How to Find Similar Companies on LinkedIn

Finding a company on LinkedIn is simple, but finding its lookalikes - the competitors, partners, or new prospects that operate in the same orbit - is a skill that separates casual browsers from strategic networkers. This guide breaks down the exact methods you can use to consistently uncover similar companies on the platform. We'll cover everything from built-in features you might have missed to advanced search techniques that reveal a clear map of your industry landscape.

Start with LinkedIn’s Best-Kept Secret: The 'Pages People Also Viewed' Section

This is the fastest and most direct way to find similar companies, and it’s hiding in plain sight. LinkedIn’s algorithm is constantly tracking user behavior, and it uses this data to suggest other company pages that visitors to a specific page tend to look at. Think of it as LinkedIn’s version of Amazon’s “Customers who bought this item also bought…” feature.

It’s often highly accurate, revealing direct competitors, key partners, and industry peers. Here’s how to find it:

1. Go to a Target Company’s Page: Start with a company you already know is a good example of what you’re looking for. This could be your own company, a known competitor, or an ideal customer.
2. Scan the Right-Hand Sidebar: On the company’s homepage, look at the column on the right side of your screen. You might need to scroll down a bit, past the “About” section and posts.
3. Find the “Pages people also viewed” Box: This module will display a list of other company pages. The names and logos are usually right there, giving you an immediate list of new targets to investigate.

Example in Action:

Let’s say you’re prospecting for a company like Asana. If you visit Asana’s LinkedIn page and look at the right sidebar, you’ll likely see pages for Monday.com, Trello, Smartsheet, and Jira. These are all direct competitors and operate in the exact same software niche. In just a few clicks, you have a qualified list of prospects or competitors. This method works best when the target company has a decent amount of traffic to its LinkedIn page, as the algorithm relies on that data to make recommendations.

When to Use This Method:

• For quick competitor analysis to see who your direct rivals are.
• When you have an "ideal customer" and want to find more similar companies.
• As a starting point before diving into more advanced search tactics. You can take the names you find here and use them as seeds for the methods below.

Master LinkedIn Search Like a Pro

The standard LinkedIn search bar is far more powerful than most people realize. With the right combination of filters and keywords, you can slice and dice LinkedIn’s vast company database to create hyper-targeted lists. It’s all about knowing what to tell the search engine you want.

1. Use the "Companies" Filter with Keywords and Attributes

Begin with a broad search, then systematically narrow it down. This is your foundation for building a targeted list from scratch.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. In the main LinkedIn search bar, type a core keyword that defines the industry, such as "Marketing Automation," "Financial Technology," or "Sustainable Apparel."
2. On the search results page, click the “Companies” filter at the top. This immediately removes people, posts, and jobs from your results.
3. Now, use the “All filters” button to bring up a menu of options. Here’s where the real targeting begins. Refine your list by:
   • Locations: Target specific cities, states, or countries.
   • Industry: Choose from LinkedIn’s predefined industry list (e.g., Computer Software, Financial Services, Retail). This is a great way to qualify companies further.
   • Company size: Focus on companies with 11-50 employees, 51-200, 1,001-5,000, etc. This is indispensable for sales teams who sell to specific market segments.

By layering these filters, you can go from thousands of results to a couple hundred highly relevant companies. For instance, you could search for Computer Software companies in Austin, Texas, with 51-200 employees.

2. Power Up Your Searches with Boolean Logic

If you need more precision than basic keywords and filters can offer, Boolean logic is your best friend. It allows you to use simple commands to create complex, super-specific search queries. The three main operators are AND, OR, and NOT.

• AND: Use this to find companies that match multiple keywords. For example, a search for SaaS AND analytics will only return companies that mention both terms in their profiles.
• OR: Use this to find companies that match at least one of several keywords. This is great for searching for synonyms. For example, "Artificial Intelligence" OR "Machine Learning" will pull up companies specializing in either field.
• NOT: Use this to exclude keywords from your search. This helps eliminate noise. For example, recruiting NOT software will find recruiting agencies and consultancies but remove software companies from the results.
• Quotation Marks (""): Use these to search for an exact phrase. A search for "Project management software" is much more accurate than one without quotes because it looks for those three words together.
• Parentheses ( ): Use these to group operators and create more complex queries. For example: ("health tech" OR "medtech") AND ("patient data") NOT "billing". This query finds companies in the health tech or medtech space related to patient data, while excluding those focused on billing.

