Having an optimized LinkedIn profile is essential for any professional looking to advance their career or business. One important but often overlooked component of a LinkedIn profile is the location setting. Changing your LinkedIn location can potentially help your profile in several ways. Here we’ll explore the key benefits and drawbacks of updating your LinkedIn location.
Increasing Local Discoverability
One of the main reasons to update your LinkedIn location is to increase discoverability by users and businesses in your local area. LinkedIn’s search algorithm factors location into its results – user profiles with a location matching the searcher’s area will get a boost. This makes it easier to get found by local professional contacts and potential employers or clients in your city or region.
In addition, having an accurate, specific location on your profile enables you to join local LinkedIn Groups. These Groups are often actively used for networking and promotion by professionals in the same metropolitan area or region. Joining local Groups makes it easy to connect with other professionals in your backyard, which can lead to in-person events, relationships and opportunities.
Connecting With Local Companies
Having your proper location set also allows you to more easily find and connect with people who work at companies in your city or geographic area. You can then reach out directly to these contacts at target employers you’d like to work for locally. Reaching out to local professionals tends to get better response rates and engagement than cold contacting those at out-of-area companies.
In addition, LinkedIn Recruiter license holders can search for and filter candidates by location. So displaying an accurate location makes it easier for local recruiters to find and shortlist you for opportunities in your metro region or state.
Increased Local Recommendations
Profiles with a defined location tend to show up more frequently in the “People Also Viewed” and “You May Know” sections of other local members’ profiles. This can lead to more profile views and connection requests from professionals in your area. The additional local visibility and network growth can help you gain more recommendations and endorsements from new local contacts.
Accessing Location-Based Features
LinkedIn offers several features that are only accessible or optimized when you set a specific location in your profile. Adding a precise local area allows you to take advantage of these options:
Location Pages
Location Pages are similar to company pages, but focused on a geographic region rather than a business. They provide information, jobs, content and insights for a specific metro area or city. You can follow Location Pages for your current and desired locations to stay on top of local career and hiring news.
Open Candidates
The Open Candidates feature allows you to signal to recruiters that you’re interested in new job opportunities. But it only surfaces your profile to recruiters searching for candidates in your defined location. So adding an accurate location is needed to get discovered by local recruiters.
Events
LinkedIn’s Events tool recommends professional seminars, conferences, networking events and more based on your location. Setting your city or metro area ensures the suggested events are taking place locally so you can conveniently attend in person.
Jobs
Just like Events, the Jobs tab on LinkedIn tailors results based on your location setting. Recruiters also filter candidate search results by location when posting openings. So updating your location is vital for discovering and being discovered for local opportunities.
Downsides of Changing Locations
While there are certainly benefits to listing your proper city, region or country on your LinkedIn profile, there are also a few potential downsides to consider:
Reduced Visibility Outside Local Area
While a location update can increase local discoverability, it reduces your visibility to searches and contacts outside your defined metro region or state. This trade-off can limit networking growth and career prospects in other areas.
Location Stereotypes
Some employers and connections may attach unfair stereotypes or assumptions based on your location. This can negatively impact networking and hiring prospects if your local area has a less than stellar reputation.
Competing Against Locals
When you apply for jobs outside your defined location, you’ll often lose out to candidates based in the job’s metro area. Local applicants tend to get preference from employers.
Time Zone Mismatches
If you work remotely or are applying to companies in other time zones, having an incorrect location on your profile can cause confusion. The mismatch between your listed location and availability may negatively impact your ability to get hired.
Best Practices for Changing Location
Follow these tips to change your LinkedIn location effectively and avoid potential issues:
- Research the local job market, employers, networking opportunities and talent stereotypes to ensure listing your city or region will help, not hurt your profile.
- Keep your headline and summary general enough to appeal to opportunities outside your exact location.
- Expand your network and recommendations to include contacts from other metro areas and countries.
- Note in your summary if you’re open to remote work or willing to relocate for the right opportunity.
- Join both hyperlocal and nationwide industry and interest Groups.
List Your Metro Region Rather Than City
Using your metro region (e.g. Greater Boston Area) rather than specific city (e.g. Cambridge, MA) can maximize local discoverability while still allowing flexibility to work and network across a broader geographic area.
Should You Change Your LinkedIn Location?
Here are some scenarios where altering your LinkedIn location could help your professional goals:
- You recently relocated to a new metro area
- You want to expand your local professional network
- You’re job hunting in your current city or region
- You want to increase local clientele for your business
- You actively participate in local professional associations and events
Here are some cases where keeping an out-of-area location may be advantageous:
- You’re pursuing job opportunities in other cities or states
- You work for companies or clients across multiple regions
- You are planning to relocate soon
- You have an extensive network outside your metro area
- You want flexibility to work remotely or virtually for employers anywhere
Should You Include Multiple Locations?
Unfortunately LinkedIn only allows listing one current location in your profile. However, there are a few workarounds if you truly need to showcase multiple areas:
- List your primary location, then mention others in your summary
- Include all locations in your experience descriptions for each company
- Join Groups not just in your profile location but other key regions too
- Follow Location Pages for all your top areas on LinkedIn
Conclusion
Changing your LinkedIn location can be advantageous depending on your career situation, goals and geographic flexibility. Weigh the pros and cons carefully before altering your profile location. With the right strategy, an updated location can help increase local discoverability and opportunities without sacrificing out-of-area options. But in some cases, leaving an existing non-local location as-is may be the better call. Consider your own circumstances, networking needs and job prospects to decide if and when to change your LinkedIn location setting.