If recruiters and clients are searching LinkedIn by skills, a scattershot collection of endorsements won’t help — relevance will. Endorsements are a one‑click signal that can improve who finds you, but only when they reinforce the specific abilities you want to be known for.

What endorsements actually do — and what they don’t

Only your 1st‑degree connections can endorse skills on your profile. Each endorsement increases the visible count next to a skill and contributes to the signals LinkedIn uses when people search or filter by skills. That makes endorsements a visibility tool as much as a reputation cue.

But endorsements are lightweight: they lack the narrative and outcomes that written recommendations, case studies or portfolio items provide. Treat endorsements as supporting evidence, not proof. They help surface your profile in skills‑based searches, but they don’t replace demonstrable results.

LinkedIn’s hiring research underscores why skills matter: many talent professionals now rely on skills-based searches. Keeping your skills aligned with market demand matters because recruiters increasingly filter by capability rather than job title alone.

Choose the right skills to promote

You can add up to 100 skills on LinkedIn — but more is not better. Your goal is to highlight the small set of skills that will trigger the right searches and match the work you want next. For most professionals, the top three skills on your profile carry the most weight for first impressions.

  • Scan the market: review job descriptions and client briefs to identify repeatedly requested skills.
  • Prune and reorder: remove or de‑prioritize outdated items and place priority skills at the top of the Skills section.
  • Align your evidence: make your headline, About, experience bullets and Featured items mention the same skills you want endorsed.

Endorsements for irrelevant or obsolete skills create noise. Focus on a concise set of capabilities that match the roles or clients you are targeting.

How to get more relevant endorsements

Endorsements often happen naturally, but you can encourage the right ones without gaming the system. Use tactics that align visibility and credibility:

  • Show the work publicly: publish posts, short case summaries or project highlights that demonstrate the skills you list.
  • Ask selectively: request endorsements from colleagues, managers or clients who have actually observed the skill in use.
  • Be specific when you ask: tell the person which skill (one or two) to endorse and why it matters for your current goals.
  • Reciprocate thoughtfully: endorse peers only for skills you have seen them use — selective endorsements retain credibility.
  • Focus outreach on top skills: concentrate your visibility and requests around the three skills you want surfaced to recruiters or clients.
  • Value quality over quantity: a few endorsements from people who’ve seen your work are more persuasive than many for low‑priority skills.

When you ask, keep the ask short and contextual: reference the project or result where the person saw the skill in action. That makes it easier for them to respond and keeps the endorsement aligned to evidence on your profile.

Practical control and profile housekeeping

LinkedIn lets you manage how endorsements display. You can hide individual endorsements, reorder skills to highlight priorities, or disable endorsements entirely if you prefer. Remember: removing a skill also removes its endorsements; re‑adding the same skill may not restore prior endorsements.

To endorse someone from desktop: open their profile, scroll to Skills & endorsements, find the skill and click Endorse. LinkedIn also offers a bulk endorsement option for some users — use it only where you genuinely have direct knowledge of multiple skills.

Endorsements versus recommendations

Endorsements confirm discrete abilities. Recommendations — written testimonials — explain how you applied those abilities and what results you delivered. Both come from 1st‑degree connections, but they serve different purposes: endorsements increase discoverability for specific skills; recommendations provide the narrative that persuades hiring managers or buyers.

For a practical profile strategy, combine both: curate endorsements for your top skills and request written recommendations from people who can describe outcomes, challenges solved and your working approach.

What to do next

Run a three‑minute profile audit now: pick three skills you want to own, reorder them to the top, and add concrete examples of each in your experience or Featured sections. Ask two people who’ve seen you use those skills to endorse them, and track whether you get more recruiter views or inbound inquiries. Over time, convert endorsements into credibility with targeted written recommendations that describe outcomes.

Treat endorsements as one tactical lever in a broader profile strategy: they help get you found; evidence and recommendations help you get hired.