LinkedIn Site Makeover: What's New

LinkedIn wants you to spend more time on its site, and it hopes that a redesign of its homepage and profile sections will inspire you to do just that.

The social network unveiled the new looks this week, which focus on simplicity, usability, and content. These updates will roll out gradually to all users through the beginning of 2015.

"We want to make it easier for LinkedIn members to connect with what matters most to them professionally -- whether it's understanding how they're doing on LinkedIn, connecting and maintaining their network, or getting knowledge that helps them do their jobs better," Leslie Hobbs, LinkedIn's head of content and community projects, said in an email.

The new homepage doesn't introduce any radical new features, but it showcases a cleaner design with some reorganization. It cuts down the information displayed in your news feed, for example, and it places profile analytics and content that connections share front and center.

[Improve your LinkedIn profile and position yourself for what's next. Read LinkedIn Tips: 10 Steps To A Stronger Profile.]

Profiles, on the other hand, get some new features that make it easier for users to edit. These include a button that shows you what your profile looks like to others, updated editing tools, and keyword tips to improve your profile's SEO.

Here's a closer look at what's new.

Changes to your homepage

A new dashboard: LinkedIn added a new dashboard to the top of your homepage that highlights how many people have viewed both your profile and your latest updates. Clicking either of them will send you to those pages for more information, such as your profile rank and your post statistics.

The new dashboard also gives you a quick-access link to make changes to your profile. The "Edit Profile" option from the main LinkedIn menu still exists; this one just makes it easier to access from your homepage.

"Keep in Touch" slider: You'll find a new box in the top right of your homepage called "Keep in Touch." This box features news snippets from your network and gives you quick options to interact with them. If a connection has a work anniversary, for example, you could like or comment on it, or skip it, which will load a new tidbit from your network.

Hobbs said LinkedIn surfaces the news featured in this box based on "relevance signals," such as timing. "When something fresh happens like a job change, a mention in the news, a promotion -- you'll see it there and can quickly get back in touch with those connections."

Once you flip through the slider, the Keep in Touch box suggests other people you might want to connect with.

A separate activity feed: Previously, your activity feed showed you everything happening in your network: posts from influencers, content that connections shared, work anniversaries, and more. By separating network updates and

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