UpWork Freelancer Search is Broken

chadworth · ‎10-25-2019

Cmon UpWork.

You can do better than this.

Not too long ago you sent me an email congratulating me for being one of your best freelancers. I've been Top Rated for so long you gave me an award for being Top Rated that long.

Why are you making it so hard for clients to find me? You don't want us to make more money?

I thought we were in this thing together.

You look out for me.

I look out for you.

I'm on page 21 when clients search for book design.

And I'm on page 5 when clients search for self publishing consultant.

Cmon UpWork. The guy above me isn't even in the book design field. He's an attorney! He doesn't even have the words "self publishing" anywhere in his profile. I checked. And Self Publishing Consultant is literally my tag line in this Editorial Design profile that I test-drove for you. Remember that?

The guy below me isn't even in my field at all.

And there are other freelancers who I recognize, who are better designers than I am, have made more money on the platform, have been on the platform longer, and they are BELOW me in search.

Upwork. Seriously?

I am literally the reason book design is even a category with you. Before I argued, and pressured, and badgered, and negotiated with you, you had book designers under graphic design. Remember that? I am not saying that entitles me to page 1, but page 21? Seriously?

Why are you making it so hard for potential clients to find me?

And why do you insist on calling it Editorial Design? Most of my clients call this "book design." That's what they Google, thats what they type in the box on LinkedIn, that's what they call their FaceBook groups. Why are you making it harder for clients to find what they're looking for? Why introduce unnecessary friction into the process? Has Google taught the world nothing? Remember Excite, UpWork? Remember Alta Vista? Remember Ask Jeeves? Exactly.

C'mon buddy. Please? For us? The whole point of our joint venture is that we make money together, and we keep our clients happy. Can we get back to that UpWork? Help me, help you.

Please.

yitwail · ‎10-25-2019

Chad, part of the reason is profile rotation. Here’s one result from google that discusses this. While it’s not terribly recent, it includes commentary by Petra, who’s extremely knowledgeable about most things Upwork. Essentially, rotation is a periodic shuffling of search results. Also, as Petra observed, there’s no guarantee you as a freelancer will see the same results as a client doing the exact same search.

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Drastic-Decrease-in-interviews-wonder-how-rotation-polic...

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"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

prestonhunter · ‎10-25-2019

There is nothing to be gained by searching for yourself on Upwork. It is a rabbit hole. The search doesn't work like Google.

If you want to get invites? Do a great job for your clients and build a solid work history.

chadworth · ‎10-30-2019

It’s always interesting to me, when people can’t see out of their own bunker.

This has nothing to do with freelancer rotation.

Look at it from my perspective. I hire on the platform. I’ve spent more than $4000 in the last 6 months on freelancers. And here’s what I learnt when I searched for book design and UpWork suggested I hire a software attorney. UpWork does not ensure that I am matched with the freelancer that’s best for me. UpWork sends me anybody it wants, in whatever order it chooses.

This also has nothing to do with Google. I’m sorry I brought up Google. It was a metaphor. The more important characters in the metaphor were Alta Vista, and Ask Jeeves. The dead ones.

I’m not talking about improving my ranking in search.

None of us would accept this from any other platform. If you went on Amazon and searched for books and Amazon started suggesting bidets you’d stop using Amazon, and go back to Ebay or Walmart. Maybe you’d even start driving back to physical stores.

I searched for book design and I am being given an audio engineer, a software contract attorney, and a product designer.

You’re not paying attention.

People talk. People talk in Facebook groups, in LinkedIn groups. I’m having conversations about the “quality” of people that people find on UpWork. About quality of people.

And UpWork is a publicly traded company. It operated at a loss for the last three quarters.

Companies cannot operate at a loss indefinitely. We all have a vested interest in this thing turning a profit.

How confident are you that UpWork is surfacing the correct freelancer?

You know that when I post a job I don’t see every application that’s sent to me right?

You know that the algorithm automatically hides some applications behind a button that I can click on if I don’t like the ones it recommends? Sometimes that’s where the best freelancers I have found are hiding.

What are the odds that every client is doing this? Do you go much past the first page of a Google search?

So in essence, all of us are applying to jobs, and no one knows if the best suited applicants are being surfaced for clients to see.

All while UpWork can’t distinguish an audio engineer, from a software attorney. When I don’t even want one of those two. I searched for a book designer.

You’re right Preston. A rabbit hole. Not a simple issue at all.

Makes perfect sense that I search for book designer and I get an audio engineer and a software attorney.

How does this delight the end user? Say what you want about Amazon, but they know what they’re doing. I order a thing, and I get it in 2 days. The right thing. That I searched for. Delivered to me. Could that be why it’s such a successful company?

prestonhunter · ‎10-30-2019

You're bringing up two different things:

- What happens when I search for myself?

- What happens when I search for a freelancer to hire?

Very different topics, although they're related.

I don't care at all if Upwork's search does not work the same way that Google's search does. And I don't care if it doesn't work the way that any particular freelancer wants it to work.

But it IS a problem if the search is not an effective tool for CLIENTS.

So in that sense, you are making some excellent points and pointing out places where there is a clear need for improvement.

chadworth · ‎10-30-2019

Preston H wrote:
You're bringing up two different things:
- What happens when I search for myself?
- What happens when I search for a freelancer to hire?

Incorrect. You made an assumption that I searched for myself.

I don't care at all if Upwork's search does not work the same way that Google's search does. And I don't care if it doesn't work the way that any particular freelancer wants it to work.

But it IS a problem if the search is not an effective tool for CLIENTS.

So in that sense, you are making some excellent points and pointing out places where there is a clear need for improvement.

I concur.

AveryO · ‎10-30-2019

Hi Chad,

I want to understand your concern better. When you typed-in "self publishing consultant" on your search, did you apply any specific filters? Were there any specific categories that you picked? When I tried to replicate the search, I chose "All Categories," and you were fifth on the first page of my results. When I picked the "Design & Creative Category," (I didn't apply any specialty), you were 8th on the first page of my results.

I hope you understand that we have millions of freelancers on the platform, and it would make sense to rotate the search results every now and then. While clients can filter their results, rotating the results gives all freelancers a chance to be discovered by clients.

~ Avery