As a business owner, you are often the face and voice of your company. Establishing a business presence on LinkedIn with a free company page is important. Building your own professional presence adds credibility and provides you with a platform to promote what your company offers.

If you don’t yet have a personal profile on LinkedIn, the following tips will give you an easy-to-follow framework to set up your account. If you already have a LinkedIn profile, use this list to take an audit of key elements of your account and identify areas where you need to update information or add features.

1. Customize your profile URL - When you set up your profile, you are given the opportunity to pick a custom URL. Typically, people choose their own name or a variation of their name. If your name is common and already taken by another LinkedIn user, come up with a logical alternative such as first name with your middle initial and last name. You could use a nickname or name related to your brand such as linkedin.com/in/JaneABCcompany, but keep in mind you want to make it easy for people to find you.

2. Refresh your profile photo - If you’ve had a LinkedIn profile for a while, chances are your profile photo is out of date. To be authentic and credible, you should use a current photograph, not the glamour shot from 10 years ago. While there are AI tools that can take any photo of you and convert it into a polished, professional headshot, be careful that the end result does not misrepresent what you actually look like. Authenticity is important to build trust. If you are comfortable on camera, you may want to consider uploading a 30-second profile video to replace the static photo. A video can provide more information about you and your company in a shorter amount of time than the text descriptions in your LinkedIn profile.

3. Revisit your headline - LinkedIn provides a headline that is featured at the top of your profile with your name. Your headline should concisely communicate who you are and what you do in about 220 characters. Keep in mind only the first 70 characters will be visible on mobile devices.

4. Tighten up your bio - While LinkedIn provides space for 2600 characters in the bio or About section, only a portion is visible depending on how someone is viewing your profile. On desktop, only about 300 characters will show, and on mobile, about 140. As you compose your bio, go for a high impact opening sentence. Be careful about composing your bio with AI. While it might be helpful to use AI as a starting point, make sure to review and edit it so it sounds more like you.

5. Pin a key post in the Featured Section - Right under the About section of your profile is a place where you can feature posts by pinning them. While you can pin hundreds of posts, only the first few are featured. Consider refreshing your pinned posts periodically to show newer content.

6. Add sections to your profile - You can expand your LinkedIn profile by adding new sections that may not have appeared by default when you set up your account. Additional sections include Services, Publications, Volunteer Experiences, Honors and Awards, Languages, Organizations, Causes, and Test Scores. Go to "Me" and your photo at the top right of your profile page, select "View Profile," then click the Add Section button under the header area of your profile to make your selections.

7. Reorder your skills list - If you don’t have a skills section on your profile, you can add it and then begin selecting the skills that best represent what you do. You can then ask colleagues to endorse your skills and those endorsements can appear on your profile to validate your list of skills.

Go through the content on your LinkedIn profile thoroughly, from top to bottom. Explore the different features and sections you can add to your page. Refreshing your LinkedIn profile can significantly improve the professional image you’re projecting online.