What Makes a Good LinkedIn Headline (With 10 Examples)
Juan Mouton
VP Marketing
A good LinkedIn headline says what you do, for whom, in the words your market would search, front-loaded, inside the 220-character limit. That is the entire formula, and almost nobody's headline follows it, because the default habit is to use the field as a title plate: role, company, done. A title plate wastes the most-read line you own. Your headline travels everywhere your name does, search results, comment threads, connection requests, other people's notifications, and in most of those places it is truncated to its first few words, which is why the front-loading matters as much as the content. Below: the formula unpacked, ten before-and-afters, and the four mistakes that account for most weak headlines.
The formula, slot by slot
What you do, as a function the market recognizes, not an internal title. "Revenue operations" is searchable; "Growth Enablement Ninja" is a joke that costs you every search it could have matched.
For whom, because a headline with an audience reads as an offer while one without reads as a label. "For B2B SaaS founders" turns a description into a signal that a specific reader is in the right place.
The searchable words, first. Truncation is ruthless and attention is worse: the opening handful of words does nearly all the headline's work. Lead with the terms someone would actually type, and push credentials, employers, and flourish to the back, where the interested can find them and the skimming lose nothing.
Proof, if it is short and concrete. A number or a named outcome earns its characters ("$40M raised for clients," "50+ ops turnarounds"). Adjectives do not; "passionate," "seasoned," and "results-driven" are the three most expensive words in the format, each spending characters to convey nothing a stranger can verify.
Ten before-and-afters
- Before: "SVP Operations at Meridian Group." After: "Operations leader | I untangle companies that grew faster than their systems | SVP, Meridian."
- Before: "Marketing Consultant." After: "B2B marketing consultant for professional services firms | positioning and demand, not decks."
- Before: "CFO | Board Member | Speaker." After: "Fractional CFO for founder-led companies | raises, exits, and numbers founders can read."
- Before: "Helping businesses grow." After: "Pricing strategy for B2B SaaS | I fix the number everyone is afraid to touch."
- Before: "Founder & CEO at Kestrel." After: "Founder, Kestrel | supply-chain visibility for mid-market manufacturers | recovering procurement lead."
- Before: "HR Executive." After: "CHRO | retention through the manager layer, not the culture deck | mid-market tech."
- Before: "Passionate about people and technology." After: "IT leader for regulated industries | I make security audits boring again."
- Before: "Sales Director | Quota Crusher." After: "Enterprise sales leader, fintech | building teams that sell without discounting."
- Before: "Experienced strategy professional." After: "Strategy advisor to family-owned businesses | succession, growth, and the conversations in between."
- Before: "Aspiring thought leader in AI." After: "AI implementation for insurance operations | what actually ships versus what demos well."
Read the afters for the shared anatomy: function first, audience named, one concrete or characterful element, title demoted to the rear. Several also carry a dry stance, which is optional seasoning, effective when it is genuinely yours and lethal when borrowed.
The four standard mistakes
The title plate. Role and company only. Says nothing searchable, nothing about who you serve, and nothing your business card does not.
The buzzword stack. "Visionary | Innovator | Change Agent." Zero search value, negative credibility, and functionally identical to ten million other headlines, which is the swap test failing at 220 characters.
The invented title. Internal or whimsical role names that no searcher will ever type. Clever costs coverage.
The everything headline. Six functions separated by pipes, serving nobody by claiming everybody. A headline is a door, and a door is one shape.
The rewrite is a twenty-minute job with an outsized return, and one honest caveat travels with it: the headline gets you found and skimmed favorably, and what the arriving reader finds next, your About line, your visible thinking, decides everything after. The headline is the label on the door. Something still has to be behind it.
Where Agent Craft sits in this
The formula above is complete, and the rewrite needs twenty minutes and honesty. Our free headline generator runs the same formula if you want variants to react against. Inside Agent Craft, the headline work sits within a full strategy layer, positioning, pillars, and voice, built on best practice and twenty-plus years leading global brands, feeding content across LinkedIn, X, TikTok, and YouTube. The label on the door matters. So does having something behind it, and the second part is the actual product.
Frequently asked questions
What should I put in my LinkedIn headline?
What you do, for whom, in words your market would search, front-loaded, with one piece of concrete proof if it fits. Titles and employers go at the back, adjectives go nowhere.
How long should a LinkedIn headline be?
Use the space meaningfully up to the 220-character limit, but design for truncation: the first handful of words must work alone, because in most surfaces that is all a reader sees.
Should my headline be my job title?
A bare title is the most common weak headline: it says nothing searchable and nothing about who you serve. Keep the title, demoted to the end, and lead with the function and audience.
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