How to Customise Your LinkedIn Profile URL: Steps and Rules

Why customise your LinkedIn URL

By default, your profile address often contains your name followed by a string of letters and numbers. It works, but it's hard to remember and looks untidy on a CV, a business card or an email signature.

A custom URL such as linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname is easier to read and share. LinkedIn itself says that a custom public profile URL helps other members and recruiters identify your profile.

How to change your URL

These steps follow LinkedIn's official help page "Manage your public profile URL". Labels may vary slightly depending on your interface language.

The official rules

LinkedIn sets several rules for custom URLs. Here they are as described in its help:

• The custom part can be 3 to 100 characters long.
• It should not contain spaces, symbols, special characters or the word "LinkedIn".
• Capitalisation doesn't matter: different capitalisations point to the same profile.
• Custom URLs are first come, first served, and you can only have one at a time.
• You can change your URL up to five times within six months; after the fifth change, you have to wait six months.
• After a change, your previous URL stays linked to your profile for six months (unless you unlink it), and other members can't claim it during that time.

Choosing a good URL

The simplest rule: your first and last name, with a hyphen if it reads better. That's what people will type and what matches your CV.

If that address is taken, a few variants stay clean:

• Add a middle initial: firstname-x-lastname.
• Swap the order: lastname-firstname.
• Add your profession, if it's stable: firstname-lastname-architect.

After the change: update your materials

Update the new address everywhere the old one appears: CV, email signature, personal website and profiles on other platforms. Your old URL stays linked to your profile for six months, which gives you time to do this — but no longer.

Also check that your profile is publicly visible: a neat URL leading to a hidden profile doesn't help signed-out visitors much.

Where to use your LinkedIn URL

Once you've chosen your address, put it to work. It belongs anywhere someone might want to learn more about your background:

• At the top of your CV, next to your email and phone number.
• In your professional email signature.
• On your personal website or portfolio.
• In online applications, whenever there's a "LinkedIn profile" field.

Frequently asked questions

Common mistakes

• Changing your URL several times in a few weeks: the number of changes is limited (five within six months), and every change means updating your CV and signature.
• Using a URL that doesn't match the name on your CV: readers may not be sure the profile is yours.
• Forgetting to test the link: after saving, open your new address in a private window to check it leads to your profile.
• Unlinking your old URL too early: it can then be claimed by someone else after seven days, and old links on your documents stop pointing to you.

What next?

A clean URL is a detail. What visitors read next is your headline, your About section and your experience. To see where to focus, paste your URL into the free ResumedIn analysis: you get a score out of 100 and a rating for 10 criteria, with no account needed.