I visited someone’s profile today. It was…underwhelming.
No Featured section. No Services. No Projects.
Just a list of jobs and a headline that told me nothing.
I wanted to learn more. I wanted to see their work. I wanted to know if they were worth reaching out to.
Instead I got a digital business card from 2009.
(I did not reach out.)
Here’s what gets me: the sections that would have made me reach out are free, built in, and sitting right there empty.
I didn’t need a perfect profile. I needed one reason to stay. They gave me none.
What LinkedIn sections do most people leave empty?
Three of them, almost every time: Featured, Services, and Projects.
They’re the proof sections. They exist for one reason: to show you’re worth the conversation before anyone has to ask. And they’re the first thing most people skip.
What Featured, Services, and Projects each do
These aren’t decorative. Each one answers a question a visitor is already asking.
- Featured shows what you want someone to see first. Your best work, a key article, a link to your site, a lead magnet. You decide what leads, instead of letting a list of job titles do it for you.
- Services tells someone what you actually do without making them guess. If you’re a consultant, a freelancer, a coach, or anyone who offers anything, this is what makes it findable and clear.
- Projects shows how you think, not just what you’ve done. A project with real context tells someone more about your capabilities than a job title ever will.
They’re free. Gratis. No cost.
They’re optional. But they shouldn’t be.
What an empty profile actually signals
Leaving these empty is like showing up to a job interview and handing over a blank page where your portfolio should be.
You’re a grown-ass adult, so LinkedIn won’t make you fill them in. It’ll happily let you walk around with a profile that’s all title and no proof.
But the right person landing on your profile will notice that you didn’t make the effort. Maybe not consciously. They’ll just feel what I felt looking at that 2009 business card: nothing. And then they’ll move on.
That’s the quiet cost. Not a rejection. Just a door that never opens, and you never find out it was there.
Where to start
The free Profile Cheat Sheets cover Featured, Services, and Projects: what to put in each, and why.
And Optimize goes deeper. These are the “proof sections” in the course, treated as seriously as your headline and About section, because they’re often what closes the deal for someone who’s already reading.