← Blog 🌐 Linkedin

Approaching the LinkedIn Commercial Use Limit on Search? Do This Now.

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools for professionals looking to prospect through its extensive search engine. However, to prevent users from abuse and spam, LinkedIn has implemented a “commercial use limit” to ensure everybody has a positive experience.

But, if you’re looking to get after those potential prospects, you might need to think of creative ways to work around this limit. We’ll discuss the reason behind the search limit, then its rough parameters, then give you a few options for continuing your prospecting efforts.

What Is the Commercial Use Limit on LinkedIn Search?

Long story short, LinkedIn doesn’t want people using their free accounts to exploit its tremendous database of professionals. Since free accounts are considered personal accounts, they want to discourage people from running an inordinate amount of searches or blasting out bulk invites to too many people in a given time period.

LinkedIn’s User Agreement specifically says that individual accounts are intended for personal use only and not for “sending unsolicited emails, mail, or other communications, or for any commercial or marketing purposes.”

And that’s not unreasonable. We’re bombarded all day, every day, with ads and spam, and unwanted advances. So, it makes sense that LinkedIn is doing the best it can to prevent this kind of behavior.

The issue is that may also cut into your prospecting or job-hunting efforts. So, let’s take a look at roughly how many searches you can run and where the limits are.

How Many Searches Can You Run With LinkedIn’s Commercial Use Limit?

Sources tend to agree that this number is somewhere around 300 searches per month. Of course, there’s no heads-up display with a counter you can keep track of, so it may be hard to know where you stand.

There is, however, a pop-up warning that you may have already seen (and that’s why you’re here), which is, “You’re approaching the commercial use limit on search,” followed by a suggestion to try one of LinkedIn’s Premium services. More on that shortly.

What Do I Do if I’ve Reached the Commercial Use Limit?

First of all, don’t worry – there’s nothing to panic about. This lockout isn’t a full lockout of your account. It only applies to:

Search bar searches for LinkedIn profiles using keyword search terms and filters
The ability to click profiles on the “People Also Viewed” tab on the right hand side

And, as mentioned above, the limit resets as of the 1st of the following month.

That being said, if you’ve reached the limit or are nearing it, here are a few ways to bypass the limit legitimately.

How Can I Bypass the Commercial Use Limit If I’m Locked (Or Almost Locked) Out?

Yes, you could invest in one of LinkedIn’s premium products, and then the commercial use limits disappear, but not everybody has the option or the budget to shell out for Sales Navigator or Recruiter Lite.

So, what can you do? Here are some options that allow you to work around the problem with just a little bit more effort:

Check Out Your “People You May Know” Page

Just in case you didn’t know, the “People You May Know” page is a feature on LinkedIn that suggests potential connections based on your current network, job title, industry, and other factors. It’s essentially a list of people LinkedIn thinks you might know or be interested in connecting with.

You can access the “People You May Know” page by clicking on the “My Network” tab in the top menu bar and then selecting “People You May Know” from the dropdown menu. From there, you’ll be able to view a list of suggested connections, along with their job titles, industries, and locations.

Search for Contacts by Name

If you already know the contact’s name that you’d like to connect with, the system does not prevent you from searching their name. While this isn’t something you can really scale, it’s good to know that if you have a lead, the lock on your account won’t prevent you from connecting through LinkedIn.

Browse Your First Degree Connections

Likewise, browsing connections on your connected page that are first-degree contacts won’t count against you. Again, this makes sense that you can reach out and connect with first-degree connections because there’s a much lower chance a closer connection will be a spam risk.

Grab a Free Trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator

It might be worth considering either investing in Sales Navigator or starting your free trial, especially if you’re doing heavy prospecting. Many of its users argue that it pays for itself if you’re making connections and growing your business.

The best part is that you can use tools like Wiza to supercharge your efforts and export lead contact information right from your LinkedIn search. Yes, even if it is a Sales Navigator or Recruiter Lite free trial.

How Wiza Can Help – Even With a Free Trial Version of LinkedIn Premium

Wiza is an easy-to-use tool that, once you’ve created a free account, allows you to obtain accurate, verified contact information for your prospects straight out of LinkedIn. You can run your search in LinkedIn, then download contact data directly through the app as a CSV. Have a CRM? Wiza integrates with many of the major platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive, so syncing your fresh data couldn’t be easier!

With Wiza’s real-time data point verification, you can get access to over 30 potential data points. And, with live SMTP verification, you can know if an email address is currently active.