However, you cannot see any details on who exactly has looked at your profile.
Public Connections
You can also see the total number of connections the profile holder has, as well as preview a few of their public connections. This gives a snapshot of the size and quality of someone’s professional network. Again though, you cannot access a full list of connections or viewers without an account.
Public Content
Any public content on the profile – such as the About, Experience, Education, Licenses & Certifications, Featured and Publications sections – can be viewed by anyone online. So you are able to scan a person’s professional background and qualifications without logging in or following them.
Would LinkedIn Ever Change This Policy?
It is unlikely that LinkedIn would shift away from requiring an account to see all profile analytics. As mentioned, restricting full viewer data aligns with their goals around user privacy, account registration, and premium subscriptions. However, LinkedIn could potentially add more high-level insights for unregistered users to entice them to join the platform. For example, showing a partial list of viewers like “Google, Apple and 5 others viewed your profile this month”. But the full details would still only be unlocked with a registered account.
How You Can See Your Full Profile Viewers
While LinkedIn limits profile viewer analytics for unregistered users, it only takes a couple minutes to sign up and access these insights yourself. Here is how:
Step 1: Register for a LinkedIn Account
Go to LinkedIn.com and click Join Now. Follow the prompts to create your basic account credentials. You can always add more to your profile later.
Step 2: Confirm Your Email
Check your email inbox for a confirmation message from LinkedIn and click the verification link. This will activate your account.
Step 3: Log In to Your Account
Go back to LinkedIn.com and log in with your new username and password.
Step 4: View Profile Visitor Analytics
From your homepage, click on “My Network” in the top toolbar. Then click “See all” under the People Also Viewed module. This will take you to the Who’s Viewed Your Profile page. Here you can see the full list of profiles who have viewed you over the past 90 days, including their name, location and industry.
Step 5: Upgrade to Premium (Optional)
To unlock your full viewer analytics history for the past year, upgrade to a Premium Business or Sales Navigator plan. Premium plans start at $29.99 per month. This will allow you to maximize the insights you can gain from your LinkedIn profile views data.
Other Ways to See Who’s Looking at Your Profile
In addition to your official LinkedIn profile viewer analytics, there are a few other ways to get visibility into who is checking out your professional profile:
Profile Viewer Extensions
Browser extensions like LinkedIn Profile Viewer and RocketReach can notify you in real-time when someone views your profile. However, LinkedIn frowns on using these extensions as they violate their Terms of Service.
Tracker Pixels
You can add tracking pixels or scripts into your LinkedIn profile that notify you when the page loads. But this is difficult to set up and maintain.
Guess Based on Site Traffic
Look at your website analytics to determine what companies or domains are referring traffic to your LinkedIn page. This gives clues on who may be checking you out.
Ask Connections
Reach out to common connections and ask if they know who has been looking at your profile at a certain company. But they may not feel comfortable sharing this info.
Pro Tips for Getting Found on LinkedIn
Here are some bonus tips for maximizing your discoverability on LinkedIn and attracting more profile views:
– Complete your profile 100% including summary, experience, education, skills, recommendations.
– Include relevant keywords throughout your profile that recruiters or companies may search for.
– Get endorsements and recommendations from colleagues to strengthen your professional brand.
– Follow and engage with companies you are interested in to get on their radar.
– Join relevant LinkedIn groups and participate in discussions to showcase expertise.
– Post content like articles and videos that provide value and demonstrate thought leadership.
– Optimize your profile with a professional photo and background photo.
– Turn on Open Profile and Open Candidate visibility settings.
– Utilize LinkedIn advertising to get your profile in front of more of your target audience.
Conclusion
In summary, it is not possible to see the full details of who has viewed your LinkedIn profile without having an account. LinkedIn restricts the profile viewer analytics to registered users only for privacy, user acquisition, and premium subscription reasons. However, you can easily sign up for a free account yourself, which only takes a few minutes. This will allow you to unlock the insights into who is looking at your professional profile on the world’s largest online network for advancing your career.