How To Forward Your Personal Domain Name To Your LinkedIn Public Profile

LinkedIn Public Profile | Domain Name Forwarding | Domain Redirect

So, you’ve purchased your own domain name yourname . com and want to associate that with your public LinkedIn profile. This can be done with Domain Forwarding tools. They should be available to you in your account with your domain & host supplier.

However, it should be noted that associating your personal URL with your LinkedIn profile page:

• Can only be done as a vanity exercise, since LinkedIn prevent permanent masking (or cloaking) of their address. This means that typing yourname . com in the address bar of a  browser will direct traffic to your LinkedIn address, but the messy LinkedIn address that you want to replace will still be shown in the address bar once that page is displayed.
• Your LinkedIn profile may be removed from Google searches if you use the cloaking mechanism for re-direction. (See the paragraph entitled Quality guidelines – specific guidelines on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines Page)

The message here is don’t use any sort of masking or cloaking technique when associating your domain with LinkedIn.

If you still wish to proceed and use your domain name for vanity reasons (because it’s easier for other people to remember & it’s cool):-

Log in to your domain account and select your domain name, yourname. com

Look for an option similar to DNS Tools, Web Forward or Domain Forwarding

Select that option.

Under Domain Forwarding, you will have the option to enter the destination Web Address (URL) that you would like your domain name to point to. Enter your LinkedIn public profile address there.

www. yourname. com              >       Forward to: {paste your LinkedIn public address here}

If there is an option to Cloak or Mask, do not select it.

Make a second entry under Sub Domain Forwarding, leaving off the www before your domain name:

yourname . com                       >        Forward to: {paste your LinkedIn public address here}

Again, do not select any Cloaking or Masking options.

Save the changes and wait a few hours for the DNS active records to update across the global network.

After a few hours, typing www . yourname . com or yourname . com into the address bar of your browser should take you to the URL you specified.

The Effects of Cloaking / Masking a Redirect

It prevents the destination address (URL) from displaying in the browser’s  address bar. This means that
www . yourname . com will always be displayed in the address bar – even though you’re accessing your LinkedIn page at http: // uk . linkedin  .com / in / yourname

This causes chaos in most browsers because the destination page is displayed in a hidden ‘frame’ to conceal its original attributes, such as it’s web address. And certainly, LinkedIn pages do not want to be displayed in this manner.

The Firefox browser will display a blank white screen, for example.

The Opera browser is more specific and produces this error:

The website does not permit its content to be displayed in a frame. It must be displayed in a separate window.

However, the Chrome browser seems to handle the redirection with aplomb.

It is best not to cloak or mask when domain forwarding to prevent these errors and your page not being shown.

At best then, your personalized domain name can only be used as a vanity URL when associating it with your  LinkedIn profile page.