LinkedIn for remote: 9 changes that doubled my profile views
Recruiters at international companies often source candidates on LinkedIn before they ever post a job publicly. If your profile reads like an offline CV that happens to live on the internet, you're invisible to that search. Here are nine specific changes, in the order I'd make them, that move a profile from invisible to obvious.
1. The headline
Replace "Senior Designer at Acme" with the job title you want, followed by the kind of work you do, followed by the kind of company you want to do it for. Example: "Senior Product Designer · SaaS & fintech · Remote-first teams." That's three keyword groups recruiters actually search.
2. The location
Set your location to the country you live in, not a US city you don't. Remote-first companies filter by country for legal-entity reasons, and pretending you're in San Francisco when you're in Bogotá will get your candidacy killed the moment they check.
3. The About section
Three short paragraphs. What you do (with the keywords from your headline). One or two concrete things you've shipped or led. What you're looking for next. End with how to reach you, email is fine. Avoid the word "passionate."
4. Experience: rewrite the bullets
LinkedIn experience entries don't have to be exhaustive, they have to be skimmable. Three to five bullets per role, each one a real outcome, not a job description. "Owned the checkout redesign that lifted conversion 14%" works. "Was responsible for various design tasks" does not.
5. Skills: prune ruthlessly
LinkedIn lets you list 50 skills. Don't. Pick 10–15 that match the kinds of roles you're targeting, and make sure the top three are the ones you'd actually want to be evaluated on. Endorsements matter most for the top three.
6. Open to work, quietly
Turn on "Open to recruiters" but don't add the green #OpenToWork ring around your photo. The ring is fine if you're job-hunting publicly; for most senior roles it slightly hurts you. The recruiter-only signal does the same work without the optics.
7. A real banner image
Not the default blue. A simple, calm banner, even a solid color from your industry or a photo of a workspace, signals that you've spent more than 30 seconds on the profile. It doesn't need to be designed; it needs to not be the default.
8. Featured: pin three things
Use the Featured section to pin your portfolio, your best case study, or a recent talk. If you don't have any of those yet, pin a thoughtful LinkedIn post you wrote. Empty Featured sections leave a hole right at the top of your profile.
9. Post once a month, minimum
You don't need to be a LinkedIn influencer. One short, useful post a month (a lesson learned, a tool you liked, a small win) keeps you visible to your network's network, which is where most warm intros come from.