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Bhavik Sarkhedi

Before you pay anyone to rewrite your LinkedIn, find out what is actually wrong with it.

LinkedIn profile expert: I audit every line before I rewrite one.

Run the free LinkedIn profile audit on this page. Paste your headline and About, tick what is true, and you get a score out of 100 with the three fixes I would make first. If you want the rewrite after that, it comes from one conversation with you, in your own words.

I'm Bhavik Sarkhedi: a 3x entrepreneur and best-selling author, featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, HuffPost and Entrepreneur.

01The Featured section · 2:36I open real profiles and read what they pin near the top. Recommendation section is beyond a lot of scrolls, and that's why you should use the featured section, which comes very quick in the overview.

Featured in

The New York TimesForbesFast CompanyHuffPostEntrepreneurForbes IndiaThe Indian ExpressInc42
  • 3x entrepreneur
  • Best-selling author, 21 books
  • Featured in The New York Times and Forbes
  • 12+ years, 1,200+ clients

What this audit is part of

A LinkedIn audit is one third of Person Engine Optimization.

SEO gets a website found. Person Engine Optimization, or PEO, gets a person found. Before anyone hires you, they look you up in three places, and all three should tell the same story about you.

  1. 01

    LinkedIn search

    LinkedIn now ranks your profile against others in your field when a client searches. That is what the audit below checks.

  2. 02

    Google

    Your LinkedIn profile is often one of the first results for your name, and your headline often ends up in the line Google shows.

  3. 03

    ChatGPT and other AI answers

    AI tools read public profiles and posts when they describe you. A vague profile gives them nothing worth repeating.

How AI recommends you · 3:24Ask an AI assistant for the best in any field and, from my own reverse-engineering, it checks three things at once: how often your name appears on the web, whether you are actually legit (your site's age and strength, your reviews), and whether you have published anything recently. Miss one and someone else gets named.

The audit fixes the LinkedIn third. The other two are your website and your mentions, which is the rest of the work I do. What Person Engine Optimization is · How I explain it on my homepage

The free LinkedIn profile audit

Paste two sections, tick eight boxes, get your score.

This is the list I work through when a client asks me to audit their LinkedIn profile: 19 checks, from your headline to your recommendations. Everything runs on this page. Nothing you paste is sent anywhere unless you choose to email me your score.

Add your phrase to count it.

Tick what is already true
0 / 100

Paste your headline and About to start.

In the feed, roughly the first seven wordsYour NameYour headline shows here
Roughly how a Google result trims itYour Name - your headline | LinkedIn

Fix these first

    Contact me with my audit

    Opens your own email with your score and the gaps written in. Your headline and About are never sent or saved.

    Why the audit reads your words

    LinkedIn now behaves like a search engine, and your profile is the page it ranks.

    When a client searches LinkedIn for someone like you, it compares your headline, About and experience with everyone else in your field. That is why the audit counts your phrase. Use it creatively, five or six times in About, never stuffed, and LinkedIn has something to match.

    LinkedIn is a search engine now · 2:40

    Section by section

    What I check in each part of your LinkedIn profile.

    Most people fill in two sections, the headline and the About, and leave the rest on default. LinkedIn gives you nine places to make your case. Here is the room each one gives you, what I look for, and what I usually find instead.

    The LinkedIn profile audit, section by section
    SectionThe room LinkedIn gives youWhat I look forThe usual miss
    Headline220 charactersYour phrase in the first seven words, who you help, one proof pointA job title and a company name
    About2,600 charactersFirst person, your phrase five or six times, a number, how to reach youA third-person bio, or nothing
    Banner1584 x 396 pixels, the left third sits behind your photoOne line on what you do, on the right two-thirdsThe default blue, or a city skyline
    FeaturedAs many items as you pin, the first few showYour website, a press piece or case study, a testimonialEmpty, or one old post
    Services10 skill tags, 500 characters, media, reviews by invitationSwitched on, tags matching your top skills, client reviewsSwitched off
    Top skills5 skillsThe same phrase your headline and About useFifty skills nobody chose on purpose
    ExperienceA description under every roleWhat changed because you were there, in a line or twoTitles and dates only
    RecommendationsWritten by other peopleRecent ones that name a specific resultNone, or three from years ago
    Public linklinkedin.com/in/ plus a name you chooseYour nameA string of numbers

    The mistakes I see most

    9:16 · 1:26

    Fill out every section: experience, skills, recommendations. Keep it up to date.

    An incomplete profile, spammy connection requests, a generic headline, posts that belong on Instagram, ignored endorsements and recommendations, and going quiet after the setup. What to do instead of each.

    Recommendations are proof

    9:16 · 0:50

    This is the real undeniable proof of your work.

    Recommendations are proof a client can check: real people, real profiles, their own words. Ask the clients you have worked with, and let that section do the talking.

    Who reads your profile

    Your profile gets read before you get a reply.

    Hiring managers, investors and clients look you up before they answer you. In ten years the share of employers who check candidates on social media went from about one in nine to seven in ten.

    Employers who check candidates on social media before hiring
    1. 200611%
    2. 201660%
    3. 201770%

    That is hiring managers alone. Investors and clients do the same thing before a first meeting, and LinkedIn is where a professional gets looked up.

