How to Filter Location on LinkedIn

Trying to find professionals in a specific city on LinkedIn can feel surprisingly complicated if you don’t know where to look. Whether you're a recruiter searching for local talent, a salesperson mapping out a territory, or a business owner looking to network in a new area, zeroing in by location is fundamental. This guide breaks down exactly how to filter location on LinkedIn, from basic searches to advanced strategies that will help you find exactly who you’re looking for, wherever they are.

Why Filtering by Location on LinkedIn is a Game-Changer

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Pinpointing professionals by location isn't just about finding people nearby. It’s a strategic move that can dramatically improve your professional efforts. Here are a few common scenarios where location filtering becomes invaluable:

• Talent Acquisition: Recruiters can source candidates within a commutable distance for on-site roles or find talent in specific tech hubs for remote positions.
• Sales and Business Development: A sales rep can build a list of prospects in their designated territory, making it easier to schedule in-person meetings and understand the local market.
• Hyper-Local Networking: If you're new to a city or attending a conference, you can find and connect with local industry leaders before you even arrive.
• Market Research: Understanding the density of certain job titles in a specific area can give you a read on the competition or identify new market opportunities.
• Local Brand Building: Engaging with prospects, creators, and professionals in your immediate area helps build community and strengthens your local brand presence.

Whatever your goal, mastering LinkedIn's location filters will make your efforts more targeted and effective.

The Standard Way: How to Filter People by Location

Let's start with the most common method: finding people using LinkedIn's standard search filters. This is available to all users, both free and premium. The process is straightforward, but a few small details can make a big difference.

Step-by-Step Guide to Basic Location Filtering

1. Start Your Search: Go to the search bar at the top of your LinkedIn homepage. Type a keyword related to your search, like a job title ("Graphic Designer"), a skill ("Python"), or a company.
2. Filter by "People": After you hit Enter, your search results will show a mix of everything - people, posts, jobs, etc. Directly under the search bar, you'll see a row of filters. Click on "People" to narrow your results to only show individual profiles.
3. Open All Filters: On the right side of the filter bar, click the "All filters" button. This opens a new panel with a comprehensive set of options, giving you much more control over your search.
4. Add Your Location(s): In the "All filters" panel, you’ll find the "Locations" section. Click on "Add a location" and start typing the city, state, or country you want to target. As you type, LinkedIn will suggest geographic areas. It’s always best to select one of LinkedIn’s suggestions to make sure your search is accurate.
5. Adding Multiple Locations: You aren't limited to a single area! Just keep typing and adding more locations. For example, you can search for professionals in "San Francisco, California" and "Los Angeles, California" in the same search to cover multiple hubs.
6. Apply Filters: Once you've added your desired locations (and any other filters like "Company" or "Industry"), click the blue "Show results" button at the bottom. Your search results will now be updated to only show people who have listed one of your chosen locations in their LinkedIn profile.

This is the bread-and-butter method for location searching. For many users, this is all they need to find relevant contacts in a specific area.

Advanced Strategies to Pinpoint Location on LinkedIn

Sometimes the basic filters aren't enough. You might need to refine your search with more precision, or maybe the standard tools aren’t giving you the results you need. Here are some advanced strategies to take your location filtering to the next level.

1. Unlock Precision with LinkedIn Sales Navigator Radius Search

If you have a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription, you gain access to significantly more powerful and granular location filters. This is where you can move from broad city searches to highly targeted local prospecting.

• Postal Code Search: Instead of searching for an entire metro area like "Chicago," you can search by a specific zip code (e.g., 60611). This is incredibly useful for salespeople with territories defined by postal code.
• Radius Search: This is Sales Navigator's killer feature for location. You can specify a radius around a postal code, city, or address. For instance, you can search for all "Software Engineers" within 25 miles of 90210. This gives you a true sense of the drivable talent pool, which a city-level filter can’t provide.
• Filtering by Regions: Sales Navigator also lets you filter by larger predefined regions like "APAC" or "EMEA," which is useful for international roles and market analysis. It separates "Regions" from "Country," giving you better control.

For professionals in sales, recruiting, or business development, the location tools within Sales Navigator alone can be worth the subscription price.

2. Use Boolean Search Commands for Location

Boolean search isn't just for job titles, you can use it to create powerful, custom location filters directly in the main search bar. This can sometimes give you more flexibility than the built-in filters.

The trick is to use parentheses and operators like AND, OR, and NOT.

For example, let's say you're looking for project managers in either Austin or Dallas. You could type this directly into the main search bar:

"Project Manager" AND ("Austin" OR "Dallas")

Here’s another example. Say you want to find marketers in California but want to exclude anyone from Los Angeles. Your Boolean string would look like this:

"Marketing" AND "California" NOT ("Los Angeles")

Using Boolean for location works best when combined with other keywords to refine your list. It can feel a bit technical at first, but it offers a level of control that standard filters can’t match.

3. Filter by Company Headquarters Location

What if you want to find people who work for companies based in a specific city, even if those employees work remotely? This is a great way to target prospects without being limited by the employee's listed location. For example, you can find a fully remote developer in Montana who works for a tech company headquartered in San Francisco.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Perform your initial search for a role (e.g., "Account Executive").
2. Click on "All filters."
3. Scroll down until you find the "Company" filter. You can add specific companies here.
4. Better yet, you can pair this with industry and, most importantly, Company Headquarter Location if you have Sales Navigator. You can filter for companies headquartered in "Boston, Massachusetts" and find all their employees, regardless of where those employees actually live.

This approach broadens your reach, connecting you to individuals tied to a specific local economy, not just those who live there.

4. Find Local Professionals in LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups are often overlooked as a tool for location-based networking. Many professional groups are geographically focused (e.g., "Chicago Marketing Professionals"). But even in broader, topic-based groups, you can often filter the member list by location.

1. Navigate to a relevant LinkedIn Group you're a member of.
2. Click on the member count near the top of the group's page to see the full list of members.
3. On the member list page, you should see search filters on the right, including one for "Locations."
4. Use this filter to see which members of that interest group are in your target city or region.

This is a fantastic way to find highly relevant local contacts who already share a professional interest with you, making your outreach much warmer.

Common Challenges and Pitfalls to Avoid

Even with these powerful tools, you can run into a few common issues. Being aware of them will save you headaches.

• The Profile vs. Reality Gap: LinkedIn filters are based on the location a user puts on their profile. This might not be where they are right now. A person might forget to update their profile after moving, or a remote worker might list their company's HQ instead of their home city. Always cross-reference if the exact physical location is critical.
• Free Search Limitations: If you're using the free version of LinkedIn, the platform may limit the number of searches you can perform each month. If you're doing extensive research, you might hit this commercial use limit, which will prompt you to upgrade.
• Vague Location Info: Not everyone is precise. Someone might list "New York Metropolitan Area" instead of "Brooklyn." When you search, try both specific and broad location terms to get a complete picture.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to filter location on LinkedIn moving beyond the basics opens up a world of professional opportunities. Whether you're using simple filters to find folks in your city or leveraging advanced Sales Navigator features for radius-based prospecting, being able to pinpoint the right people in the right place is an essential skill for growing your network, business, or career.

Mastering these search techniques helps you find the right audience. The next step is consistently engaging them with valuable content. A strong content strategy is what turns those connections into meaningful relationships. Here at Postbase, we built our platform to make that part easier. Our visual calendar and intuitive scheduling tools help you plan and publish content across LinkedIn and all your other platforms without the headache, so you can focus on building your brand, not fighting with clunky software.