2026 LinkedIn Cheat Sheet – Lisa Goller Marketing

Baffled by LinkedIn’s new algorithm?

Confused why this business platform suddenly feels more like Instagram? Unsure how to adapt to get your great ideas discovered?

Same!

LinkedIn’s algorithm has changed because:

🔸 It’s evolving into a Knowledge Platform

🔸 Like all social media platforms, LinkedIn is moving toward interest-based content and communities (vs. all the random connections we’ve attracted over the years)

🔸 Targeting and ad sales get easier for social media platforms when we’re organized in tidy groups according to our interests, which partially explains the rationale for the shift

What does that mean for you?

These recent changes directly affect how our LinkedIn posts get distributed, viewed and rewarded.

That’s why I aggregated tips I’ve learned into this 2026 LinkedIn Cheat Sheet to help you (and my clients, retail communities and myself) stay up-to-date on what’s actually working.

These tips come directly from LinkedIn experts, including LinkedIn executives, specialists and my own experience, as I have managed B2B LinkedIn accounts since 2010.

Let’s jump right in …

2026 LINKEDIN BEST PRACTICES

📆 Consistency: Post 1-4x per week

🛑 Restraint: Take ‘er easy! Don’t post more than 1x per day

🧠 Get all nerdy up in here: Since LinkedIn wants to be a knowledge platform, showcase your bounty of expertise. Proof of mastery and thought leadership are powerful marketing tools

🤓 Know your sphere of nerdiness: Unsure what to post? Write down all the things that other people can learn from you. Then take a step back to categorize the topics into different overarching themes

👓 Focus: Identify the 2-3 core themes that accentuate your expertise and try to stick to them whenever you post. That way LinkedIn will categorize you consistently and LinkedIn users will associate you with those topics

🪝 Hook them fast: Amid an abundance of content, LinkedIn users want the executive summary. What 1-liner will grab their attention right away?

🌟 Quality: Don’t spam your audience by cranking out posts. Slow down and give them valuable insights they appreciate and can apply, especially to their career (or work/life balance)

🏆 Answer “How”: Skip the “I’m thrilled to announce …” Instead, walk us through how you solved a problem. What was the business issue? What action did you take? What results did you achieve that showed improvement? Give us a glimpse of your effective thinking

🔎 Get granular: Rather than sharing high-level concepts, share more specific details of a business issue, process or framework to educate your audience. LinkedIn loves real-world experience and clear examples

❤️ Keep it real: Personal stories and vulnerable posts outperform super-cerebral ones, so add some emotion. For instance, my Father’s Day tribute was my top post of 2025. By far.

🎉 Keep it really real: Show us some behind-the-scenes, unpolished, intimate (but not in the nude way) peeks at your business operations, workplace culture or industry events

👨‍🦰 Write for humans: Yes, search engine optimization (SEO), generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer optimization (AEO) on AI platforms matter but humans matter more. Skip the keyword-saturated posts. Share like you’re talking to a friend. LinkedIn rewards real people who share real expertise and connect with real communities.

🎬 Variety is the spice of LinkedIn life: Dazzle your audience with an array of formats like text, photos, videos, documents and visuals

🫰 Keep it snappy: As much as LinkedIn rewards thought leadership and expertise-driven content, users’ attention spans remain short. The best performing videos are <90 seconds

🌊 Go deep: LinkedIn rewards deep dives that encourage users to linger with a longer dwell time. Package your valuable insights as carousel PDFs (~9 slides). Tell a story or explain a complex concept as a long-form text post. Offering content assets that act as industry resources can inspire saves, which LinkedIn prioritizes the most

💬 Spark conversations: (And healthy debates.) LinkedIn rewards posts that attracts comments that go beyond casual responses like an emoji or “Agreed.” Ask open-ended questions to encourage readers to reply with their own experience or point of view

🥇 Comments are gold: Starved for time? All good! Simply adding a thoughtful comment on *other people’s posts* can drive impressions and attention to you, so make this a regular habit. Comment 5-10x per day to increase your own visibility

👩🏽‍🦰 Face time, indeed: People love people and LinkedIn knows that seeing real human faces makes us more likely to stop scrolling and pay attention. Faces build trust so consider sharing a selfie or a picture of people at industry events.

⭐ Go native: LinkedIn wants you to stay on its site, so it rewards native content, which means content that you publish directly on LinkedIn (vs. linking to another site). For instance, if you want to share a video, upload the video file on LinkedIn rather than sharing the link to the video from your website or YouTube account

⏳ Be patient: LinkedIn serves up quality content for up to 3 weeks

📊 Measure your progress. Every month, check your LinkedIn analytics to pinpoint your top performing posts and the patterns that emerge over time. Consistently adjust and refine your approach by knowing your numbers

Those are practical actions for you to take this year …
… which brings us to the flipside …

Surprising Things to *STOP* Doing on LinkedIn in 2026

🛑 Stop posting external links in the body of your post. Instead, put links in the first comment

🛑 Stop tagging everyone you’ve ever met; tag people with discernment because if the people you tag don’t engage with your post, LinkedIn thinks you’re spamming them

🛑 Stop yourself from immediate edits. Spotted an error? That’s okay. Wait 10 minutes after you publish, then go back and correct it to avoid LinkedIn from penalizing you

🛑 Stop running away. For the 60 minutes after you publish a post, be available to reply to any comments. LinkedIn rewards you for interactions during the Golden Hour

🛑 Stop using AI to write all your posts. We can tell. LinkedIn can tell and it penalizes AI slop. Your juiciest posts will come from your big, brilliant brain and rich experience.

🛑 Stop using hashtags(!). Instagram, Facebook, X and now LinkedIn have migrated away from hashtags, so they no longer make an impact on our performance

🛑 Stop polling people. LinkedIn rewards personal stories way more than low-effort polling

🛑 Stop expecting company accounts to skyrocket. Personal LinkedIn accounts outperform business pages, so put yourself in the spotlight to increase your odds of engagement

Keep these LinkedIn best practices in mind as you post this year.

Also, consider bookmarking this page, as I will keep updating these best practices as new insights emerge.

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