Guessing how the LinkedIn algorithm works in 2025 with 100% accuracy is difficult, especially since LinkedIn often updates its rules.
Therefore, we will focus on practical strategies to help your content appear more often in the LinkedIn feed of relevant users, increase visibility among first-degree connections, and drive engagement through valuable content, thoughtful comments, and relevant industry insights.
We’ll also cover how to:
- Promote your LinkedIn posts across different social media platforms
- Increase your profile visibility in search and get recommended
- Automate routine actions effectively using trusted automation tools — without harming your reach or triggering penalties.
What do people mean by a LinkedIn algorithm?
Most creators recoil when they hear the “LinkedIn algorithm” – it sounds mysterious and daunting.
Yet, it’s this very mechanism that can boost your LinkedIn performance, help your high quality content reach a wider audience, and position your profile in front of users based on their interests.
The primary goal of any algorithm is to make the platform enticing so that people spend more time online, ultimately leading to increased revenue from advertising.
Therefore, those who create engaging content are indispensable to any algorithm.
In simple terms, the LinkedIn algorithm is a unified system that decides what shows up in your LinkedIn feed and search results.
The LinkedIn algorithm uses engagement signals, such as how long users interact with your post, reactions, comments, and shares — but not all engagement is equal.
The LinkedIn algorithm prioritizes meaningful engagement over vanity metrics, and may even apply human review in borderline cases to detect low quality content.
It also considers your post format, relevance, and whether you offer valuable insights aligned with your audience’s interests.
Another important task of the LinkedIn algorithm is user protection. It guards against spam, harmful content, and misinformation, which also makes the platform valuable.
LinkedIn algorithm explained: trusted scheme
Many users ask how does the LinkedIn algorithm work because cracking it is key to building visibility, attracting leads, and staying top-of-mind in your industry.
To boost member activity and revenue from ads, LinkedIn’s algorithm is designed to prioritize posts that keep people on the platform.
Here are the key factors LinkedIn algorithm uses in 2025:
🎯 Engagement Prediction
The algorithm monitors how well your post performs.
However, not all engagement is created equal, thoughtful interaction and relevance to your target audience matter more.
If you consistently offer professional advice and original content, the platform will naturally show your posts to a wider audience.
⏱️ Time Spent & User Actions
The longer users spend engaging with your content — reading, reacting, or clicking — the better. Posts that lead to continued activity or discussion signal value.
Use native content (not just links to other platforms) and formats like live video to hold attention longer.
👥 Network & Employee Advocacy
Who interacts with your content matters. The LinkedIn algorithm looks at your first-degree connections, industry peers, and team members.
Encourage employee advocacy by getting your colleagues involved — their interaction with your posts boosts discoverability and trust.
🔍 Discoverability & Relevance
Understanding how the LinkedIn algorithm works can help you craft posts that gain more visibility and engagement.
Content must match audience’s interests to be prioritized. Use strategic keywords, relevant hashtags, and smart self-promotion to position your profile and posts.
Tag collaborators, clients, or thought leaders — when you tag people thoughtfully, you expand your reach to their networks too.
📅 Timing & Format
Posting at optimal times improves visibility. Consistency and creativity go hand in hand here.
Also, the LinkedIn algorithm works by promoting content that sparks conversations, especially within the first hour of posting.
What LinkedIn *Wants* From You in 2025
LinkedIn’s goal is to keep users engaged by showing them the most relevant, helpful, and authentic content.
Here’s what the LinkedIn algorithm prefers in 2025:
- High engagement rate from a relevant audience
- Quality content tailored to the audience’s interests
- Posts offering real professional advice and thought leadership
- Strong employee advocacy and community interaction
- Use of native content, smart tagging, and strategic timing
- Attention-grabbing formats like live video
- Balanced distribution across social media platforms without link spamming
Best tip to understand the LinkedIn algorithm: To understand the mechanisms, use credible sources, like LinkedIn’s engineering blog.
For instance, in one article authors explain how the collaborative article system works on LinkedIn and emphasize that the primary recommendation factor for articles is the set of skills listed in the profile.
