About not related search results

[bace23f2]

Hello community,

I have a problem,

When I try search freelancer who work as a freelancer on upwork by filtering talent section. I can't see related freelancers depend on my keywords.

Here are an attached file, It will show you what I said.

Waiting for your response

Thank you
Have a good day
PMD Madusanka

[PradeepH]

Hi Pmd,

Thank you for your message. Could you please try again after clearing Cookies and Cache on your browser? You can also try using a different browser. Feel free to message us if problems persist.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[bace23f2]

Hello Pradeep,

Thank you for your response.

Yes I cleared web browser.
including;
- Browsing & download history
- Form & search history
- Cookies
- Cache

And also tried to do that a new browser but the situation was same as before.

Thank you
PMD Madusanka

[PradeepH]

Hi Pmd, 

Thank you for your message. Could you please confirm the keyword you are using to search the freelancer?

Thank you,

Pradeep

[pgiambalvo]

Have you noticed any difference yet?

[bace23f2]

Hi Pradeep,

Thank you for your message.

Yes of course. I attached an image.

These are my steps, When I want to find a freelancer who works on upwork.

1. I chose talent on search bar
2. Then I type keyword what will help to find a freelancer ("seo")

Thank you,

[52bf3193]

Hi, so I often search for talents in Upwork and gain insights from their profile to know what more can be done to improve my own profile or what can be some of the best practices. I think this research can be beneficial. However, for the last 3 days, whenever I search any talent in Upwork, I'm not seeing relevant professionals. (Please see the attached screenshot, their profiles have been appearing for last 3 days) I don't know if this is the case for everyone but It would be really helpful if I can find relevant talents that I'm searching for. I mean how would the clients find talents if the search algorithm is not bringing the accurate profiles. I'd appreciate it if someone can please look into it.

Thanks for your time. 

[PradeepH]

Hi Anika,

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. I'll pass this along to the appropriate team.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[52bf3193]

Thanks Pradeep for taking this into account. 

[bace23f2]

Hello Anika,

Thank you for your message,

Yes that is a problem, ☹️ I'd appreciate it if someone can please look into it.

- PMD Madusanka

[madgulkar]

I have just observed some mess up/wrong search results in freelancer search,suppose i search "malware removal" and "wordpress designer" in freelancer search i get strange results,for ex for first keyword i am getting results of Translators,Photo Editors listed for "malware removal" where as for second search i am getting writers,data entry operators!.

I am mentioning this issue as this is the way client find freelancers,if results are irrelevant then client wont be able to find relevent talent,issue started today only.

Anybody has observed such strange search results today? (Attached Images)

[tomzilla1]

Upwork was great last year - easy to find talent, lots of proposals. This year, I noticed a drop since Feb/March. Not sure what's going on.

I was trying to help a client to find a qualified freelancer(s) for marketing/dev work, and all I see is profiles with $0 earnings. I had to filter so many things, and still, I spent 30 minutes and still can't find any qualified freelancers for the task. I think the problem is the ranking system is not using Top Talent Plus / Expert Vetted. And I even saw profiles with only $10k earnings being Top Talent Plus.... this cheapens the badge honestly.

And not to mention, most "clients" won't even see that badge, nor the Expert Vetted.  So those of you saying not getting any proposals... I think that's partly why.

Not sure what's going on. The search function is not leading me to any qualified freelancers, and I'm a freelancer myself been using the platform for what 5 years. Can you imagine a new client, signs up for Upwork, tries to find "top talent" but all they see is profiles with $0 earnings. Someone at the C-Level needs to look into this.

[the-right-writer]

I've somehow become a "marketing specialist." I keep changing my category only to have it revert.

It took me many filters and much scrolling to find myself. I was mixed in with people with $0 earnings, no job history, poor JSS, and even some top-rated freelancers. And different job categories.

I suspect an update or "enhancement" has been done to the categories. It must be corrected ASAP.

[pgiambalvo]

Sorry to hear it's become hard for you to find qualified freelencers. That's because Upowok changed how freelancers are categorized and how they indicate their specialties, as well as changing th esearch algorythm, resulting in the mess you are seeing and making you use all kinds of filters to find what you're looking for. Thanks for reporting you experience as a client here because on the freelancer side, we've been complaining for awhile and they still won't change things back to the way they were, which DID work for you and us.

[ericaandrews]

Sounds like 'support' has no idea what they are talking about.  What is the point of the 'talent search' feature for clients IF they only 'see' profiles when freelancers submit proposals.  That doesn't make any sense:  The entire point of clients being able to search for freelancers is for them to be able to VIEW the profiles.   Basically what support will do is the same thing they do everytime I report a bug:  Create a ticket, provide NO updates or fixes, and after you ask the 'status' several times, they will declare it a 'complex issue' and put the ticket on HOLD.  I have a couple of tickets that have been ON HOLD since February or March, after being declared 'a complex issue'.    'Complex issue' is code for 'we don't know how to fix this, so we're not working on it anymore'.   Good luck.

[colettelewis]

This is completely non-functioning. I am trying to refer a freelancer and I can't.  Way to go Upwork. 

[colettelewis]

Great to have such interest from the moderators. Anyway, I had to decline the invitation, as I was unable to refer the job to the freelancer I had in mind, because I couldn't find them. 