    Source: CareerBuilder, survey run by The Harris Poll, 2,380 hiring and HR managers, published June 2017. The most recent primary figure I could verify.

    They know you before the call · 1:34When people take a discovery call with you, they know all about you before they even get into it.

    The section most people never switch on

    The Services section turns a profile visit into an enquiry.

    Services works like a small marketplace page inside LinkedIn. People ask LinkedIn for help, and LinkedIn passes their request to profiles that match. Mine sends me requests every week, and it only works because the section is switched on and filled in properly.

    • 10skill tags you can add. Match them to your five top skills.
    • 500characters of description. Say what you do and for whom, nothing else.
    • Inviteis the only way to get reviews there, so ask the clients you have already served.
    My own LinkedIn Services requests, in a typical week
    1. Requests LinkedIn sends me10
    2. Real and a fit3
    3. Become a call1

    These come from people who asked LinkedIn for help, not from me chasing anyone. They only arrive because the Services section is switched on and filled in.

    Source: my own Services inbox, as I walk through it on camera in April 2025. My numbers, not a study.

    The Services section · 0:51This turns your profile into a one-stop shop for potential clients.

    When I audit it for you

    What you get back, and what happens after.

    What my LinkedIn profile audit gives you
    PartWhat you get
    The scoreEvery check on this page, run by me on your real profile, scored out of 100.
    The three fixesThe changes that move the most, in the order I would make them, with the reason for each.
    The search checkWhat Google and ChatGPT show when someone looks up your name, because your profile is one result among several.
    The rewrite, if you want itHeadline, About, Featured, Services and your banner line, in your words, from one conversation with you.
    What comes afterIf the profile is the only gap, we stop there. If your name needs more, that is Person Engine Optimization, and I will tell you so.

    An audit that ends in "post more" is not an audit. Mine ends in the three lines you change first.

    I use AI to check spelling, length and keyword counts. The sentences come from you, out of one conversation, because the reader can tell when a machine wrote the first draft.

    Bhavik Sarkhedi, LinkedIn profile expert

    The person behind the audit

    My own profile was the first one I audited.

    I'm Bhavik Sarkhedi: a 3x entrepreneur and best-selling author, featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, HuffPost and Entrepreneur.

    My first paid job, in 2014, was writing copy that had to rank. Companies, exits and books followed, and personal branding grew out of all three. So when I audit a profile I read it twice: once as the search engine that ranks it, and once as the buyer deciding whether to reply. More than 1,200 clients have had both readings.

    12+years in content, SEO and branding, since 2014
    1,200+clients
    21books, best-selling author
    3xentrepreneur
    • Named by Forbes among the top global personal branding experts, 2025.
    • Published twice in The New York Times.
    • Verified Google Knowledge Panel for my own name.

    Off camera

    The person reading your profile, on an ordinary week.

    Between calls, between meetings, and the conversations that run past midnight. No studio, no stock photos.

    Bhavik Sarkhedi, between calls
    Between calls
    Bhavik Sarkhedi, between two meetings
    Between two meetings
    Bhavik Sarkhedi, the tattoos are not a brand decision
    The tattoos are not a brand decision
    Bhavik Sarkhedi, still talking at midnight
    Still talking at midnight
    Bhavik Sarkhedi, the hoodie years
    The hoodie years

    Questions

    What people ask before a LinkedIn profile audit.

    What does a LinkedIn profile audit include?

    I read every section the way a client, an investor or a recruiter would: the headline, the About section, the banner, Featured, Services, experience, top skills, recommendations, your public link and your recent activity. Then I check what Google and ChatGPT show for your name, because your profile is one result among several. You get a score, the three fixes that matter most, and the reason behind each.

    How much does a LinkedIn profile audit cost?

    The audit on this page is free, and you can run it right now. If you want me to read your profile myself and rewrite it, I quote after I have seen it, because a profile with ten empty sections is a different job from one that only needs a sharper headline.

    Can I audit my own LinkedIn profile?

    Yes. The tool on this page is built for exactly that: paste your headline and About, tick what is true, and fix the items in the order it gives you. The hard part is being honest about your own profile, which is where a second reader helps.

    What do you find most often when you audit a LinkedIn profile?

    A headline that is only a job title, an About section written in the third person, nothing pinned in Featured, and the Services section switched off. Four empty spaces near the top of the profile, and every one of them is free to fix.

    How many times should my keyword appear in my LinkedIn About section?

    My own rule is five or six times, inside full sentences, never stuffed. LinkedIn gives you 2,600 characters there and I use almost all of mine. Your five top skills should point at the same phrase, so the whole profile agrees on what you do.

    Can a LinkedIn profile audit help me show up on Google and ChatGPT?

    It fixes one part of it. LinkedIn profiles often come up when someone searches a person's name, and AI tools read public profiles and posts when they describe someone. That is why I treat the audit as one piece of Person Engine Optimization: your profile, your website and your mentions should all say the same thing about you.

    What is the difference between a LinkedIn profile expert and a LinkedIn personal branding expert?

    A profile expert fixes the profile itself, once, so it holds up when someone checks you. A personal branding expert makes LinkedIn one part of a name people know, with posts, a newsletter and mentions elsewhere. I do both, and the audit tells us which one you need.

    Run the audit. Then send me the score.

    I will tell you honestly whether you need a rewrite or just three better lines.

    Contact me