Part 1 – Effective LinkedIn posting: Feed algorithm
In this section, let’s delve into how the LinkedIn algorithm perceives your content and determines who to display it to.
The following classifications of content are based on a reputable LinkedIn Learning course by a digital marketing expert.
Types of content for the LinkedIn algorithm are:
Spam content
Avoid tagging unrelated individuals in your posts. Grammar and writing style are vital.
Low-quality content isn’t well received, especially on this network. Consider using additional tools like AI or external writers. The more errors, the higher the likelihood of the content being flagged as spam.
- Excessive use of tags. While tags are important, an excess of them, especially irrelevant ones, can make the algorithm classify the post as spammy. Experts suggest adding only 3-5 tags per post.
- Too frequent posting. Posting several times a day can be seen as spam by the algorithm, making it challenging for your content to appear in users’ feeds. It’s advisable to maintain a minimum of 12 hours between posts.
Irrelevant content
While not necessarily spam, content with minimal interaction from users may not fare well. If LinkedIn introduces new content to users, and few engage with it by liking, commenting, or sharing, the algorithm may perceive it as low-quality for the community.
Quality content
Engagement is key to the algorithm’s assessment of content quality.
Creating high-quality content is easier when you know trending topics. Consider discussing subjects that are currently trending and generating widespread interest.
Personal topics can be particularly engaging for both users and the algorithm. For instance, sharing your personal career journey or unique insights in your professional field often leads to increased engagement on social platforms like LinkedIn.
LinkedIn feed algorithm: How does LinkedIn decide what to show you?
We’ve analyzed the feed on an active profile to better understand what weight the LinkedIn algorithm gives to certain content in the feed.
Here are the trends we’ve noticed:
- Ads
These are paid posts that generate revenue for the platform, so they can’t be ignored. Typically, you’ll see ads that the algorithm deems relevant to you, with a high likelihood that you’ll take targeted actions such as filling out forms or subscribing. Often, these are regular posts but can garner thousands of likes on LinkedIn because they’re boosted based on the advertiser’s budget.
In your feed, you’ll find sponsored posts that target particular audiences.
- Suggested – 2nd degree connections
These are organic posts, often from second-degree connections – contacts of your contacts. For this reason, the LinkedIn algorithm heavily relies on who’s in your network and strives to show you the best content from contacts already interesting to you. Since these posts have already garnered organic engagement, the algorithm showcases them to you as well.
LinkedIn organically boosts top posts from second-degree contacts in your feed.
- Viral content – Does it exist on LinkedIn?
Despite everyone dreaming of making a post go viral on LinkedIn, it’s highly unlikely. The platform isn’t built for virality. However, in rare cases, if a post isn’t spam and gathers a record number of reactions in a short time, it might be categorized as micro viral. This is explained by the developers.
- Factors that influence content virality
LinkedIn carefully monitors to ensure every post isn’t spam, hence developing an algorithm to filter content.
LinkedIn’s algorithm evaluates several elements before boosting a post:
- Content quality – The platform checks the type of content and flags any negative reports. Posts marked as spam are not promoted.
- Who engages – Engagement from real, active users with diverse, established networks matters more than random likes or bots.
- Engagement speed – Quick, authentic reactions and comments from verified profiles can trigger the algorithm to show your post to second-degree connections, accelerating reach and visibility.
How to adjust every LinkedIn post for the algorithm
Here are key strategies to help you align each post with how the LinkedIn algorithm works — from timing to hashtags to formatting.
- Golden hour of posting
It’s important to consider that user activity varies throughout the day. Choose the days and times when your target audience is most likely to be reading their feed. Also, take into account the time zone in which your audience lives. Here is a link for more details – Best time to post on LinkedIn to increase your engagement
- Hashtag strategy
Carefully selecting hashtags for each post is crucial for discoverability. People follow hashtags, and everyone subscribed to a hashtag will see your post in their feed, guaranteeing that your content reaches its target audience.
- Keywords
Social networks allow users to search for posts, so including relevant keywords can increase the chances that your content will be found. Add keywords to your text to enhance visibility.
- Engage with questions
Encouraging interaction is a common piece of advice from content creators. Whether it’s a text, post, or video, don’t leave the door to discussion closed. Your content should invite the audience to continue the dialogue.
