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.

https://x.com/StephenAW_Esq/status/1639235619330347008

And that’s normal: Google has indexed almost all of the profiles present on LinkedIn.

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?

Advanced filters, categories, Boolean operators: LinkedIn offers an exceptionally advanced search engine, complete and powerful.

So why bother using Google?

Using Google to Find LinkedIn Profiles has at least 3 advantages:

1. Find LinkedIn profiles without having to log in
2. Find LinkedIn profiles anonymously
3. 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.

Howerver lots of people don't want to create a LinkedIn account.

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:

1. A graph with the number of profiles day by day for the last 365 days
2. 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:

1. Open a window in private browsing.
2. Do a Google search.
3. 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:

1. Name
2. Job title
3. Diploma

With Google, you can search for keywords throughout the body of the page.

For example, Laure Browne, new CEO at Veja.

On his LinkedIn profile, we find in the section About, this sequence of keywords:

To serve long term sustainable economic performances

With a LinkedIn search, the keyword search does not return any results.

On the contrary, an appropriate Google search returns directly the person concerned.

In other words, when Google indexed LinkedIn pages, it saved the entire body of the page. And you can find the page using any keyword present on the page.

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:

marketing linkedin

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.

To find LinkedIn profiles from Google, simply type site:linkedin.com/in/ and the keyword of your choice.

For example:

site:linkedin.com/in/ marketing

We find:

1. Only LinkedIn profiles
2. Keyword marketing in profile title
3. 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

You can use the intitle operator.

For example:

site:linkedin.com/in/ intitle:marketing

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:

site:linkedin.com/in/ intitle:marketing "@gmail.com"

And we find many LinkedIn profiles, which have marketing in the title of their profile, and an email address in their description.

Of course we used @gmail.com but we can imagine using all the other usual email address suffixes:

1. @yahoo.com
2. @outlook.com
3. @hotmail.com
4. @aol.com
5. @icloud.com
6. @mail.com
7. @protonmail.com

You can also ask ChatGPT an exhaustive list, it does that very good.

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:

1. Do a Google search and copy the search URL.
2. Create a Google Search Scraper squid on lobstr.io.
3. Click on Launch.
4. 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

Now go to lobstr.io, create an account (if not already done), and click on Create a new squid.

Then type google search in the search bar.

Then click on Google Search Scraper.

In the Add tasks part — paste the previously saved URL.

Then click on Add+ then Save&Exit.

Finally click on Launch.

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.

Once the data is recovered, click Download.

And there you have it, the results are superb:

1. 300 lines of data
2. 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:

1. Create a Google Sheet.
2. Copy and paste the information from the CSV downloaded previously.
3. Create a column next to description.
4. Call it email.

Then, in this column, enter the following formula:

=REGEXEXTRACT(F2,"\w+\@gmail\.com")

And there you have it, you have a file with 300 LinkedIn profile URLs, and 144 email addresses.

The Google Sheet is publicly accessible here.

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.

1. Max 300 results per Google search
2. Limited Google Search filters
3. 2% of email addresses

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

LinkedIn proposed a powerful search engine with numerous filters:

1. Industry
2. Profile language
3. School
4. Company Name
5. Company Size
6. Localisation
7. First name
8. Name
9. Keywords
10. 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?

With our Sales Navigator Leads Scraper, push the limits further with no effort.

Export LinkedIn Sales Navigator search results directly to a CSV file, with up to 2,500 results per Sales Nav search.

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.

https://x.com/sarthakgh/status/1551349998973030400

There is something to be truly proud of.

How to make your LinkedIn profile public on Google?

To update your LinkedIn profile visibility:

1. Navigate to Settings & Privacy.
2. In the left column, select the Visibility tab, then choose Edit your public profile.
3. 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.