7 Best LinkedIn Search Hacks
LinkedIn searches require more than just putting words in a search box. Use these LinkedIn search hacks to maximize your searches and find the best results.
Searching on LinkedIn can often become tedious, especially when you hit your limit. But there are ways to increase your LinkedIn search limit and search more productively, ensuring you’re finding and connecting with all the right people. Use these 7 LinkedIn search hacks to help you effectively prospect and source leads.
1. Get LinkedIn Premium
If you’ve reached your LinkedIn search limit and aren’t sure what to do next, consider signing up for LinkedIn Premium. Your first month is free, so you can test it without paying any fees. With a LinkedIn Premium account, you have access to unlimited searches for profiles up to 3rd-degree connections. You can also see who’s viewed your profile which can help you find connections that are already interested.
Just don’t forget to cancel your service after the first month if you don’t want to continue, or you’ll be charged.
2. Work around LinkedIn profile search limits
LinkedIn profile search limits are a pain, but there are some ways to work around them. First, you can also buy LinkedIn Premium, LinkedIn Recruiter, or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This is especially helpful if you’ve hit your commercial search limit, which allows you to do around 300 searches each month. (This limit resets at midnight on the first of each month.) The best way to get around this limit is to invest in LinkedIn Premium, which we mentioned above.
But if you don’t want to invest in additional LinkedIn resources, you can always consider opening more than one LinkedIn account or sharing the prospecting process with co-workers so each of you can search from your LinkedIn account and pool results.
LinkedIn’s other search limit only allows users to access the first 1,000 search results. This limit is a little easier to get around, as using LinkedIn search filters to your advantage can help you. Fewer results pop up if you split searches, diffusing by location and other filters. Then, do various searches to access new results using different filters.
3. Utilize the “Skills & Endorsements” section
LinkedIn Search hacks #3: Remember, prospecting is about quality, not quantity. And searching for prospects in a new way, like digging through the Skills & Endorsements section, can be a way to find quality leads that may be just the right match.
4. Don’t forget about the “People Also Viewed” feature
First of all, you’ll want to ensure this is turned on for your own profile, which can help relevant connections discover you. After all, the easiest way to search for prospects is not to search at all — it’s to let them find you! Using this feature can also lead you to more qualified prospects, too.
For example, looking at this section on the profile of a connection or quality lead may lead you to other leads. While it takes a little extra time and finesse than simply typing into a search box, it may yield better quality results. And, as we specified above, sometimes quality is much more important than quantity when it comes to prospecting.
5. Get LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sometimes, paying a little extra may help you increase that ROI. Purchasing Sales Navigator means you’ll have access to unlimited searches and lead recommendations. Sales Navigator offers three different plans so you can choose which one is the best fit for you and your company. These plans are:
- Sales Navigator Core
- Sales Navigator Advanced
- Sales Navigator Advanced Plus
Luckily, all three plans include unlimited searches, so you can search to your heart’s content regardless of which one you select. Don’t forget to save your searches in Sales Navigator so that LinkedIn can send you new leads as alerts.
6. Use Boolean searches
A Boolean search is a method where you insert specific words or phrases into the search terms that can limit, define, or broaden the search results. Such words can be “and,” “or,” and “not.” You can also use things like parentheses, quotation marks, and asterisks to better narrow down the results.
Using a Boolean search helps you to search faster and more precisely, which can come in handy when searching for quality prospects.
If you want to narrow down your results, use a Boolean search with the word “and.” For example, doing a LinkedIn search for something like “Marketing and HR” will yield fewer results, meaning you may be able to get less than 1000 per page, helping you to stay within the limits in order to find leads with both of those keywords. Using the word “not” can also help reduce extraneous candidates that might not fall into the right bucket(s).
If you do use Sales Navigator or Premium, you may want to incorporate the word “or” in your search. You’ll end up with more results, but since you aren’t as limited, that’s okay.
7. Find quality prospects ready to be found
Basic LinkedIn search hacks aren’t the only way to find quality leads, prospects, and connections. Think outside the box and dig into your own page. Who has liked what you’ve shared? Who’s reshared your content or left a comment?
Finding like-minded people that have already interacted with you or your content means they’re already warm and may be open to buying whatever you’re selling. Yet again, we’re back to qualified prospects or people that are more likely to become customers. After all, just one quality lead may just be better than 100 ones that aren’t.
The art of balancing LinkedIn searches
LinkedIn searching is a delicate balance between finding (quality) leads without exceeding limits. Sometimes, investing in more advanced resources makes sense, like signing up for an additional LinkedIn service. Other times, LinkedIn search hacks may be a better solution; workarounds like using filters, Boolean searches, or looking for leads in an atypical way may be the most efficient way to find prospects and streamline lead generation.