LinkedIn allows 220 characters for a headline, but most places people see it, search results, comments, connection requests and messages, show only the start before cutting it off. So the first few words do the work: the job you want, then the field that narrows it, then one short proof. Around 100 to 140 characters is plenty, and the rest is a bonus.
Most people write their headline to fill the box, then never think about it again. The box holds 220 characters, so that's roughly how much gets written. The problem is that almost nobody ever sees all 220. What gets read is the opening, and most headlines spend it on the wrong things entirely, which is how a strong career turns into a line nobody clicks.
Why doesn't the 220-character limit matter?
Because it isn't the number that governs how a headline gets read. In most places a headline appears, LinkedIn shows only the start and cuts the rest with an ellipsis, and how much survives depends on where it is shown: less on a phone, more on a wide desktop screen, different again in a comment or a notification. A headline written for all 220 characters is written for a view almost nobody gets.
This isn't a quirk worth fighting. Interfaces cut long text everywhere, because a results page or a notification card only has so much room, and the fix is never to argue with the interface. It's to put what matters first and treat the rest as a bonus for anyone who reads further.
Where does a LinkedIn headline get cut off?
In every place that matters more than the profile page itself. Search results show the shortened version. So do comments on other people's posts, connection request previews, and the preview above a message before it's opened. On a phone, where a large share of scrolling and searching happens, the cut comes sooner still.
A recruiter scanning forty search results in an afternoon reads the first few words of each and makes a keep-or-skip decision on that alone, before opening a single profile. Search itself reads the whole headline, so the rest still helps you be found. But whatever isn't in those first words doesn't help you be chosen, and being chosen is what earns the click.
How do you write a LinkedIn headline?
Three things, in order of priority. First, the target role, the job title as a recruiter would search for it, not an internal or invented title nobody types into a search bar. Second, the industry or function that narrows it, so the headline isn't competing with everyone who has ever held that title. Third, one short credibility signal, a number or a scope that makes the claim concrete rather than generic.
Before: "Finance Director | Strategic Thinker | Passionate About Numbers"
After: "VP Finance | SaaS Scale-Ups | Led 2 Funding Rounds, Series A to C"
The first version spends its opening on a self-description that could sit on thousands of other profiles unchanged. The second puts the target level first, the sector second and a credential a hiring manager can picture third, so whatever the screen cuts, the part that survives is the part that matters.
How long should a LinkedIn headline be?
Long enough to carry those three things, and no longer. FutureDay's LinkedIn Optimiser writes headlines of 100 to 140 characters: the target role first, then the field, then one claim carrying at most one figure. That leaves room under LinkedIn's 220 without turning the line into a list, because a headline that stacks three achievements reads as keywords, and none of them lands.
Two more rules are worth borrowing. Never count your years in a headline, because a reader does the maths before they reach your value, and seniority already shows through the role and the scope. And write the headline for the job you want next, not the one you have, since that is the search you need to appear in.
What should a headline never be spent on?
A handful of things reliably waste the words that matter most. The current employer's name, unless it's a recognisable brand that adds credibility on its own; an unfamiliar company name means nothing to a stranger. An internal job title nobody outside the company would search for, since a recruiter searches the market-standard version of a role. The phrase "seeking new opportunities," which tells a reader nothing about what those opportunities are, and which anyone looking while still employed should never put in public anyway. Self-descriptive adjectives, since "passionate," "dedicated" and "dynamic" add characters and remove meaning at the same time. And naming five or six possible target roles at once, which signals uncertainty rather than range and hands the reader the narrowing the headline was meant to do.
None of this means the rest of the 220 characters is wasted. Anyone who clicks through reads it, so a phrase that didn't fit up front can live there. It just isn't where the headline's work gets done. That happens in the first few words, every time, whether the person writing it realises it or not.
Where FutureDay fits
FutureDay's LinkedIn Optimiser writes your headline from your resume and shows it in a live preview, so you can see which words land first before you paste it in. Not quite right? Try another version, or tell it what to change.
LinkedIn allows 220 characters, but in search results, comments, connection requests and messages only the start of a headline shows.
The first words should carry, in order: the target role as a recruiter would search for it, the field that narrows it, and one short proof.
Around 100 to 140 characters is enough; one claim with one figure beats a list, and a count of years works against you.
Leave out the employer's name, internal titles, "seeking new opportunities", self-descriptive adjectives and a string of possible roles.
21 pages, a 15-minute read