Combine Boolean searches with the filters mentioned above (location, company size, etc.) to build incredibly laser-focused lists of businesses.

Leverage Connections and Communities

Sometimes the best way to find a company in a specific ecosystem is to look at the people and communities that define it. The patterns in where people work and what they talk about are powerful signals pointing to an industry's key players.

1. Analyze Employee Career Paths

Ever notice how people in certain industries tend to move between a handful of well-known companies? You can use this to your advantage. If you find one ideal company, look at the profiles of its current and former employees to see where else they’ve worked.

Here’s the process:

1. Go to your target company’s LinkedIn Page and click on the “People” tab.
2. Here, you can see current employees in various roles. You can filter by function, location, or school.
3. Click on a few employee profiles - especially those in leadership or specialized roles (e.g., Senior Software Engineer, Head of Marketing).
4. Scroll down to their “Experience” section. Look at their previous employers. You’ll often find direct competitors or other highly relevant companies from their work history.

This "breadcrumb" technique helps you map out an industry ecosystem based on talent flow. If dozens of people have moved between Company A, Company B, and Company C, it’s a strong indicator they all operate in the same space.

2. Follow Relevant Industry Hashtags

Companies that are active and relevant in their industry use specific hashtags to get their content seen. By following those hashtags, you’ll see a running feed of posts from all the key players.

For example, if you sell services to fintech startups, following hashtags like #FinTech, #Insurtech, and #DigitalPayments will show you a constant stream of content from companies in that niche. These are businesses actively trying to build their brand on LinkedIn, making them easy to spot and evaluate.

To do this, simply search for a hashtag in the main search bar and click the “Follow” button. Your main LinkedIn feed will then start showing you high-performing posts from companies and people using that tag.

3. Scout Out LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups are another place to find concentrations of professionals from the same industries. Find groups focused on a specific niche, product, or skill (e.g., “SaaS Marketers Community” or “Data Science Professionals”).

While you can’t search for companies directly within groups, you can observe which businesses are frequently mentioned or which companies employ the most active and insightful members. Pay attention to people who share valuable content or case studies from their companies - it’s a great organic way to discover emerging leaders in a space.

Take It to the Next Level with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

If finding similar companies is central to your job - whether for prospecting, market research, or partnership development - then LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a worthy investment. It’s a premium subscription built specifically for this purpose and it automates many of the manual steps above.

With Sales Navigator, you gain access to a much more advanced search interface, with features like:

• Lead Recommendations: Sales Navigator will actively suggest companies similar to the ones you save or interact with.
• Advanced Filters: You can search by metrics like “company headcount growth,” “technologies used,” and “recent senior leadership changes.” This gives you an incredible level of targeting.
• Lookalike Lists: You can create a list of "perfect" existing clients and ask Sales Navigator to build a list of highly similar companies based on dozens of data points.

While it’s a paid tool, if lead generation and market mapping are a significant part of your workflow, Sales Navigator can replace hours of manual research with just a few clicks.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're using LinkedIn’s built-in suggestion engine, running sophisticated search queries, or analyzing the career paths of industry professionals, these strategies give you a repeatable process for mapping out any industry. Start with the "Pages people also viewed" feature for a quick win, then layer on advanced filters and Boolean logic to build detailed, actionable lists for any goal.

Once you’ve finished your own research on related companies, the daily challenge is managing your social presence effectively to stand out. It's one reason why we built Postbase, to help teams translate their research into a cohesive content strategy without the usual headaches. From our visual calendar for planning content to our unified inbox that brings all your comments and DMs into one manageable place, we designed it to be the simple, modern tool we wished we had. It gives you the foundation you need to build your brand and engage with the communities you’ve just discovered.