How to RANK HIGHER in Upwork Search (5 TOP RATED TIPS)

  - What's up, everyone? Welcome to Josh Burns Tech. Do you know the 1/3 of jobs posted on Upwork are invite only? So ranking high in Upwork search is vital. In this video, I'm gonnagive you five prorated tips that have personally helpedme consistently rank high in Upwork search, coming right up. (upbeat music) So, listen, if this isour first time meeting, my channel focuses on tech how-to videos, tech reviews, andfreelance consulting tips. So to stay up to date onall the future content that's coming to thechannel, be sure to hit that subscribe button that'sin the bottom right hand corner of your screen. And now let's go aheadand jump into the video. So before we get started, I'm gonna give you a littlebackground and history of my journey on Upwork as a freelancer. I started in May of 2016 and since then, I've made nearly $400,000working with companies from start ups to high leveluniversities like Stanford and Fortune 500 companies as well. Becoming a freelancer onUpwork has helped me achieve the entrepreneurial goalsthat I set for myself, make as much money as I want to make by putting the hours in ondifferent types of jobs, and be able to take onso many different types of challenging projects that have really helpedme advance my skill set and work with numerousamounts of amazing clients. My main goal with these types of videos is to show you what is possible if you apply the sametechniques, put in the work, and find you niche in theUpwork job categories as well, which will open up many doors for you like it did for me, giveyou the ability to make as much money as you'rewilling to work for, be able to work from wherever you want, and freelancing is the wave of the future. It gives you so many opportunitiesto do work for yourself, it gives companies theability to hire someone quick without having to go througha long hiring process. You can find a freelancerso fast on Upwork to fulfill a certain taskor job project that you have that you don't need someone long term for, but just to fulfill this specific task. However, but a lot of my jobs have turned into long-term jobs. I've worked with certainclients for, you know, two to three years. For the entire time that I've actually been on Upwork, I've had long-termclients with certain ones. And for myself, gettingup to $400,000 earned on Upwork was not an overnight thing. I didn't start out making the hourly rate that I'm making now. I had to prove myself,give myself the credibility on Upwork that clients could see. And my first job on Upwork,I made like $25 an hour. However, I got a decentamount of hours out of it. I made about three to fourthousand dollars total on that job, which for me, at the time, being confined to the salary that I was at at my company, making about4,000 extra dollars was drastically huge for me that year when I was freelancing. And I have always kept that mindset that anything that I make onthe side freelancing is better than what I would makeotherwise being confined to just my salary and that type of mindset has had a steamroll effect and has allowed me to getinvites to clients' jobs on Upwork every single week. And a lot of times, Ihave to turn down jobs that I would love to take justbecause I get so many invites to jobs and my schedulegets so overwhelmed, I have to turn down a lot of jobs just because I can't fit them into my schedule with all the otherinvites that I am getting. So the best way to dive intothe five top rated tips is to first take a look atsearching for freelancers from an Upwork employer account which I have because I useit for Youtube video editing and other jobs as well. So I'll look into myUpwork employer account and we'll do a search forjob categories related to myself to see where I rank. So my previous plan was to log in to my Upwork employer account and then do a searchfor a specific job type that I fall into to see where I rank at. However, I realize that Idid some previous searches for myself, other freelancers, so that may skew the results. So what we're gonna do instead is I opened up Internet Explorer, which I never use. I definitely use Google Chrome. So I opened up Internet Explorer,went to Upwork's website. I can still do a search for freelancers even without logging into any type of account. So from here, we're gonna go ahead. I'm gonna do a search for SQL server database administration, which is a specific jobtype that I fall into. So we're gonna see where I rank at. So to do the search for SQLserver database administration on Upwork's homepage of their website, if you go to the top of the screen, you can see here find freelancers. You can literally type inany type of job category in here for a specific jobthat you're looking for as an employer. So I'm gonna type in SQLserver database administration and hit enter. That's gonna do a searchfor that specific job type. So the search is finished and Upwork returned the top freelancers for the job type of SQL serverdatabase administration. Now, it just doesn'treturn the top freelancers as far as how much you've earned, how many jobs you've had, what your job success score. And that touches on apoint that I really wanted to make clear in this video. If you're just starting out, you don't have to worryabout not getting noticed because all these otherfreelancers have made a lot more than you have, haveworked way more that you on the platform. You can still get noticedif you follow the techniques in this video and youfollow those to a point where you're gettingall those things done, giving yourself the bestchance to get noticed. Upwork is gonna systematicallyrank different freelancers high when you're doingthese type of searches so that new freelancers and even freelancers whohave just started out, haven't made much yet, they still have a greatchance to get noticed by employers when they'relooking for freelancers for their specific job type. And now let's dive into the results. So you can see the list of SQL server databaseadministration freelancers that were returned here. The first one we havehas made over $10,000. And this updates, whenyou're between $10,000 earned and $100,000 earned, thiswill update every $10,000. So when this guy gets over $20,000 earned, it'll update, etc. So he's made somewherebetween $10,000 and $20,000 on Upwork, he has a 96% job success score. You can see his tags are good. This is something we're gonna go into. It shows how many tests he's done and then how manyportfolio items are listed on his profile as well. These are things we're gonna look at. So also, if you hover overhow much they've earned, it'll also show how manydifferent jobs they've had, both hourly and fixed priceas well as hours worked. So if we take a look andgo further down the list, we can see the next personhas made a lot more. They've definitely work a lot more hours, had a lot more jobs, and their success score isa little higher as well. So, again, this goes backto my previous point: the first person listed onthe search