{"id":35754,"date":"2021-04-27T06:45:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T13:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/?p=35754"},"modified":"2022-01-03T00:12:52","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T07:12:52","slug":"linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"LinkedIn Boolean Search: Advanced Search Tips for Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Searching for keywords on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator can get tiring, especially if you&#8217;re looking for something specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, half the struggle could be the fact that we&#8217;re not using LinkedIn search properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this guide, we take a look at how we can use Linked Boolean search for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter. And, we&#8217;ll leverage these skills for more efficient and better sales targeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s go.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-table-of-contents-block ub_table-of-contents\" data-showtext=\"show\" data-hidetext=\"hide\" data-scrolltype=\"auto\" id=\"ub_table-of-contents-5f9c8224-bc0a-41e1-b2f5-e86a550c6f86\" data-initiallyhideonmobile=\"false\"\n                    data-initiallyshow=\"true\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header\">\n                    <div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-title\"><strong>Table of Contents<\/strong><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-extra-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-container ub_table-of-contents-1-column \"><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#0-what-is-linkedin-boolean-search->What is LinkedIn Boolean Search?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#1-use-cases-for-linkedin-boolean-search->Use Cases for LinkedIn Boolean Search<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#2-the-difference-between-advanced-searches-on-linkedin-and-google->The Difference Between Advanced Searches on LinkedIn and Google<\/a><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#3-what-doesnt-work-on-linkedin-boolean-search->What doesn&#8217;t work on LinkedIn Boolean Search?<\/a><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#4-wildcard-searches->Wildcard Searches<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#5-plus-and-minus-searches->Plus &#8220;+&#8221; and Minus &#8220;-&#8221; Searches<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#6-the-rules-of-linkedin-boolean-search->The Rules of LinkedIn Boolean Search<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#7-boolean-search-and-filters->Boolean Search and Filters<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#8-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-1-quotes->LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 1: Quotes<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#9-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-2-and->LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 2: AND<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#10-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-3-or->LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 3: OR<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#11-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-4-not->LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 4: NOT<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#12-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-5-bracketsparentheses-and-advanced-searches->LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 5: Brackets\/Parentheses and Advanced Searches<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/linkedin-boolean-search-advanced-tips\/#13-takeaways->Takeaways<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-what-is-linkedin-boolean-search-\"><strong>What is LinkedIn Boolean Search?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>LinkedIn boolean search is using advanced searching techniques to pull more specific results during a search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s used just as you would with filters to limit or broaden the exact search string you&#8217;re looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, here&#8217;s why it&#8217;s very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the most powerful features of LinkedIn and Sales Navigator is their search functionality, which allows you to do research, connect with people, and secure new leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the process can be taxing, even if you have access to advanced filters on LinkedIn Sales Navigator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You end up having to sift through a lot of results to find the ones that actually matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using Boolean search allows users to be highly targeted with their searches, and this means faster results, less time sorting through unwanted leads, and more efficient work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If everyone started using Boolean search \u2013 on any platform for that matter \u2013 we&#8217;d probably spend less time sifting through all the noise in our results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-use-cases-for-linkedin-boolean-search-\"><strong>Use Cases for LinkedIn Boolean Search<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Recruitment<\/strong> \u2013 Looking for a growth hacker that is both an SEO expert and a digital marketer, but not a PPC specialist? Then, advanced search with Boolean logic can help you narrow down your candidates straight from the search field itself.<\/li><li><strong>Outreach or Outbound Lead Generation<\/strong> \u2013 With growing competition, there is no other alternative than hyper targeting. Methods like account-based marketing (ABM) are reliant on getting exact matches to your target customer profiles.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Find out how to create customer profiles with this <a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/creating-ideal-customer-profile-on-linkedin\/\" class=\"rank-math-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">step-by-step guide<\/a>!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Research<\/strong> &#8211; Lastly, let&#8217;s not forget about research. Say you want to look for a competitor that is trying to go after certain keywords such as you on the platform, you can find exactly who you&#8217;re up against by using advanced LinkedIn searches.