Physical Address
3 Midland Drive, Kingston 10, St Andrew
Have you ever poured hours into crafting a LinkedIn post, only to watch it vanish into the feed with barely any views, likes, or comments? If the answer is yes, this article will help you understand how the LinkedIn algorithm 2025 works, why this happens, and how you can use this knowledge to your advantage as an SMB decision maker.
Article Table of Contents
- Introduction: The LinkedIn Engagement Dilemma
- Why Great Posts Get Buried While Older Posts Resurface
- How LinkedIn’s Algorithm Really Works in 2025
- Is This an Algorithm Problem or a Go-To-Market Problem?
- Common Mistakes SMBs and Marketing Teams Make
- Proven Strategies to Earn Meaningful Reach Consistently
- Metrics That Really Matter
- A 14-Day Playbook for Small & Medium Businesses
- Final Thoughts: The Algorithm Rewards Usefulness
If you’re a business owner or a marketing lead, this will feel familiar: your team ships a smart LinkedIn post; thoughtful hook, sharp visual, relevant to your niche and engagement barely trickles in. Two weeks later, a random update resurfaces in your feed and gets traction. What gives?
Below, I’ll demystify what the algorithm values right now, why solid posts still underperform, and how small and midsize teams can earn consistent reach without gaming the system.
Why are “great” posts getting buried while older posts resurface?
The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.
Tom Fishburne
Short answer: LinkedIn optimizes for relevance and meaningfulness, not “newest first”—and it’s been doubling down on that in 2025.
In mid-June, LinkedIn began testing feed changes that sometimes elevate older posts if they’re more professionally relevant to you (based on your relationships, interests, and creator expertise). That’s why your feed may show high-signal posts from 1–3 weeks ago.
For marketers, that’s good news: quality content can keep compounding, if it continues to attract qualified engagement from the right people.
What does the LinkedIn algorithm actually look for today?
Think of LinkedIn’s feed as a large-scale ranking system that scores each potential post for each member. Several families of signals matter:
-
- Model quality improvements – LinkedIn’s production ranking framework (LiRank) blends modern architectures (Transformers, Residual DCN) to predict the right content for each member more efficiently. Translation: the system is getting better at pairing niche content with the right audience.
-
- Dwell time (attention) – how long people actually spend with your post, both on the feed and after they click. It’s an explicit signal LinkedIn’s engineering team uses to judge real interest (not just drive-by likes). engineering.linkedin.com
-
- Personal relevance – how closely a topic matches a member’s past behavior, relationships, and professional interests. Social Media Dashboard
-
- Early, meaningful interactions – insightful comments and quality reactions in the early window often predict broader distribution. Social Media Dashboard
Is the LinkedIn algorithm problem or a go-to-market problem?
Many SMB teams face a distribution constraint, not a creativity deficit. If your network is small or loosely connected, your post won’t trigger enough early signals to warrant broader distribution—even if the idea is strong. Meanwhile, LinkedIn’s shift toward professional relevance means generic “inspirational” posts are less likely to travel outside your immediate network unless they demonstrate expertise or spark real conversation.
What specific mistakes are holding SMBs and marketing teams back?
Q: Are we posting when our audience isn’t there?
If your decision makers check LinkedIn weekday mornings or early afternoons, but you publish at off-hours, you miss the early interaction window that helps posts scale. Use your own analytics to find actual audience-online patterns; general “best times” are a starting point, not a rule.
Q: Are we optimizing for clicks over attention?
Click-bait titles can earn taps but low dwell time. The algorithm cares about whether people stay with your content—on the feed and after the click. Craft posts people read, save, or discuss.
Q: Are we chasing virality instead of relevance?
LinkedIn has long prioritized niche, high-quality professional conversations over broad, viral fluff. If your content doesn’t map to your buyers’ problems, it’s unlikely to travel far.
How do we earn meaningful reach consistently (without a huge following)?
Q: What formats and structures keep attention longer?
-
- Hook → insight → takeaway in 7–12 lines for text posts; add a clear visual (diagram, carousel) when it truly clarifies the point.
-
- Teach one thing per post and end with a narrow question (not “Thoughts?” but “Where does this break in a 3-person sales team?”) to invite expert comments—gold for the algorithm. Practitioner guides confirm these tactics align with how the feed rewards usefulness.
Q: When should we link out?
If the goal is distribution and discussion, keep the core value in-feed and place external links in a comment or at the end after value is delivered. This helps maintain dwell time and reduces premature drop-offs. (Multiple platform guides reflect this best practice.)
Q: How should leaders participate?
Have subject-matter experts (founder, head of ops, lead consultant) publish under their profiles, not just the company page. Decision makers engage with people they trust; LinkedIn’s system recognizes creator expertise and relationship strength when deciding what to show.
Q: How do we “prime the pump” without being spammy?
Engage 10–15 minutes before and after you post with accounts you want to reach (comment thoughtfully, not “great post”). This builds relationship signals that improve the odds your content is seen by those same people. Platform explainers and creator studies consistently emphasize early, quality interactions.
What should we measure if “likes” aren’t the north star?
Track attention and qualified actions: average watch/read time (for video or document posts), saves, replies from ICP accounts, inbound DMs, and profile/company page visits that lead to meetings. This aligns with LinkedIn algorithm ongoing shift from vanity metrics toward meaningful outcomes for professionals.
A simple 14-day playbook for SMB decision makers
-
- Map 3 buyer problems you solve. Turn each into a mini-series (3–4 posts each).
- Format for dwell: concise hook, concrete example, 1 visual, 1 narrow question. engineering.linkedin.com
- Post at audience-active windows (based on your data). Buffer
- Prime: comment on 5 relevant posts pre-publication; follow-up: respond to every thoughtful comment within 2 hours. Social Media Dashboard
- Review analytics weekly and double down on topics that drive saves, replies, and qualified profile visits (not just reactions). Business Insider
Final thoughts: The LinkedIn algorithm rewards usefulness
Under the hood, LinkedIn algorithm continually upgrades its ranking models (see LiRank) to surface content people value in their professional lives. Your competitive edge isn’t posting more, but posting useful, specific, and timely insights to the right people and making it easy for them to respond.
If you’d like a done-for-you, LinkedIn-native acquisition or an effective Marketing funnel tailored to your ICP and sales cycle, visit our landing page to see how we make this possible that compound reach and leads on LinkedIn, without guesswork
