LinkedIn profile checklist: the 16 checks behind the score

The sixteen checks LinkedCheck scores a profile on: what each one looks for, why it matters and how to fix it. They are LinkedCheck’s checks, not rules LinkedIn sets. Score yours below, or see how the LinkedIn profile checker works.

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What happens next

We find your public profile, and you confirm it is the right one.
You create a free account and choose a goal.
You get your Free LinkedIn Profile Audit, one per account, as a PDF: where your profile stands for that goal, what is working, what is holding it back, and what to change first. It includes both scores.

The points for each section are in Profile & Content Intelligence.

The checklist

The 16 checks, section by section

The thresholds, such as 20 skills or 600 characters, are LinkedCheck’s judgement of what a complete profile includes. LinkedIn requires none of them, and will let you publish a profile that misses every one.

Headline

Your headline uses the space it has

What it checks: Your headline is at least 40 characters long. LinkedIn allows 220.
Why it matters: Your headline sits next to your name in search results, comments and invitations. Under 40 characters it is usually just a job title: it says what you are called, not what you are good at.
Fix it yourself: Lead with the title people search for, then add who you work with or the result you are known for. Cut filler like “results-driven” unless the rest of the line backs it up. More on how to write a LinkedIn headline.

About

You have an About section

What it checks: Your About section has any text in it at all.
Why it matters: It is the only part of your profile written in your own sentences. Left empty, people have to piece your story together from job titles.
Fix it yourself: Write three sentences: what you do, who it is for, and one result that proves it. You can expand it later.

Your About section is long enough to make a case

What it checks: Your About section is at least 600 characters long, roughly a hundred words.
Why it matters: That is about enough for what you do plus two or three facts that back it up. Much shorter, and the claim stands on its own.
Fix it yourself: Add your two or three strongest results, each tied to the role where it happened. See how to write a LinkedIn About section for a structure.

Experience

Your profile marks a current role, or shows Open to Work

What it checks: At least one role in your Experience is marked as current, shown as Present, or your profile shows the Open to Work badge.
Why it matters: Without either, nobody can tell whether you are working now, and your last job reads like the end of the story.
Fix it yourself: Edit your current role and tick that you currently work there. Between jobs, turn on Open to Work instead.

At least three roles describe what you actually did

What it checks: At least three roles in your Experience have a description of 80 characters or more.
Why it matters: A job title says what you were called, not what you did. Without a description, a recruiter has to guess your scope.
Fix it yourself: Under your three most recent roles, add two or three lines: what you owned, and what changed because of you.

At least one role carries a number as evidence

What it checks: At least one role description contains a figure: a percentage, an amount, a count or a multiple. Years and document numbers such as an ISO standard do not count.
Why it matters: A number is the fastest evidence to scan. “Cut onboarding time by 30%” says more than “improved onboarding”.
Fix it yourself: Pick one result and put the number in: how many, how much, how often, or by how much it changed. Use a figure you could explain in an interview.

Every role shows when it started

What it checks: Every role in your Experience has a start date.
Why it matters: Undated roles make it hard to see how long you spent where, or in what order.
Fix it yourself: Add at least the start month and year to each role.

Featured

Your Featured section shows something

What it checks: Your Featured section has at least one item.
Why it matters: Featured sits near the top of your profile. It is the first place someone can see your work rather than read about it.
Fix it yourself: Pin one thing that shows your work: a post, an article, a case study or a link.

Your Featured section has three or more cards

What it checks: Your Featured section has three or more items.
Why it matters: One item shows one piece of work. Three can show range.
Fix it yourself: Pick items that each show something different, and give each a title that says what it is.

Skills

You list twenty or more skills

What it checks: You list 20 or more skills.
Why it matters: Skills is the one place your expertise is listed term by term, so someone looking for a particular tool or discipline can find it at a glance.
Fix it yourself: Add the tools and disciplines you actually use, then remove duplicates and anything you would not want to be asked about in an interview.

Education

You list at least one certification

What it checks: You list at least one entry under Licenses & certifications.
Why it matters: A certification names its issuer and its date, so it is a credential someone can check.
Fix it yourself: Add any certification you hold, with the issuer and the date you earned it.

Recommendations

Somebody has recommended you

What it checks: At least one person has written you a recommendation on LinkedIn.
Why it matters: It is the only part of your profile written by someone else. Everything else is your own account of your work.
Fix it yourself: Ask one person you worked closely with, and name the project you would like them to mention.

