Your LinkedIn profile is as good as who you are in front of other professionals. It’s safe to say that your profile views and network are greatly influenced by how much effort you put into optimizing your profile.

It’s been said before: Your profile should reflect your skills and expertise in your field. There’s no easy way to achieve this, but you’ll get there with constant effort and patience.

We listed the main factors of a LinkedIn profile that you should optimize to boost your visits:

1. Your Picture

It’s important to set your profile picture as one that shows your features in a well-lit environment. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, there isn’t much freedom to be creative. A profile shot in corporate attire or smart casual is always the best way to go.

Looking professional is the goal, but don’t stifle your personality. Smile to look approachable and pleasant. Personality goes a long way!

2. The Headline

Most people think that there is not much you can do with 120 characters, so they simply write their current job title. While this is a safe choice, it could limit your horizons.

It would be more effective to use market-centric keywords that highlight your skills. LinkedIn is also a search engine, so you’ll need to inject SEO to get ahead of the results page.

An example of a good headline: “Recruiter, HR Specialist, Talent Management” which shows your designation and relevant skills that make you searchable for possible employers.

3. Your Summary

The Summary is where you can truly express yourself. Embrace creativity and showcase your skills. There are countless things you can share with 2000 characters.

There are a ton of directions you can take for your profile summary, such as:

1. Your employment
2. Career achievements or challenges you overcame
3. Your best characteristics

With much more leeway, you should maximize this section to try and captivate your audience. This is your opportunity to sell yourself. Appeal to your audience’s interest and end with a call to action.

4. Work Experience

Your work experience is the meat of your profile. Make sure you showcase your skills, expertise through your work descriptions. While most people would copy their CV entries verbatim, you can opt to highlight your network on LinkedIn by linking your company’s profile.

As for the job description, it can simply be a slight overview. Be brief and concise.

5. Skills and Endorsements

There’s no better way to show off than by having your connections vouch for your skills. Ideally, you should have around three to five listed and endorsed by colleagues and employers.

While the limit is 50 skills, best stick to below five. The risk that comes with listing too many is that visitors may interpret it as being generalist or indecisive.

6. Recommendations

This is where your network shows its weight in gold. Recommendations can really help in reputation-building, so you should strategize carefully.

Choose the persons giving the recommendations and be specific about the details. LinkedIn favors actual anecdotes; you might want to suggest your colleagues to cite an incident where your skills have proven beneficial or when you excelled in a challenging task.

7. Groups and Associations

There’s more to joining LinkedIn groups than just expanding your network. Exchanging thoughts and insights on industry topics can broaden your knowledge and establish yourself as an expert. It wouldn’t hurt to make friends while you do, too!

8. Keywords and SEO

Always keep in mind that LinkedIn applies SEO and keyword usage. Stay on top of trending keywords in your industry and use these to your advantage. It isn’t as hard as it sounds, as long as you put yourself in the shoes of those you want to reach out to!