Sometimes you need to remove a LinkedIn connection to improve your professional network. You might want to remove an irrelevant contact, end an unwanted connection or deal with a fraudulent profile. In this article, we explain how to remove a LinkedIn connection and what to keep in mind.
Why should you remove a LinkedIn connection?
There are several reasons why it can make sense to remove a LinkedIn connection:
- Irrelevant contacts: You may have people in your network from fields that do not fit your professional focus. For example, a marketing manager may get little value from a connection who works as a painter.
- Accidental requests: Sometimes LinkedIn connection requests are sent or accepted by mistake. These can be easily removed without causing further misunderstandings.
- Suspicious profiles: If you suspect a LinkedIn profile is fraudulent or fake, you should remove it from your network.
- Unwanted messages: If a connection repeatedly asks you about something you are not interested in or contacts you inappropriately, it is best to remove them.
- Excessive requests: If a connection constantly asks for your attention or sends you many requests that are not relevant to you, consider removing them.
What happens when you remove a LinkedIn connection?
After you remove a LinkedIn connection, that person will no longer appear in your connection suggestions. Any skill endorsements they gave you will also be deleted, even if you reconnect later. If you only want to hide a connection’s activity, you can click “Unfollow” instead of removing the connection entirely.
How can you delete a LinkedIn connection?
There are two simple methods for removing a LinkedIn connection:
- First method:
- On the home page, click the “My Network” tab.
- Select “Connections” on the left.
- Find the person you want to remove.
- Click the three dots “…” next to the connection and select “Remove connection”.
- Confirm your decision in the dialog box that appears.
- Second method:
- Go to the profile page of the connection you want to remove.
- Click “More…” and then “Remove connection”.
How can you remove a LinkedIn connection without them noticing?
If you want to remove a LinkedIn connection without the person noticing, you can first enable “Private mode” under “Settings & Privacy”. This way, the person will not be notified that you viewed their profile or removed the connection. This approach gives you more discretion if you prefer it.
Why is removing LinkedIn connections important?
Removing irrelevant or unwanted connections from your network is an important step in improving your LinkedIn profile. A well-curated network is essential to your professional development and visibility on the platform. By removing unnecessary connections, you can make your profile more effective and focus on relevant, high-quality contacts.
Before you tidy up your network, look at who is in it. For recruiters, first-degree connections are the talent pool they contact first when a new role opens up. For job seekers, they are the people who should know you want to change jobs before a position is advertised. CompLeadly sends messages to your first-degree connections. In the free version, this is a basic feature with a limit of 10 messages per day. To add people you have not connected with yet, you can use a search in LinkedIn, Sales Navigator or Recruiter Lite (separate licence). The app then handles the profile visit, connection request, message and follow-up. So remove the connections that actually cause you problems, not the ones you do not need right now. Read more: Managing your talent pool as a recruiter it and enter it Open to Work for people looking to change jobs.
Conclusion:
Removing LinkedIn connections is a simple way to clean up your professional network and make sure only relevant people are connected to your profile. Whether you want to get rid of unwanted connections or protect yourself from fraudulent profiles, it is important to maintain your network regularly. Use the methods above to remove unwanted connections discreetly and improve your LinkedIn presence.
Want to remove your entire account rather than individual connections? This guide can help: Delete LinkedIn profile.
shows you how it works and where to find your code in the app.
Why every first-degree connection matters for your outreach before you remove them is explained in the knowledge base article Delete contacts on LinkedIn.