You have three or more recommendations

What it checks: You have three or more recommendations.
Why it matters: One recommendation can read as a favour. Several, from different people, show a pattern.
Fix it yourself: Ask people who saw different sides of your work, such as a manager, a client and someone from another project, so the recommendations do not all describe the same job.

Profile basics

Your profile has a custom URL

What it checks: Your profile address is customised, not the default with the extra characters LinkedIn adds.
Why it matters: A clean address is easier to read, share and put on a CV or an email signature.
Fix it yourself: In your public profile settings, change your custom URL to your name or a close variant of it.

Your profile has a banner image

What it checks: Your profile has a banner, which LinkedIn now calls the cover image. If LinkedCheck cannot confirm one from the public view of your profile, the check is left out rather than failed.
Why it matters: Without one, the top of your profile shows LinkedIn’s plain default background.
Fix it yourself: Upload an image at LinkedIn’s recommended size. For what to put on it, see these LinkedIn banner ideas.

Posts

No post of yours is stuffed with hashtags

What it checks: None of your own posts carries more than six hashtags. If your posts were not available, or none of them is your own, the check is left out.
Why it matters: A block of hashtags at the end of a post crowds out what you actually said.
Fix it yourself: Keep two or three hashtags that name the subject, and drop the rest.

Completeness scoring version 5. This page reads its checks from LinkedCheck’s scoring code, so it changes when the scoring does. Last updated 5 October 2026.

Scoring method

How the score is calculated

Every check passes or fails, and each one carries a fixed number of points. Your goal does not change them.

Your score is the points you earned divided by the points available to you, scaled to 100 and rounded.

If LinkedCheck cannot see something, such as a banner the public view does not show or posts that were not available, that check is left out, not failed. It drops out of both totals, so it cannot pull your score down.

The score is calculated in code, not by a language model. The same public profile always gets the same score.

This measures whether your profile is filled in, not how persuasive it is. A high score means nothing is missing, not that nothing needs improving.

Score bands

What the score bands mean

0 to 44

Thin

Whole sections are empty. Filling them in, even roughly, moves the score fastest.

45 to 69

Gaps

The main sections are there, but several checks inside them still fail.

70 to 89

Mostly complete

Only a few checks still fail, usually small ones.

90 to 100

Complete

Nothing on the checklist is missing. What is left is the wording.

On a LinkedCheck report, the band sits next to the completeness score.

Completeness and effectiveness

The second score: effectiveness for your goal

Completeness asks whether the parts of a profile are there. Effectiveness asks whether the profile works for your goal: getting hired, winning clients or building a reputation.

Effectiveness has its own checks, not the 16 on this page, and your goal changes how much each one counts. Completeness does not, because an empty About section is empty whoever is reading it.

The two can disagree. A profile can have every section filled in and still not make clear what you do, or why anyone should believe it. In the sample LinkedIn profile report, completeness stays at 74 while effectiveness rises from 56 to 84.

Five steps

How to work through this LinkedIn profile checklist

Fill the empty sections first
An empty About, Featured or Recommendations section fails two checks at once. A rough draft beats a blank.
Do the quick edits
A custom URL, a banner and your current role marked as current. Each is one change in your profile settings or your Experience.
Ask for recommendations now
They depend on other people, so send the requests first and work on the rest while you wait.
Add evidence to your roles
Describe at least three roles and put a number in at least one. This takes longest, so give it its own sitting.
Score it, then fix the wording
Run a free LinkedIn profile check to see your score and band. Once completeness is done, what matters is what your profile says.

What this checklist is not

Read this before you start.

NotA list of things LinkedIn requires. These are the checks LinkedCheck uses, and the thresholds are LinkedCheck’s judgement.
NotLinkedIn’s algorithm. The score says nothing about your rank in LinkedIn search, your reach or how many people view your profile.
NotYour Social Selling Index (SSI), or LinkedIn’s profile strength meter, now called the profile level meter. LinkedCheck does not calculate, estimate or approximate either.
NotA comparison with other people. Your profile is measured against the checks, not against anyone else’s.
NotA verdict on how persuasive your profile is. That is the effectiveness score’s job.
IsBased on the public version of your profile, from the link you paste. Nothing is posted or changed.

That is the checklist. Now score your own profile.

The Free LinkedIn Profile Audit shows both scores, your band and what to change first. The points for each section are in Profile & Content Intelligence.

Free first check · No card · Nothing is posted or changed on your profile