The confusion about how to message “Found you via Linkedin profile” is very common among LinkedIn users. It’s not clear what the wording means, and as a result some people just leave it off entirely because of the lack of direction from Linkedin itself on this subject matter.
“Found you via LinkedIn profile”
This user saw that others who searched for their own profiles also looked at X, Y, or Z (the right sidebar of our profile). If you see this in your “Who viewed your profile settings, it means that the person has found you after seeing one of your suggestions on someone else’s profile or by being connected with an existing friend who clicked through from them already.

Where does that message show?
When you scroll down your dashboard section on your profile and click “Who viewed my profile?” You’ll be able to see who’s watching while also learning how they found out about that person!
Where can you be seen on other users’ profiles?
There are a number of places you may appear on someone else’s profile page. This includes:
- People Also Viewed
- Articles & Activity
- Skills & Endorsements
The majority of your profile views will come from the “Viewers who also viewed this page” section. This is a widget on the right-hand side (desktop) or bottom section for mobile users to see how many times their favorite pages have been seen by others!
What is a good next step for you when someone found you via their Linkedin profile?
When you receive a notification that someone found your profile on Linkedin, the best course of action is to take whatever they say with a grain (or two) of salt. If the visitor is a first-degree connection then use this as an excuse for conversation starters; if not? Go ahead and send them one or two messages thanking them specifically for how awesome his/her research was before moving forward!

Other messages you can see when users visited your Linkedin profile:
“Found you via the homepage”: that means your profile was shown in their profile as a result of maybe you liked their content.
“Found you via LinkedIn search”: You must be really popular on LinkedIn because someone searched for your name or an attribute in your Linkedin profile you are ranking for and looked up your profile!
“Found you via My Network”: the user was already in your network and search for you.
“Found you via Messaging”: you have sent the user who viewed your profile a message before.
“Found via LinkedIn Company Pages”: this means someone found you via a LinkedIn Page liked by you, commented by you or you listed as your workplace.
“Found you via Google search”: you can’t underestimate the power of LinkedIn. When a user searches on Google and you pop up, their passage through your profile is an indication that they found what they have been searching for! The more time someone spends engaging with our content, the higher chance there will be for them to search us up later when we share information about other companies who might be able to help out too.
See also what Linkedin writes about the search on their site.