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-the-difference-between-advanced-searches-on-linkedin-and-google-\"><strong>The Difference Between Advanced Searches on LinkedIn and Google<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The principles of Boolean search might seem universal, but not all websites receive the same type of code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, there are some types of syntax that don&#8217;t work on LinkedIn Boolean search, but we probably already got used to them on a normal Google search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minus &#8220;-&#8221; sign is a good example, on LinkedIn, you use the &#8220;NOT&#8221; syntax, but on Google, you can get away with &#8220;-&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, since Google covers more ground, naturally there are features that won&#8217;t be available such as &#8220;insite:&#8221; or &#8220;inurl:&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-what-doesnt-work-on-linkedin-boolean-search-\"><strong>What doesn&#8217;t work on LinkedIn Boolean Search?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-wildcard-searches-\"><strong>Wildcard Searches<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Putting an asterisk &#8220;*&#8221; on behalf of a word to perform a wildcard search doesn&#8217;t work on LinkedIn. So, if you&#8217;re looking for &#8220;Top * Marketers&#8221;, it won&#8217;t substitute that asterisk for anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-plus-and-minus-searches-\"><strong>Plus &#8220;+&#8221; and Minus &#8220;-&#8221; Searches<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as our example above, you can&#8217;t use the minus or the plus sign for your LinkedIn Boolean search. Instead, substitute them for NOT and AND.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-the-rules-of-linkedin-boolean-search-\"><strong>The Rules of LinkedIn Boolean Search<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all growth hacking techniques, they come with a set or rules that you have to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not all search functions across websites are similar, and LinkedIn has its own quirks that you have to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>If you&#8217;re using a particular operator, you have to type it down using capital letters. This allows the search algorithm to differentiate between a search operator and a keyword.<\/li><li>LinkedIn Boolean search works in the keyword field of both LinkedIn and Recruiter.<\/li><li>Sales Navigator has support for boolean search in the keyword, company, and title fields.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-boolean-search-and-filters-\"><strong>Boolean Search and Filters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You can still use filters in your LinkedIn Sales Navigator searches even if you&#8217;re using Boolean search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not necessarily one thing over the other, you can use them both to create even more targeted results in your searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start with a keyword, add your Boolean search criteria, and then go ahead and add your filters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll also find that using Boolean search with your filters helps with personalization. Say for example you&#8217;re looking for people in a very specific position in a niche sub-sector in an industry, you can just input the terms of your ideal customer, and create content solely for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"8-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-1-quotes-\"><strong>LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 1: Quotes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The fastest way to get better results on LinkedIn is to use quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quotes allow you to search for a specific key phrase in the exact order that it is typed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you type down a phrase on LinkedIn it won&#8217;t just pull out results that match that exact search term. It will also pull out results that contain the separate words in that phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a quick example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I were to type down <strong>growth hacker <\/strong>on LinkedIn search, it will pull out results that have the word <strong>growth hacker<\/strong>, but it won&#8217;t stop there, as long as a result has the word <strong>hacker<\/strong> or <strong>growth<\/strong> in it, those will also be pulled up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, if I wanted to limit my search to only results with <strong>growth hacker<\/strong> \u2013 in that exact order \u2013 you would use <strong>&#8220;growth hacker&#8221;<\/strong> with quotation marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LinkedIn will not pull up any searches with just <strong>growth <\/strong>or <strong>hacker<\/strong> in the content being searched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pretty neat right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, this is one Boolean search technique that seems to be universal across multiple platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"9-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-2-and-\"><strong>LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 2: AND<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AND <\/strong>indicates that the search has to bring up a combination of two or more different keyphrases or keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It allows you to search for multiple things at a time and is useful if you&#8217;re looking for something that match two or more characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s go at it with the <strong>growth hacker<\/strong> key phrase example again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suppose you are looking for a <strong>growth hacker<\/strong> who is also an <strong>influencer<\/strong>. You don&#8217;t want just <strong>growth hackers<\/strong> nor do you just want <strong>influencers<\/strong>, you want to find people who are a combination of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of typing one or the other and trying to figure out if they match both your standards, you can type down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>growth hacker AND infuencer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will now bring up a list of results that match two or more of the criteria that you put in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"10-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-3-or-\"><strong>LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 3: OR<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How about if you want to give LinkedIn a choice two or more results that it can give you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the OR syntax comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You place an OR if you want to receive results that