- Viral content
Often, the most unexpected content goes viral. The best approach to achieving virality is to frequently create and test content. Something as simple as a post that gathers 20,000 impressions can become micro-viral, especially if it aligns well with your brand.
- Scheduled posting tools
Planning your posts in advance can help maintain consistency and relieve the daily stress of posting. You can schedule a series of posts in advance and set them up for auto-posting. This not only saves time but ensures your presence is felt even when you’re not actively online.
Part 2 – Ranking Signals That Actually Matter
To grow your reach, it’s essential to understand how does the LinkedIn algorithm work — it prioritizes meaningful interactions and consistent engagement.
1. Who You Know (Your Connections)
The LinkedIn algorithm leverages your first degree connections to shape your experience on the platform.
The “People You May Know” (PYMK) system uses a multi-stage ranking model to recommend profiles you’re most likely to engage with.
It analyzes:
- Mutual connections
- Shared workplaces or schools
- Common industries or interests
In the final stage, re-ranking ensures relevant users are prioritized, while also promoting diversity and fairness.
There’s no one-size-fits-all trick to getting into these recommendations — but consistently connecting with professionals from your industry and maintaining a complete profile boosts your visibility across users’ feeds.
🔍 Your social media strategy should include building intentional relationships to amplify your network organically.
2. What You Talk About (Relevance)
You can see how many times your profile has been found via search in your page setting.
The topics you post and how well your profile is optimized directly affect how often you appear in the search and in the LinkedIn feed. LinkedIn’s search algorithm acts similarly to Google’s X-Ray search and uses keywords across your entire profile to determine high-quality content.
Valuable insights shared via your profile, posts, and even external links can increase your visibility — especially if they match your audience’s interests and the skills you’ve listed.
Tips for better relevance:
- Use strategic keywords in your job title, headline, and summary
- Include your location or target location to appear in local searches
- Avoid keyword stuffing with irrelevant terms
📈 Think of your profile as a LinkedIn post that’s always live — optimized content = better discoverability
3. How People React (Engagement Quality)
The algorithm tracks how users interact with your posts: how long they read, whether they comment thoughtfully, and if they share with their network. Thoughtful comments, saves, and direct shares are stronger signals than simple likes.
To increase visibility, respond to comments to boost user feedback
4. Your Posting History and Profile Authority
LinkedIn evaluates your posting history and how well your previous content performed to determine future reach. Accounts that consistently publish original content get priority in feed distribution.
For the algorithm, being tagged by established accounts is an important sign of trustworthiness. If an influencer tags you, their contacts are likely to visit your profile, and the algorithm will more frequently recommend you among their contacts.
Although we haven’t noticed a direct link between top profiles in search results and the number of endorsements, their presence can ultimately help users see that your profile is legitimate and spend more time exploring it.
What’s New in the LinkedIn Algorithm (2025 Edition)
The LinkedIn algorithm 2025 is smarter and more selective than ever, prioritizing meaningful interactions over vanity metrics.
Key Changes in LinkedIn Algorithm (2025 vs. 2023–2024)
| Feature / Behavior | Before (2023–2024) | Now (2025) |
| Post Discovery via Hashtags | Hashtags were used for discovery via “Talks About” tags | Hashtag-based discovery removed; AI now drives post recommendations |
| Creator Mode | Showcased topics via hashtags | “Talks About” removed; less emphasis on specific topic tags |
| Auto Comments & Pods | Tolerated if subtle | Now considered risky; may lead to reduced reach or penalties |
| Long-form Posts | Performed well with engagement | Still effective only if highly focused and valuable |
| Time on LinkedIn | Rewarded with moderate boost | Stronger emphasis: native content & user retention are heavily rewarded |
| Posting Formats | Mixed, with video performing well | Carousels & PDFs now outperform videos by 1.9× [2] |
| Frequency | 3–5x per week | 1–2x per day is now optimal |
| Algorithm Focus | Engagement metrics (likes/comments) | Relevance & dwell time more important than vanity metrics [4] |
Long Posts Perform Better — But Only If They’re Sharp
In 2025, long-form posts still get strong reach — but only when they are well-structured, focused, and valuable.
