• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 8, 2013

LinkedIn saw solid user growth in March, with unique visitors up 24% from a year ago, and from 17% in February. That’s the biggest spike for the professional network since February 2012, according a research note Monday from Macquarie Securities.

Page views increased 16% in March after a slowdwon in February (up 10%), but were still below January’s 22% increase. For the first quarter, page view growth slowed to 16% from 28% in the fourth quarter of 2012, when the company introduced several new products including redesigned profile pages and the Influencers blog network.

LinkedIn rolled out an upgraded search offering in late March, “but it remains unclear whether it will drive a meaningful boost to engagement levels,” stated the analysis by Macquarie analyst Tom White. He expects the company to introduce more new products this year in areas including content, enterprise collaboration, mobile and new tools for students.

The note points out that the traffic and page view figures don’t include mobile, which LinkedIn says is driving 27% of its traffic (as of the end of 2012). The company has been rolling out mobile advertising slowly, most recently testing in-stream ads with brands including GE, The Economist, and BlackBerry.