In what could be one of the most exciting LinkedIn updates in a long time, we can now add clickable outbound links to LinkedIn posts.
That means no more needing to put links in the comments of your post to something we want to promote (I personally never liked this practice).
And no more worrying that if you insert a URL link in a post, it will be penalized by LinkedIn for driving traffic off of LinkedIn.
Outbound links on LinkedIn connect your audience to pages on other websites. Outbound links enable your audience to leave LinkedIn to find information available on other pages located on external websites. They’re often used to provide additional information and direct readers to other resources.
Outbound links on LinkedIn help to drive traffic where you want your audience to go.
Here’s how you add outbound links to posts on LinkedIn:
- Add a photo or video to your post.
- In the options before you post (where you see tagging and alt text options), you’ll now see a symbol for adding a link. Insert your URL and then choose what you want your display text to be.
- The link appears right on the image itself (see how I did it here linking to my email sign-up list).
- You can move around where the link goes and change the size of it. Note that you can only add the links right now from your mobile device, but you can see them on your desktop.
This new LinkedIn feature underscores the importance of adding an image or video to each of your posts. Visuals have always been important on LinkedIn but now even more so you need a strategy for visuals ASAP.
If you are referring to a specific piece of content in your post, add a link to it here. The same would go for an upcoming webinar, podcast, media mention, article, client alert or anything else to which you want to drive traffic.
If you are not sure what to add as a link, a simple redirect to your website or blog would be a great example of what you could do or how about your email sign-up list?
Note that you can do this for both your personal LinkedIn page and your company page. If you don’t have the ability to do it yet, keep checking as it often takes LinkedIn a bit to roll out new features globally. Also note that we can only add these links from mobile devices right now.
Remember that outbound links like this are at the very top of your sales funnel. Without them, you’re not driving as much traffic as you could to the content that you want people to see – the kind of content that can help build your brand and generate leads and awareness (blog posts, webinars, podcasts, articles and your email sign up), so use them to promote your content assets. At the very least, add a link to your website or your Linktree links.
This is a free link that goes right to you and your content, so make sure to take advantage of this new LinkedIn tool as part of your posting process.