Rambling or unclear content performs poorly. Clarity is now more important than length.
LinkedIn Rewards You for Staying on LinkedIn
Native content (text posts, PDFs, carousels) gets priority in the feed.
External links reduce reach, while keeping users on the platform boosts it.
LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards retention — your goal is to keep people reading on-site.
Auto Comments and Pods? Risky in 2025
Automated engagement tools and comment pods are now penalized by the algorithm.
LinkedIn can detect inauthentic interactions, which may lead to decreased visibility.
Authentic engagement is key.
AI Replaces Hashtags
LinkedIn removed the ability to follow hashtags and eliminated the “Talks About” section in Creator Mode.
Users are no longer discovered via hashtags.
➡️ Searchable hashtags still work, but they don’t impact feed ranking or visibility. Full changes to Creator Mode are detailed here.
This shift suggests that AI-driven content recommendations are becoming more important than hashtag-based discovery. However, searching for posts using hashtags is still possible via the LinkedIn search bar.
LinkedIn is using AI and Jupyter Notebooks to build smarter tools
LinkedIn is building new AI-powered tools using Jupyter Notebooks, like AccountIQ — which generates company insights in under 5 minutes.
These tools improve B2B prospecting and content relevance, powered by real-time data and user feedback loops.
The LinkedIn algorithm changes in 2025 focus on rewarding authentic interactions, niche relevance, and strong early engagement within the first hour of posting.
How to beat the LinkedIn algorithm with an automated tool
While the algorithm strives to combat automation, there are tools available that closely mimic manual activity in their operations.
For instance, Linked Helper employs page navigation akin to human behavior, manually entering names in the search for adding connections instead of using URLs, which is a behavior not typical of humans.
Moreover, the software incorporates pauses at intervals, resembling natural human behavior. As a result, such tools aren’t flagged by the algorithm as robotic; they function more like personal assistants executing daily routine tasks on your behalf.
Consistent auto engagement
Automation tools ensure ongoing activity on your profile. You can become the most active user, consistently engaging with your contacts’ content. This eliminates the need to manually consume excessive content; all actions are handled by the automated assistant.
Targeted and steady network growth
Utilizing Linked Helper allows you to segment and add only relevant contacts, teaching the algorithm quickly about your industry and positioning you for recommendations among targeted individuals.
Boost posts with auto tagging
While excessive and irrelevant tags can be detrimental and signify spam, Linked Helper allows for targeted tagging.
For instance, you can curate genuinely compelling content and boost its visibility through strategic tagging, reaching a wider audience without resorting to traditional advertising. By selectively tagging users who are genuinely interested, you enhance engagement.
Final Thoughts: Stay Smart, Not Spammy
The LinkedIn algorithm works best when you consistently post valuable content, engage with your network, and use relevant hashtags.
From job suggestions to post reach, the LinkedIn algorithm determines much of what you see and who sees you.
Winning the LinkedIn algorithm doesn’t mean flooding your feed with spammy tactics. It’s about using automation to act smart — consistently engaging with relevant content, growing your network strategically, and boosting visibility through thoughtful actions.
With Linked Helper, you can achieve all this while keeping things human-like and organic.
Take control of your LinkedIn strategy — Try Linked Helper today!
FAQ
How do LinkedIn algorithms work?
LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes relevant, high-quality content based on user behavior, engagement signals, and your network’s interests. It evaluates how quickly your post gets interactions to decide how widely to distribute it.
What is the golden hour of LinkedIn algorithm?
The “golden hour” refers to the first 60–90 minutes after posting. High engagement during this window signals quality to the algorithm, boosting reach.
How does LinkedIn decide who to suggest?
LinkedIn suggests people based on shared connections, mutual interests, profile similarities, and recent interactions like views or engagement.
How does LinkedIn rank your connections?
Connections are ranked based on interaction frequency, message history, profile views, and engagement with each other’s content.
What is the 4-1-1 rule on LinkedIn?
The 4-1-1 rule means for every 6 posts: 4 should educate or entertain, 1 can be a soft promotion, and 1 can be a direct pitch or personal ask.
