Do I still need a personal website if my LinkedIn is strong?

Yes, you still need one. A strong LinkedIn presence is necessary for most senior people, but it is not sufficient, and the reason sits in one word. You rent LinkedIn. You own your website. Everything LinkedIn cannot do for your reputation traces back to the fact that it is someone else's platform, running on someone else's rules, that can change or disappear without asking you.

A personal website is the part of your public presence you actually control. It anchors the first page of Google for your name, it holds the full picture in a way a profile never can, and it keeps working when a platform changes its layout, its algorithm or its terms. LinkedIn is the busy high street. Your website is the address that stays put.

What LinkedIn does well

It is worth being fair to LinkedIn, because it earns its place. It is where your network lives, where recruiters and buyers look first, and where a steady cadence of posts keeps you visible to the people who already follow you. For day-to-day professional presence it is the single most important profile most people have. None of what follows is an argument for neglecting it.

What it cannot do

The limits are structural, not cosmetic.

• It does not reliably own your name in search. When someone Googles you, you want the first result to be a page you control. A LinkedIn profile can rank, but it sits inside Google's and LinkedIn's priorities, not yours.
• It does not give you editorial control. The format, the length, the design and what appears next to you are all decided by the platform. Competitor suggestions, ads and prompts to connect all share the page with you.
• It does not hold depth. A profile is a summary. A body of work, a set of talks, a press archive and a long-form point of view need somewhere built to carry them.
• It does not promise longevity. Platforms change their rules and occasionally close. A presence that lives entirely on rented land is a presence you do not ultimately own.

What a personal site adds

A good personal website does the things LinkedIn structurally cannot. It becomes the hub that every other channel points back to, so your profiles, your press and your writing all resolve to one place you control. It is usually the page best placed to rank for your exact name, which means the first thing a hiring manager, journalist or counterparty finds is the version of you that you shaped. And it carries the full story at the depth your seniority deserves, rather than the flattened summary a profile allows.

It also does quiet work for the machines now reading the web. A clear, well-structured site that states who you are and links to your other profiles helps search engines, and increasingly AI tools, resolve all the scattered mentions of you into one coherent identity.

When LinkedIn alone might be enough

Rarely, and briefly. Very early in a career, or in a purely internal role where you are not being searched by outsiders, a strong LinkedIn can carry the load on its own. For anyone senior, anyone being considered for a board, a deal, a stage or a story, the absence of a site you control is a gap that the people checking you will notice.

The practical answer is not to choose. Keep the strong LinkedIn, and put a well-built personal website underneath it as the foundation that owns your name and holds the depth. One is the activity. The other is the asset.

Related: Personal website design, Professional profiles.