Use Google to Find LinkedIn Profiles + Emails [2024]
When you type a name into Google, most of the time a LinkedIn profile that comes up.
In this blog article, we will see how to use Google to search for LinkedIn profiles, including emails.
But first, what is the point of using the search engine to search for LinkedIn profiles?
Why search for LinkedIn profiles with Google?
So why bother using Google?
Using Google to Find LinkedIn Profiles has at least 3 advantages:
- Find LinkedIn profiles without having to log in
- Find LinkedIn profiles anonymously
- Search for keywords throughout the body of the LinkedIn page
Find LinkedIn profiles without having to log in
It's impossible to use the LinkedIn search engine without logging in.
If you try, LinkedIn prompts you to sign up.
What to do?
With Google, you can simply type in a keyword, and retrieve the LinkedIn data displayed on Google.
In most cases, you can even explore the data present on the profile.
Google therefore lets you browse LinkedIn without having to create a LinkedIn account.
Cool.
Find LinkedIn profiles anonymously
When you visit someone's profile on LinkedIn, they know it.
If you use a basic LinkedIn account, you can see the last 5 people who visited your LinkedIn profile.
If you have a premium account, you have full access to:
- A graph with the number of profiles day by day for the last 365 days
- The exhaustive list of viewers who visited your profile
So, how can you view a profile discreetly?
Searching profiles with LinkedIn allows you to visit profiles anonymously.
To visit a LinkedIn profile anonymously from a Google search:
- Open a window in private browsing.
- Do a Google search.
- Visit LinkedIn profile.
Et voilà!
You have all the information, but no one knows.
Search for keywords throughout the body of the LinkedIn page
LinkedIn Keyword Search Is Limited to some fields:
- Name
- Job title
- Diploma
With Google, you can search for keywords throughout the body of the page.
On his LinkedIn profile, we find in the section About, this sequence of keywords:
With a LinkedIn search, the keyword search does not return any results.
On the contrary, an appropriate Google search returns directly the person concerned.
This little detail is about to become crucial.
How to find LinkedIn profiles + Emails with Google?
What immediately comes to mind is to do a basic search:
But the result is quite disappointing.
So how exactly do you find LinkedIn profiles from Google?
Find LinkedIn profiles from Google with the site operator
It is very simple.
For example:
We find:
- Only LinkedIn profiles
- Keyword marketing in profile title
- Keyword marketing in profile content
Do you only want profiles that have a given keyword in the title?
Find LinkedIn profiles from Google with the intitle operator
For example:
And there you have it, we find a list of profiles, with the word marketing still present in the title.
But how do you get emails, for example to activate a lead generation sequence or a recruitment campaign?
Find LinkedIn profiles from Google with emails
We will simply add the suffix of a generic email address to our search query, for example:
- @yahoo.com
- @outlook.com
- @hotmail.com
- @aol.com
- @icloud.com
- @mail.com
- @protonmail.com
OK, now how to export all of this to a Google Sheet?
How to export Google search results?
Having all these profiles is good, but how do you export that into a properly structured CSV file?
Export results with lobstr Google Search Scraper
You can use our powerful Google Search Scraper.
To export your Google SERPs to a CSV file:
- Do a Google search and copy the search URL.
- Create a Google Search Scraper squid on lobstr.io.
- Click on Launch.
- Retrieve data.
First of all do a search on Google, and copy the search URL.
Here the URL is:
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinkedin.com%2Fin%2F%20intitle%3Amarketing%20%22%40gmail.com%22&gl=us&uule=w+CAIQICIYV2FzaGluZ3RvbixVbml0ZWQgU3RhdGVz&hl=en
For a complete tutorial, including advanced scraping features, check our dedicated article: How to Scrape Google Search Results for Free [2024 Edition].
And there you go!
You will see the scraper recover all the search results, one by one.
The scraper goes fast, with almost 100 results per minute.
And there you have it, the results are superb:
- 300 lines of data
- Neatly displayed in a CSV
However, one limitation remains: no email field.
How to isolate the email in a particular field?
Isolate email from search results with Google Sheet and a regex
To export the email in a separate column:
- Create a Google Sheet.
- Copy and paste the information from the CSV downloaded previously.
- Create a column next to description.
- Call it email.
Then, in this column, enter the following formula:
And there you have it, you have a file with 300 LinkedIn profile URLs, and 144 email addresses.
However, the file does contain only 300 lines.
Is it expected?
Limitations of searching LinkedIn profiles and emails with Google
Google search is flexible and fast, but it also has its limitations.
Max 300 results per Google Search
First, every Google search returns a maximum of 300 results.
No more no less.
This is unfortunately a hard search limit imposed by Google. Impossible to push back.
Limited Google Search filters
- Industry
- Profile language
- School
- Company Name
- Company Size
- Localisation
- First name
- Name
- Keywords
- Boolean operators
With Google, it’s only based on keywords.
It is therefore limited.
2% of email addresses
With a Google export, you only retrieve emails publicly available on the LinkedIn profiles.
Google returns results that contain exactly the email address in the body of the page.
However, according to our empirical figures, 98% of profiles on LinkedIn do not include their email address on their profile.
98% of LinkedIn profiles email addresses are inaccessible with this method.
So how can we go further?
And up to 80%+ valid professional email addresses.
Google had better watch out.
FAQ
Why are there so many LinkedIn profiles publicly accessible on Google?
LinkedIn voluntarily encouraged Google to index all profiles on the platform.
This allows them to appear in Google search results as soon as someone types in a member's name or occupation.
It's about an acquisition strategy also known as Programmatic SEO.
There is something to be truly proud of.
How to make your LinkedIn profile public on Google?
To update your LinkedIn profile visibility:
- Navigate to Settings & Privacy.
- In the left column, select the Visibility tab, then choose Edit your public profile.
- Under the Edit Visibility section, turn on the visibility of your profile to the public.
When will my LinkedIn profile show on Google?
It is necessary to usually count 2 weeks so that your LinkedIn profile appears on Google.
Co-founder @ lobstr.io since 2019. Genuine data avid and lowercase aesthetic observer. Ensure you get the hot data you need.