Root exudates play a key role in phytoremediation of PAHs contaminated soil, but the effects of separate root exudates on the removal of PAHs have not been studied. This experiment investigated the effects of sodium linoleate in root exudation on soil microbial community and PAHs degradation by soil microcosm culture experiment and high-throughput sequencing technology. After 60 days, the removal rates of PAHs was 40.6% for fertilizer + sodium linoleate, which were significantly higher than that of fertilization only (17.4%). Primary coordinate analysis (PCoA) indicated that the addition of sodium linoleate significantly altered soil microbial communities, and soil bacterial and fungal community compositions were significantly different from those of fertilization only. In addition, sodium linoleate amendment promoted the enrichment of PAH-degrading bacteria such as Marmoricola, Streptomyces, unclassified_Intrasporangiaceae and Kribbella, as well as the fungi unclassified_Chaetomiaceae, Mortierella and Humicola . LEFSe analysis showed that Streptomyces, Kribbella and Humicola were the main microbial markers for the addition of sodium linoleate treatment, and the relative abundance of Streptomyces and Kribbella was significantly negatively correlated with PAHs content in soil. The results of this study initially revealed the mechanism of sodium linoleate enhanced biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soils.