Get LinkedIn Statuses Ranking on Google | James Dooley x Jesper Nissen

James Dooley: How to rank LinkedIn statuses in Google search. Today I am joined with Jesper Nissen, who does a lot of parasite SEO and ranking across different social media platforms in Google. Let’s jump straight in. Jesper, how do you rank LinkedIn posts in Google?

Jesper Nissen: LinkedIn is a super powerful domain. It is around DA90 or something like that. It is easy. You type out your post about what you want to talk about and then publish it. LinkedIn is interesting because it is similar to Facebook. You have your personal profile and your company pages. I mainly use my personal profile, but I also post on company pages. When it comes to ranking power, I do not see any difference. They rank just as well. You can post standard text updates or long-form articles. The issue with articles is that they were heavily abused by affiliate marketers. They used to rank extremely well. They still can, but indexing them is now difficult. No matter what I do, I cannot get LinkedIn articles to index consistently. I have tried from personal profiles and company pages. It does not work reliably. So I focus on standard status posts.

James Dooley: Do LinkedIn statuses rank just as well?

Jesper Nissen: Almost as well. Not quite as strong as LinkedIn articles used to be, but still very effective. LinkedIn articles used to rank like Medium articles. If you can get those indexed, they rank extremely well. Better than X, LinkedIn posts or Facebook. Not better than YouTube, but close. That changed because Google adjusted things. So now I stick to status updates. I spend about two hours every morning doing social media posting. I use my own tool to post across multiple platforms, including LinkedIn. There is one thing you must do and one thing you must not do. What you must do is control the first 7 to 12 words. That becomes your SEO title when Google indexes your post. What you must not do is use hashtags.

James Dooley: Anywhere in the post?

Jesper Nissen: Nowhere at all. Do not use them. On other platforms like X or Facebook, hashtags help discovery. People search using them, and platforms categorise content using them. But on LinkedIn, Google picks up hashtags as the SEO title. That kills your ranking because you end up ranking for the hashtag instead of your keyword. You might write a perfect keyword-led post, but if you include hashtags, Google ignores your wording and uses the hashtag instead. That means it will not rank for what you want.

James Dooley: So hashtags are fine elsewhere, but not on LinkedIn?

Jesper Nissen: Exactly. On X and Facebook, hashtags help with reach and engagement. They do not affect Google rankings much. On LinkedIn, they directly damage rankings because Google treats them as the primary keyword.

James Dooley: When you publish a LinkedIn post, do you send it to an indexer?

Jesper Nissen: Yes. LinkedIn is a bit awkward here. After posting, you click the three dots, copy the link, then paste it into your browser. You must wait for it to redirect to the final URL before using it. If you do not wait, you grab the wrong URL. The final URL is important because LinkedIn uses keyword-rich URLs. It includes the first 7 to 12 words, which strengthens ranking. That is why LinkedIn posts rank well. The keyword is in the content and the URL, so Google understands relevance clearly. Because of that, LinkedIn posts are cited in Google AI overviews more often than X or Facebook posts.

James Dooley: Do likes, comments or engagement affect rankings?

Jesper Nissen: No. It does not matter at all. I have tested it many times. Engagement has no impact on Google rankings. LinkedIn engagement is lower anyway. You do not get many likes or comments compared to other platforms. Still, the posts rank.

James Dooley: Jesper, it has been a pleasure. That was how to rank LinkedIn statuses in Google search.