Add each promotion as a new position under the same company — LinkedIn automatically groups positions at one company into a single stacked entry when the dates line up, showing your total tenure with each title as a rung beneath it. That is exactly what you want: recruiters see the progression at a glance, and every title you have held remains a separate searchable field.
The tempting shortcut is editing your existing position's title to the new one. Resist it — that erases history. Your years as an analyst vanish the day you become a manager, the progression story disappears, and searches for the old title no longer find you. Promotions are among the strongest signals a profile can carry: someone watched your work closely and bet on more of it. One flat entry hides that entirely.
Separate dated positions preserve everything: the arc (analyst to senior analyst to manager reads as momentum), the tenure math (LinkedIn shows total time at the company on the grouped entry), and the searchability of every title. Recruiters source by title constantly, and each position is its own indexed record.
When you add a new position with the same company — selected from LinkedIn's company picker so it links to the same company page, not typed as slightly different text — and its dates continue on from your previous role there, LinkedIn stacks them into one entry: company name and total duration on top, each role with its own title, dates, and description beneath. There is no manual group button; correct company selection plus contiguous dates is the trigger.
If your roles are not grouping, the usual culprits are a typed company name that does not match the linked company page, or a date gap between roles. Re-add the position via the company picker and make the previous role's end date meet the new role's start date. Boomerang stints — leaving and returning — group as separate tenures, which is accurate and fine.
Give each rung its own short description focused on what changed: the scope you gained, the team you took over, the numbers that grew. Do not paste the same paragraph under every title — that tells readers the promotion was cosmetic. Two to four lines per role showing expansion (from supporting one product line to owning three; from individual contributor to leading five) is the pattern.
One nuance for job changers: your resume should mirror this structure — stacked titles under one employer heading — and your LinkedIn dates must match your resume's dates, because recruiters and background checks compare them. A promotion shown on LinkedIn but invisible on the resume, or vice versa, reads as sloppiness at best.
Yes, if the title materially changed — titles are what search matches and what verification checks. Keep its description honest and brief; a one-line entry noting a retitle is better than pretending the old title never existed.
Same mechanics: new position, same company via the picker, contiguous dates. Use the description to name the new team and scope. It will group into the same company stack, showing the move as part of one tenure.
If your share-profile-updates setting is on, adding a new position can trigger a network notification celebrating the new role. During a quiet job search, turn broadcasts off before restructuring your positions, then make the edits.
Run your profile through the free LinkedIn optimizer and see exactly which of these checks you pass - and which cost you visibility.