[AveryO]

Hi Nichola, 

To refer another freelancer, you will need to paste their profile URL or the email address associated with their account. Could you please share your exact experience so we can determine if there is an issue?

[colettelewis]

Thank you Avery, I was aware that you had to post the URL, and that was precisely what I couldn't find.  When I put in the freelancer's name and profession - I simply got a bunch of freelancers that had nothing to do with my search.  I'm not going to go further with this.  I don't have the time. 

[12d900e6]

I have been searching Monday.com to see where I rank, I am usually on the 1st or 2nd page but now when I search any job I see people who are completely not related to the job e.g on searching UI/UX, I will see PHP developer or content writer and none of them are top rated in the top list.
I checked my stats and I've appeared in 0 searches past week and I think this is due to a broken search function. I would love to see the same field experts when it's typed in otherwise we won't ever get invited.

[8af49417]

That's happened to me I'm a Top rated video editor and I used to appear on the first page while searching using my country filter, and now I didn't find myself and the search result is not related to the Creative & Design field.

[ericaandrews]

It does appear to be broken or not well 'optimized'.  I just did a search in talent for "java AND Python" and the first page is filled with people that have either earned little to no money, have no JSS, or have incomplete profiles.  For instance, most of the people showing don't even have a descriptiive profile title like "Top notch programmer offering expertise in...." blah blah blah.   Only one top rated person shows up, and they are toward the bottom of the first page.  It doesn't make sense that Upwork would show people with incomplete profiles or little to no experience in the search listings above more experienced freelancers, top rated folks, rising talent, etc.  If somebody's profile is incomplete, it shouldn't even be showing up in the search listings at all.   If a freelancer can't be 'bothered' to fill in the profile title/headline for their profile, they aren't ready to be shown in the list to clients.

[bace23f2]

Hello Ramsha

Thank you for your message,

Yes that is a problem, I know this is very big problem for us. I'd appreciate it if someone can please look into it.

- PMD Madusanka

[NikolaS]

Hi Pmd, 

Thank you for following up and sharing additional information. We will look into this further and will get back to you once we have more information. 

[bace23f2]

Hi Nikola ,

Thank you for your response. Waiting for your message

- PMD Madusanka

[kelvin_betances]

I see no benefit for freelancers now being limited to the very general "Digital Marketing" category when seeing what jobs are available? Why did Upwork remove these SEM/SEO categories? Now job postings in this space will be a lot more broad and there will be more stuff to sift through..

[gajendradewra]

Seems like there are no improvements made yet.

[bace23f2]

Thanks for taking the time to share your messages.

This is very big problem for us. I'd appreciate it if someone can please look into it. (upwork team)

- PMD Madusanka

[916322e1]

Upwork really needs to figure out this problem or this will result in clients not finding relevant professionals to their job. 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[pgiambalvo]

Yes! I and others have brought this up recently on other threads. They need to fix this ASAP.

[bilal1983]

Can Upwork not hire some additional people from its own talent pool to help them fix their search algorithm? It's affecting all of us. 

[NikolaS]

Hi All,

Thank you for reaching out to us and bringing this to our attention. I would like to let you know that we shared your reports with our engineers and they are working on resolving this issue as soon as possible.

We will update this thread as soon as we have more information. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

[los123]

Can someone please perform this search and tell me the results they get? 

Change to USA only,

search for 

facebook

For me on the entire first page, there is only one result ( the last one) where facebook is even a word on their profile snippet. The rest have nothing to do with facebook at all. Tks

[e3d6eabd]

Hi there,

I regularily check where my profile is ranking for certain search terms. For the last 6 months at least, my profile was showing on pages 1-3 for my major search terms.

But when I checked today, my profile is nowhere to be found. Also my typical competitors I used to see on the first few pages don't show up anymore. Even with filters to heavily narrow down the search, my profile shows up on page 9.

Naturally, I also don't get profile views anymore (that's what made me look at my ranking today in the first place).

What is going on? My profile is in good standing with great reviews, but suddenly it practically disappeared. Instead freelancers with unrelated skills lead the search results for niche terms that I specialize in (and that I used to rank high for).

Could you please help me out?

Thank you!

[decodistny]

Similar experience here:

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Clients/Search-engine-showing-bad-results/m-p/1106411/highlight/true...

[e3d6eabd]

Yes, that pretty much sums up what I see from the freelancer point of view. If this is a general problem on the platform then this is a big deal.

[759e32fa]

Hi Sascha and Jason,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Please note that freelancers in search results are shown on a rotating basis so that everyone gets a fair chance to be discovered.

[e3d6eabd]

Thanks, Annie. I'm aware of the rotation. But the overall ranking was stable for months with some up and down movements within the first pages. And now my profile (and other profiles that were ranking high for these keywords before) are practically gone. Instead now unrelated profiles are ranking. Never seen anything like this before.

[pgiambalvo]

Totally agree. Something changed besides the rotation thing, which has always been used. I think it's because of what they did with changing the categories which affected the keywords, our profiles, and therefore the search results for clients to be able to find us based on what they're looking for. My profile views are way down and my invitations have almost disappeared.

[gajendradewra]

Same here