What actually belongs on your LinkedIn profile?

The headline is the highest-leverage field because it appears in search results, comments, and messages. Defaulting to your job title wastes it, since titles are often internal jargon and say nothing about what you can do. A headline that states your function, your specialty, and the outcome you produce works harder, and it should contain the terms someone would actually search for. Recruiters use keyword search, so a profile that describes your work in language nobody types into a search box does not surface regardless of how good the work was.

The about section should be first person and readable. Third-person summaries reading like a press release are dated and create distance. Two or three short paragraphs covering what you do, the kind of problems you solve, and something specific enough to be memorable outperform a paragraph of adjectives. In the experience section, replace responsibility descriptions with accomplishments carrying numbers: what changed, by how much, over what period. Responsible for managing social media conveys nothing; growing a channel from a stated number to another stated number over a stated period conveys everything.

Practical mechanics that matter more than they should. A current photo and a background image, since profiles with photos receive substantially more engagement. Skills listed deliberately, because they feed search. Recommendations from people who actually worked with you, requested specifically rather than generically. And activity, since commenting substantively on work in your field puts you in front of your network far more effectively than posting into the void. Two cautions: turn off profile update notifications before overhauling it if you are employed and your search is confidential, and turn on the private open-to-work setting visible only to recruiters rather than the public banner if discretion matters.