Your LinkedIn headline appears under your name on every post, comment and search result — it is the most-seen sentence you will write on the platform. The About section is read by the people the headline convinced, and most of them stop after three lines. The LinkedIn Headline & About Optimizer writes five headline options, rewrites About with a strong opening, suggests featured items and a banner, and lists the keywords the profile should carry.
This guide covers the five headline framings, why the first three lines of About matter, and what to paste for the best result.
Five headline framings
Outcome ("I help B2B founders get their first 50 customers without paid ads"), role plus proof ("Head of Growth · 3 exits · ex-Stripe"), audience-first ("For CFOs who inherited a broken finance stack"), contrarian ("Most sales training is theatre. I fix pipelines.") and plain ("Freelance brand designer for consumer startups"). Each is under 220 characters and comes with the trade-off — outcome converts followers, role plus proof converts recruiters, plain converts search.
The first three lines of About
Visitors see three lines and a "see more". The report puts the hook there: who you help, what changes for them, the proof. The rest of About carries the story, more proof and how to work with you or follow. Written in first person, plain, no third-person biography.
Featured, banner and search
Three featured items (your best post, a case study, a way to contact you), a banner concept with one line of text, and ten keywords with where each belongs — LinkedIn search weights headline, About and skills, so the same words should appear in all three.
Tips
- Paste your current headline and About exactly, and say who you want to reach; the diagnosis depends on the gap.
- Pick the headline that matches how people find you — search, posts or referrals.
- Re-run when your offer or role changes; a stale headline undercuts every post.
Common mistakes
- A headline of job titles — "Director | Speaker | Advisor" tells nobody what following you gets them.
- Third-person About — "John is a seasoned executive…" reads as a press release. Write as yourself.
- No proof — One number in the headline does more than five adjectives.
Worked example
Input: Headline: "Marketing Manager at Acme". About: three paragraphs of career history. Wants to be known for B2B email marketing.
What the report returned: Top headline (outcome): "B2B email that gets replies, not unsubscribes · 41% avg open rate across 12 programs · Marketing Manager @ Acme". About opens: "Most B2B email is written for the sender. / I write it for the person deleting it. / Twelve programs, 41% average open rate." Featured: best post, a teardown, a newsletter link.
Frequently asked questions
Does it help with job searching?
Yes — say so and the role-plus-proof framing gets priority, with recruiter search keywords.
Should the headline include my company?
If the company is a credibility signal, yes, at the end. Otherwise lead with the outcome.
Can it rewrite a company page tagline?
Yes. Paste it and describe the buyer; the framings adapt.