LinkedIn Pulse is LinkedIn’s built-in publishing platform that lets any user write and publish long-form articles directly on the site. Originally launched as a separate news-reading app, Pulse was integrated into LinkedIn’s main platform in 2014 when the company opened its publishing tools to all users. Today, “Pulse” as a standalone brand has largely faded, but the article-publishing feature it introduced remains a core part of LinkedIn.
How Pulse Became LinkedIn Articles
Before 2014, only a small group of influencers could publish long-form content on LinkedIn. The Pulse app, which LinkedIn had acquired in 2013, was a news aggregation tool that curated professional content. In February 2014, LinkedIn merged Pulse’s capabilities into the main platform and gave every user the ability to write full articles, not just short status updates. Over time, LinkedIn stopped using the “Pulse” name and simply calls the feature “articles.” If you see older guides or marketing advice referencing “LinkedIn Pulse,” they’re talking about the same article-publishing tool that exists on LinkedIn today.
Articles vs. Regular Posts
LinkedIn gives you two ways to share written content: posts and articles. A regular post is a short update (up to 3,000 characters) that appears in your connections’ feeds. An article is a full-length piece with no practical word limit, a cover image, rich formatting, embedded media, and its own permanent URL. Think of posts as social media updates and articles as blog entries hosted on LinkedIn.
Articles live on a dedicated “Articles” tab on your profile, so visitors can browse everything you’ve published. They’re also indexed by search engines, which means people can find your article through Google, not just through LinkedIn’s feed.
How to Publish an Article
To write an article, click “Write article” in the share box near the top of your LinkedIn homepage. If you manage a company’s LinkedIn Page as a Super admin or Content admin, you’ll see a “Publish as” option that lets you choose between posting from your personal profile or the company Page.
The editor is straightforward. You can drag in or upload a cover image at the top, then type your title and body text below it. A toolbar lets you add images, video, hyperlinks, code snippets, and embedded content throughout the piece. When you’re finished, click “Next” and then “Publish.” LinkedIn also offers a scheduling option: click the clock icon next to the Publish button to set a future date and time. Before the article goes live, you can add a short text commentary that will appear alongside the article link in your network’s feed.
SEO Settings for Articles
LinkedIn articles are public by default and get indexed by Google. To improve how your article appears in search results, LinkedIn provides two SEO fields you can fill in before publishing. The SEO title replaces your article’s headline on search engine result pages (keep it under 60 characters or it will be cut off). The SEO description replaces the default preview text that search engines pull from your article’s opening lines. LinkedIn recommends including relevant keywords and keeping descriptions between 140 and 160 characters.
These settings give you some control over how your content looks when someone finds it through a Google search, which is something regular LinkedIn posts don’t offer.
Analytics Available to Authors
Every article you publish comes with detailed performance data. LinkedIn breaks this into several categories that go well beyond simple view counts.
- Article views: The total number of times your article was seen on LinkedIn or via email notifications.
- Impressions and reach: Impressions count how many times the article appeared in feeds, while “members reached” shows the number of distinct people who saw it.
- Engagement metrics: Reactions, comments, reposts, saves, and sends (when someone shares your article via LinkedIn messaging).
- Reader demographics: LinkedIn shows you the job titles, locations, companies, company sizes, industries, and seniority levels of the people viewing your article. Guest views from non-logged-in users are excluded from this data.
- Profile activity: You can see how many people visited your profile after reading the article and how many new followers you gained from it.
- Link clicks: If your article contains external links, LinkedIn tracks the total number of clicks on those links, including repeat clicks from the same person.
If your article is part of a LinkedIn newsletter, you also get email-specific metrics: the number of subscribers who received an email notification and the percentage who opened it.
Who Benefits from Publishing Articles
LinkedIn articles work best for people who want to establish expertise in their professional field. Job seekers use them to demonstrate knowledge that a resume can’t convey. Consultants and freelancers publish articles to attract potential clients who are searching for specific topics. Marketers use the platform to reach LinkedIn’s professional audience without needing a separate blog or website.
The demographic analytics are particularly useful for anyone trying to reach a specific professional audience. If you’re a B2B consultant writing about supply chain strategy, you can see whether your readers are actually supply chain managers at mid-size companies or entry-level students. That feedback loop helps you adjust your topics and tone over time.
Newsletters and Articles
LinkedIn also lets you turn your articles into a recurring newsletter. When you create a newsletter, LinkedIn members can subscribe to it and receive email notifications each time you publish a new edition. This is a significant advantage over standalone articles, which rely on LinkedIn’s algorithm to appear in your connections’ feeds. With a newsletter, your subscribers get a direct notification, and you can track open rates alongside your standard article analytics.
When publishing, you choose whether a piece goes out as an individual article or as a new edition of your newsletter. Both use the same editor and formatting tools.