How to create a personal LinkedIn profile: from empty account to professional presence

Opening a LinkedIn profile takes a few minutes. Building it so that it says something useful about us takes longer.

The difference matters because LinkedIn is one of the places where our professional identity becomes public and searchable. Depending on the settings chosen, the profile can also appear on search engines such as Google or Bing. LinkedIn lets you control which sections of your public profile are visible outside the platform.

This is why creating a profile means deciding which information must be immediately understandable, which deserves space and what professional image it should build as a whole.

The useful question is: what should someone understand when they land on my profile for the first time?

A recruiter, a prospective client or a professional in our sector should be able to find their bearings without reconstructing our entire career line by line. A good profile closes that gap.

How to create a LinkedIn account

The technical procedure is simple. LinkedIn requires your real first name and surname, an email address and, where applicable, a password. You can also sign up with Google or Apple. The platform specifies that a personal profile must represent a real person and that creating multiple personal accounts is not permitted. The sign-up rules are summarised in LinkedIn Help.

Even at this stage, it is worth choosing a stable personal email address, one that can stay with the profile even when your employer changes.

The opening section must explain straight away who you are

LinkedIn calls the top part of the profile the ‘intro section’ and describes it as the first area other users see. It shows your name, photo, cover image, headline, current position, education, location and contact information. The platform recommends using this section to make the key information immediately legible.

Photo and cover image

The photo serves, above all, as a means of recognition. LinkedIn states that members with a profile photo receive up to twice as many profile views and three times as many connection requests. The figure appears in the official guidance on photo visibility.

The photo should therefore be recent, sharp and consistent with the professional context in which we want to present ourselves. The cover image can add a signal about our sector, our professional identity or the type of work we want to make recognisable. When it adds no meaning, a simple solution works well.

The headline gives the profile direction

Within LinkedIn, the headline often appears alongside your name. It is generated from the positions listed on your profile and can be edited. LinkedIn suggests using it to highlight an area of expertise or make your profile more recognisable.

An effective headline lets people quickly understand what we do and the professional territory we operate in. The job title may be enough when it is very clear; in other cases it is worth adding expertise, sector or area of responsibility.

The About section must connect the dots

The About section is where LinkedIn invites you to describe your mission, motivations and skills. The official guidance recommends a concise, easily readable text.

Here the profile can connect different experiences and explain the path that holds them together. A good About section makes clear the kind of problems we tackle professionally, the skills we bring and the direction in which we are building our career.

Each section should add a new layer of understanding. Repeating the same description in the headline, the About section and the experience entries takes up space without helping the reader.

Experience must make expertise legible

The Experience section works best when it sets out the scope of the role, the actual responsibilities and what that position made it possible to build or learn.

Completeness should be handled with judgement. The more roles a profile contains, the more important it becomes to choose which details genuinely help explain the professional trajectory.

For each role, it can be useful to state the title, context, main responsibilities and one or two concrete results where available. A short, specific description helps more than a very long list of tasks.

Skills must reinforce the same direction

LinkedIn allows you to add up to 100 skills and explains that a relevant list helps other users identify your strengths and link them to suitable opportunities. The limit and how to manage skills are set out in LinkedIn Help.

The maximum is a possibility, not a target. The selection should start from the skills genuinely linked to the experience listed, the work carried out and the desired professional direction.

A shorter, consistent list makes the profile more readable and makes it easier to connect what we claim we can do with the experience that proves it.

Customising your profile URL and visibility

LinkedIn automatically assigns a public URL to your profile and lets you customise its final part. The platform recommends a variation of your name or professional brand, making the link easier to recognise and share. The custom URL can be changed in your public profile settings.

Visibility should then be checked. Depending on the settings selected, your public profile can be shown to non-members and on search engines. LinkedIn lets you choose which sections are eligible for public display and notes that updates on search engines can take weeks or months.

Verification adds a signal of authenticity

Where available for the individual account, LinkedIn offers verification of identity, workplace and educational institution. According to figures published by the platform, verified members receive on average 60% more profile views and 50% more engagement. The available options and figures are set out on the page dedicated to verification.

The badge adds a signal of authenticity. Its availability depends on the country, the organisation and the verification systems enabled for the account.

Before you start posting, look at your profile as if it were not yours

Once the main fields are complete, it is worth rereading the profile with a simple question in mind: would someone who does not know me quickly understand who I am professionally?

LinkedIn works through connections. A comment can bring someone to the profile, an application can prompt a search, a post can spark curiosity. Visibility gained elsewhere creates more value when the landing page immediately gives the name meaning.

The profile comes before personal branding

In our article on the 10 LinkedIn profiles to follow in 2026, we identified a trait shared by the most interesting professionals on the platform: they occupy a recognisable territory and keep it legible over time.

That recognisability starts with the profile. Before building a point of view through content, you need a page that makes your career path and professional direction clear.

This matters even more for those with limited experience or who are changing sector. In these cases, the selection of information counts for a great deal: projects, skills, education and results can build a clear trajectory even when the CV is still short.

Once the profile is ready and you start posting, the way you measure your presence on the platform changes too. Our guide to B2B engagement on LinkedIn explores which signals to watch beyond simple reactions to posts.

Opening a LinkedIn account takes a few minutes. Positioning starts straight away

To start, all you need is the information that genuinely helps visitors to the profile find their bearings: a recognisable photo, a clear headline, a well-constructed About section, readable experience entries, consistent skills and controlled visibility settings.

The rest can grow alongside your career. An effective profile must explain clearly who we are today and make the direction we are moving in understandable.

LinkedIn’s first function is simple: to let anyone who comes across your name understand why they should remember it.