match any of the keywords or phrases that you put in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example, if you wanted a <strong>digital marketing consultant <\/strong>or a <strong>digital marketing expert<\/strong>, and you don&#8217;t really mind which of the two LinkedIn throws at you, then all you have to do is to put <strong>OR<\/strong> in the middle of the search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, now your search will look a little something like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>digital marketing consultant OR digital marketing expert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This function allows you to limit your searches with one or more keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It becomes even more powerful if you combine it with quotation marks, and put everything together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"11-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-4-not-\"><strong>LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 4: NOT<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>NOT <\/strong>function because it specifically tells LinkedIn not to include one or more certain keywords in a search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is another limiter that comes in useful if your previous searches keep turning out unwanted results that are just clogging up your results pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how we use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re looking for a <strong>growth hacker<\/strong> but it keeps turning up PPC specialists, you can tell LinkedIn to stop showing you results like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what you would type:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>growth hacker NOT PPC specialist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If that doesn&#8217;t work, you can string multiple terms that you do not want to see together. Making for tighter and efficient searches on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"12-linkedin-boolean-search-operator-5-bracketsparentheses-and-advanced-searches-\"><strong>LinkedIn Boolean Search Operator 5:<\/strong> <strong>Brackets\/Parentheses and Advanced Searches<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to kick it up a notch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What we discussed earlier works for simple searches or if you&#8217;re just using a singular operator. If you&#8217;re running more complex searches, then here are a couple of things that you should keep in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LinkedIn has an order of precedence that you have to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Quotes<\/li><li>Parentheses or Brackets<\/li><li>NOT<\/li><li>AND<\/li><li>OR<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>From a logical standpoint, for instance, it will process quotes first before it processes the NOT statement in your search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t have any fancy AI that will try and guess what you&#8217;re thinking, so this is why it&#8217;s critical to keep this in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now as your search string gets longer, it becomes unavoidable to have multiple operators under a single search. This is where brackets come in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from organizing your search in a logical order, parenthesis or brackets are what give the instructions that LinkedIn has to process in groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say you&#8217;re looking for a growth hacker or growth marketer, but you don&#8217;t want PPC experts or AdWords specialists to come up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you were to write down in a string:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Growth Hacker AND Growth Marketer NOT PPC expert OR AdWords Specialist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LinkedIn would pull up a list of growth hackers, growth marketers, and AdWords specialists because it would deal with the NOT logic first &#8211; removing the PPC experts, but then it would combine growth hackers or AdWords specialists next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most logical or correct way to phrase that instead would be to write it down like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Growth Hacker AND Growth Marketer NOT (PPC expert OR AdWords Specialist)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we ran these exact searches on LinkedIn, the first generated more than 2.7 million hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/linkedin-boolean-search-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35766\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And, after that simple correction, we narrowed the search down to about 3,000 hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/linkedin-boolean-search-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35765\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can&#8217;t really go through this many people, but this simple example can show you how wide the disparity is between a good Boolean search versus a bad one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"13-takeaways-\"><strong>Takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no alternative to a hyper targeted approach, especially when you&#8217;re doing outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a growth hacker, you are required to have definite information when you do your searches, and LinkedIn Boolean search is the way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It saves time, it saves you effort, and also, a lot of the frustration of sorting out through a bunch of results that you don&#8217;t even look at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, we&#8217;re not saying that you shouldn&#8217;t use filters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of LinkedIn advanced searches as a way of adding filters to your filters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Searching for keywords on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator can get tiring, especially if you&#8217;re looking for something specific. However, half the struggle could be the fact that we&#8217;re not using LinkedIn search properly. In this guide, we take a look at how we can use Linked Boolean search for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter. And, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136,3389,3392,3390,3393,114,3257],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/LinkedIn-Boolean-Search-Advanced-Search-Tips-for-Growth.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Houston","author_link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/author\/houston\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}