LinkedIn

NYSE: LNKD

Analysis of the world’s largest professional network from a search engine marketing perspective.

Strengths

• Ranks extremely well for names of businesses and people who aren’t celebrities
• Vast number of inbound links to profile pages
• API and plugins augment the LinkedIn network effect, e.g. share buttons, profile widgets, and the upcoming “Apply with LinkedIn” button
• Regularly updated blogs with linkbait targeted at both members and recruiters, e.g. this Top CEO Names infographic that went viral
• Captures long tail search queries through LinkedIn Answers
• Highly relevant retargeted ads with “Jobs You May Be Interested In”

Risks

• Competes with Twitter on ranking for names. Search results on Google from Twitter often appear with a different styling from normal search results.
• Aggregators and news sites do a better job ranking for LinkedIn’s linkbait

Competitors

• Monster.com
• TheLadders.com
• Experteer.com
• Indeed.com
• Execunet.com
• SimplyHired.com

If you’re interested in discussing further analysis of LinkedIn or other firms, please contact us.

In addition: read our research on LinkedIn’s IPO Filing: Analyzing the S-1