A LinkedIn background photo or cover photo is a great way to personalize your LinkedIn profile, enhance your brand messaging, and keep you fresh in the minds of others. There are various LinkedIn background images to choose from and design ideas to implement for your LinkedIn cover photo.

While you can perform a Google search to get ideas for your LinkedIn banner, I recommend creating one that can help shape and enhance your personal brand, while also precluding others from using the same exact photo for their own LinkedIn profile.

Before deciding on your LinkedIn background image or LinkedIn cover photo, it’s important to ask yourself: who is my target audience? Are you trying to drive potential clients to your profile or are you wanting to increase views from recruiters/hiring managers? There are different approaches for different audiences depending on how you want to position yourself.

LinkedIn Background Photo Sizing Guidelines

According to LinkedIn, your background photo must be a JPG, PNG, or GIF file at less than 8MB with recommended pixels of 1584 x 396.  Be sure to look at the mobile versus desktop version of LinkedIn to compare how the photo appears.

Jazzing up your LinkedIn cover photo can enhance your personal brand and lead more people to your profile, website, and other social media platforms. It can also increase outreach and conversations. If you do not personalize your LinkedIn background photo, it will default to the boring blue background seen here:

LinkedIn Background Image Ideas: Business Owners

If you’re a business owner, a LinkedIn banner photo is a great way to showcase your services, expertise, and high value. You can create a customized background photo through Canva (my personal favorite graphic design platform due to its simple user interface). Canva has design templates for LinkedIn banner photos with suggested graphics, but you can customize the banner as you see fit. If you’re a business owner, a few items you might want to include on your LinkedIn cover photo include: your company name/logo, website, email, contact phone number, media logos, or social media handles. The key is to select items that best reflect your personal brand and strategic positioning in your industry sector. The more personalized the photo, the better — it precludes plagiarism and intellectual property theft. Here is a sample one for a business owner:

In this example, note a few things:  we know that Goldie Norman is the founder of Wendele Publishing, Inc. We also know what her company does based on the value statement and imagery. Further, we have her phone number and website, so we don’t have to rummage through her LinkedIn profile to figure it out. This background photo example shows you just how much you can increase brand recognition.

LinkedIn Background Image Ideas: Job Seekers

As a job seeker, there are various ways to utilize a LinkedIn background image. You can select a stock photo of the city skyline where you work/reside (or perhaps want to work), a photo of your current workplace or corporate office, a favorite travel destination, or even a photo that represents a hobby (hiking), volunteer work (civic/community organization), or achievement (marathon finish line or TEDx stage appearance).

However, you can utilize Canva to create a more personalized LinkedIn background photo that powers your personal brand and drives more interest in people clicking through your profile. By adding your name to the background photo and adding in a few core areas of focus that reflect your core competencies, specialties, or areas of expertise, people will easily see what you do and what you want to be known for.  Here’s an example of a personalized LinkedIn background photo for a job seeker:

In this specific example, I inserted the left image (an office) into the LinkedIn banner template, while also using a recommended color scheme. You will see the person’s name, current job title/company name, and three key areas of focus inserted into the banner photo to represent her brand. Important to note: it’s recommend that you put any data/words on the right side of the photo as the left side will be intercepted by the person’s profile picture. This is just one such example of how LinkedIn backgrounds can be enhanced by creating a branded background photo. If you prefer to use a stock image photo, I recommend grabbing one from a site like Pixabay or Unsplash which has royalty free images that you can utilize for your LinkedIn cover photo. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. Don’t be left in the dust by overlooking the importance of a branded LinkedIn cover photo that can take your profile from average to stellar.

As part of my LinkedIn profile writing services, I create personalized LinkedIn profile background photos for my clients when I construct their LinkedIn profiles.

Here are additional articles I’ve written that can help assist you in increasing your LinkedIn profile visibility:

LinkedIn Company Page: Why Your Business Needs One

4 Quick Fixes When Writing a LinkedIn Profile

Tips to Customize Your LinkedIn Profile URL in Seconds 

The Evolution of LinkedIn in Personal Branding and the Workplace