A LinkedIn banner is easy to change, but small mistakes make it look careless, and it is the first thing recruiters and clients see on your profile. These are the eight problems we see most often, with a fix for each.
1. Keeping the default background
The default pattern signals an unfinished profile. Even a simple, relevant photo with no text is an improvement. Fix: pick a background from your profession's category in our banner maker and download it, which takes about two minutes.
2. Text hidden behind the profile photo
Your profile picture covers the lower-left part of the banner, so anything written there is hidden. Fix: align text to the right. Our tool does this automatically.
3. The wrong aspect ratio
Uploading a normal 16:9 or 4:3 photo forces LinkedIn to crop most of it away, often cutting through faces or text. Fix: use an image exactly 1584 × 396 px (4:1). See the size guide.
4. Blurry or pixelated images
Small images are stretched to fill the banner and look soft, especially on large monitors. Fix: start with a photo at least 1584 px wide. Unsplash images used in our tool are high resolution.
5. Too much text
Full sentences, skill lists and several contact details shrink to an unreadable size on mobile. Fix: one name line and one short second line. Our guide on what to write on your banner has short formulas.
6. Low contrast
White text on a bright sky or dark text on a dark photo is almost invisible. Fix: choose a photo with a darker or calmer right-hand side. The gradient overlay in our tool helps, but cannot rescue a very bright, busy image. More in our readability tips.
7. Using images you do not have rights to
Logos of past employers, film stills and photos taken from a Google image search are usually copyrighted. Fix: use your own photos or properly licensed ones. Every background in our tool is from Unsplash, whose licence permits free use.
8. Never checking it on a phone
A banner that looks perfect on a laptop can be cropped or unreadable on a phone. Fix: after uploading, open your profile in the LinkedIn mobile app and check every word is visible and readable.
Bonus: forgetting to update it
A banner that says “Open to work” months after you have started a new job, or that mentions an old employer, confuses visitors. Review your banner whenever you update your headline.
Make your banner now: the free Social Banner Maker exports a ready-to-upload 1584 × 396 PNG in under a minute, with no sign-up.