5 Types of LinkedIn Banner to Make Your Profile Stand Out

7 min read

Get more out of your profile with an eye catching LinkedIn banner with five expert examples and best practices.

LinkedIn has become the quintessential platform for professionals to showcase their skills, network, and uncover new career opportunities.

However, with over a billion profiles to compete against, standing out from the crowd has never been more challenging or more critical.

One of the most effective yet underutilized tools for making a lasting impression is a memorable and impactful LinkedIn banner.

This visual space at the top of your profile provides a unique opportunity to capture attention, convey your professional brand, and communicate your career aspirations at a glance.

Let’s check out five ideas that will inspire your banner.

How To Create A Great LinkedIn Banner + Best Practices

Your LinkedIn banner is the first thing people see when they visit your profile besides your profile picture.

Creating your LinkedIn banner isn’t an easy task and will take many tries and improvements to follow the latest trends and get it just right.

Let’s start with the part most get very wrong, the LinkedIn banner size.

LinkedIn Banner Size

The first step in creating a LinkedIn banner is understanding the optimal size for this visual element.

LinkedIn recommends a banner size of 1584 pixels wide (Width) by 396 pixels tall (Height).

This aspect ratio ensures that your banner will display correctly across different devices, from desktops to mobile phones, without important details getting cropped out.

Now let’s get to creating your perfect banner.

Short Step-by-Step on How to Edit a Banner

There isn’t a definitive way to create a perfect banner, however, following these steps will help you get there:

• Choose Your Design Tool – Select a design tool that suits your needs, such as Adobe Photoshop, Canva (The best for beginners), or Figma. Many of these tools offer LinkedIn banner templates to get you started.
• Upload Images – If you’re using personal photos or stock images, ensure they are high-resolution to avoid a pixelated banner.
• Adjust the Size – Set your canvas to the recommended LinkedIn banner size (1584x396 pixels) to ensure your design fits perfectly.
• Add Text and Graphics – Incorporate elements that reflect your professional identity. Utilize your company logo, a sharp tagline, or symbols that resonate with your industry. Use an AI logo to emphasize your commitment to cutting-edge technology and innovation.
• Apply Design Principles – Use color, contrast, and spacing effectively to make your banner visually appealing and easy to read.
• Save and Upload – Once satisfied with your design, save the banner in a web-friendly format (e.g., JPG or PNG) and upload it to your LinkedIn profile under the profile editing option.

Best Practices

After analyzing dozens of LinkedIn banners, we’ve noticed a couple of trends the best are incorporating in their branding:

• Relevance – Your banner should reflect your professional identity or the industry you’re part of. If you’re a graphic designer, a creative and colorful banner may be appropriate. In contrast, a corporate lawyer might opt for a more understated design.
• Design and Colors – Use colors that complement your profile picture and create a cohesive look. Avoid overly busy designs that can distract from the message you want to convey.
• Call to Action (CTA) – If applicable, include a subtle call to action, such as inviting viewers to check out your portfolio or website. Ensure the CTA is concise and clear. Highlighting the benefits of website redesign can also encourage visitors to explore your updated portfolio or website, reinforcing a professional and modern online presence.
• Keep It Updated – Update your banner to reflect any significant changes in your professional life or to freshen up your profile’s look periodically.

5 Best LinkedIn Banner Examples

When you’re creating your LinkedIn banner, creativity and clarity go hand in hand.

Here are 5 standout examples from various creators that masterfully balance design and message, ensuring their profiles make a memorable impression.

The Newsletter

This banner features the Newsletter, which Eric said is specifically for people who want to learn about ’Business, Leadership, and Self-Mastery’ which will help him gather subscribers interested in these topics.

The ’SUBSCRIBE NOW (Link in Bio)’ represents his Call to Action, showing where people can acquire his knowledge (in his case, in his Newsletter).

The logos below show us where his Newsletter is featured, which gives him more credibility because he included some of the most successful organizations, such as Forbes, BBC, CNN, etc…

This is an amazing example of a Banner, it includes CTA + Social proof + His targeted audience.

The Product

In this banner, Justin Welsh wants to promote his digital course ’Grow + Monetize Linkedin.’ for anyone who visits his profile.

While he gets people to click on his profile through his content, the combination of a straightforward banner and CTAs across his featured section helps him sell his product.

There was no need to describe what this course is about(as in the previous example) because it’s for everyone who wants to earn money from their LinkedIn profile.

We can also see logos from successful companies, which gives him great credibility.

The Professional

If you want to promote yourself as a professional, no matter if you’re a senior or junior, this banner is for you.

Even if this is your first position, you can use a company banner to build your authority.

Even if it’s a small company or a bigger one, it has something unique about it.

In this case, Aleksandra uses a banner where we can see the accomplishments of her company, ’ #1 SaaS of 2022 – Product Hunt. ’

Can you imagine how good this looks when Recruiters come to her profile and see that she worked for a company that acquired huge success and awards?

Find one unique thing about your company and make a banner from it, or if you worked on multiple revered projects, put their logos in your banner to showcase where you worked at.

The Freelancer – Consultant

This is a very clear banner where we can see:

• The value that she provides – Helping you grow your LinkedIn
• Her target audience – Busy female executives
• Service that she provides – Ghostwriting for you or 1:1 consultations.

When you want to offer your service on LinkedIn, it’s really important to ask yourself these questions:

• How can my skills help my customers (What is the end goal)?
• Who is my target audience?
• How can people work with me?

When you know the answers to these questions, you will know how to create the perfect banner.

The Founder

When you start building your business and want to promote how your tool or service can help people, your banner is the right place to showcase what it does.

Ivana has included the problem her tool solves in her banner, which is helping people on LinkedIn with content creation.

On the right side, she illustrates the features and benefits of her product. You can see firsthand how her product looks and its features.

With just one photo, she has demonstrated how the product helps people and shown what you can expect from it.

Each of these banners succeeds by clearly communicating the professional’s field, expertise, or passion, utilizing design elements that align with their personal brand and industry standards.

Conclusion

As LinkedIn continues to evolve as a platform for professional storytelling, the importance of a visually compelling banner cannot be overstated.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned executive, or somewhere in between, your LinkedIn banner is a canvas to illustrate your professional narrative.

Investing time and creativity into your LinkedIn banner can yield significant dividends in how your professional identity is perceived online.

Vedran Rasic

Vedran is the CEO and co-founder of LeadDelta, where he helps founders, sales teams, and recruiters turn their LinkedIn networks into a structured, shared CRM. He writes about social selling, relationship-led growth, and building in public.