has made a lot less than the next person down,has had a lot less jobs, a lot less feedback, yetthey're listed first. Like a said, there's asystematic type of approach and we're gonna go througha lot of techniques that you can use that willhelp get you ranked higher. And if we go down to the third freelancer, we have my profile. So my profile typically ranksin the top 15 freelancers for SQL server databaseadministration consistently. And as you can see with my profile, I've worked a lot more hours, made a lot more money on Upwork, and have 100% job success score compared to the two that got returned above me. Like I said, this is very important. It gives other freelancersa chance to get noticed so that the very top earners and the top, that have workedthe most amount of hours, aren't consistently getting listed first every single time that there'sa search for this job type. That's important. I think they need tokeep this in the platform because it gives other peoplea chance to get noticed and work with more clients. And as I mentioned inthe first of the video, 1/3 of all jobs on Upwork are invite only. So when an employercreates an invite only job, freelancers cannot find that job when they're searching for jobs to bid on. They have to be invitedto be able to bid on it. So, with that beingsaid, it's very important that you follow thetechniques in the video to give yourself the best chance to get ranked high in Upwork searches. And if we scroll further down the results, you can see there's a good mix of how the freelancers are returned in regards to how much they've earned, their job success score. You can see this guy'sonly made $1,000 so far. Keep scrolling down, $200,000, but they're way down on the list. If we keep scrolling down, you can still see the big differences in how much they've earned, what their job success score is. So Upwork does a great jobof giving everyone a chance to get noticed whenemployers are searching for specific freelancersfor their job type. So with that being said,we're gonna go ahead and transition intothe first top-rated tip for ranking high in Upwork search, which is selecting job categories. So selecting job categoriesis probably something that gets overlooked bya lot of freelancers, but we're gonna go aheadand take a look at that now. So if I click on my accountat the top of my profile, I can go into settings. So I'm gonna go dive into settings. Pull up where the job categories are at and we're gonna look atmy selections for it. So in settings for my freelancer account, I clicked on profile settings. So I clicked on profile settings. This will give you thingslike your visibility. If you want your profileto be public or private. It'll show your full name,how you want to list it on your profile, what type ofprojects you're interested in, whether that be short-termprojects or long-term projects. And now if we scroll downa little bit further, after experience level,we have categories. So the main category that I fall into as an Upwork freelancer isthe IT and networking category for database administrationas the subcategory. I'm also in data scienceand analytics as well for data visualization,data extraction ETL, and then other data sciencesand analytics as well. So the way that you selectthese and/or modify it to update it is youclick on this pencil icon at the top right corner. And then this gives you theability to select your category and subcategory and/or services that you provide to your clients. So you can see for myself, I'm in the IT and networking category. I selected databaseadministration as my service in that category. In data science and analytics, I selected data extractionETL, data visualization, data science, and analytics for other. Now, if there were other skills that I wanted to show up in searches for, I want it to be recommended to me when I'm looking at jobs to bid on, I could scroll down tothe other categories, so engineering and architecture. If I click on the drop-down for it, if I had skills in any ofthese other categories, product design, interiordesign, architecture, mechanical or electrical engineering, any of these, if I selectit and then save my options here at the bottom, then that new category and skill would show uphere under my categories. Now, we're gonna transitioninto the second top-rated tip to being ranked high in Upwork search, which is your reputation. That consists of your job success score, your client feedback,and your job ratings. So the first factor ofyour reputation on Upwork as a freelancer to help you move up in the rankings is your job success score. So your job success score is listed on the top of your freelancer profile. You can see mine here at 100%, which is something I strive to maintain. To figure out what goes into this job success score, to factor out to 100% orwhatever you're listed at, you can hover over it. There's a learn more option. I'm gonna go ahead andopen that in a new tab. And then if we scroll down, you can see how the jobsuccess score is calculated. And I'll zoom in onthat a little bit more. So it takes all your feedback, whether it be positive or negative, that's gonna factor in, so all your job feedback that you get when you complete a job on Upwork, your long-term relationshipsand repeat contracts. So if you have contractsopen for a long time and you're still working on those jobs or if you complete a job for a client, they end up opening anew job down the road and then they send you an invite and then you work on that again, that factors into your job success score. And then this negativelyaffects your job success score. It effected mine for awhile previously. There was a time when Iwas stuck at around 99% and it was due to this one right here: contracts without activity,excessive lack of feedback. So what happened is Ihad a lot of jobs open that hadn't been closed out, like I had completed jobs for my clients, but we kept my job open and they would justsend me additional work and I would log itthrough the same contract. What I should've done washad that job closed out and then asked them tocreate a new project or a new job and then invite me to it. That would allow me to get the feedback, the job success score would be updated and that would help me reach 100%. So I had too many jobs open that didn't have any feedbackand weren't closed out or completed successfully. And the next two factors foryour reputation on Upwork as a freelancer whenbuilding your credibility is your client feedbackand your job ratings, which we will take a lookon my profile right now. So for the client feedback,this is what the client types in as your feedback whenevera job is completed, whether successfully or unsuccessfully. They type in a review for you and it appears on your profile. So we take a look at some for myself now. If I scroll down, we cansee this review here. Let me go ahead and zoom inon these a little bit more. So I have a great review here. These are type of reviewsthat you want showing up on your profile to build your reputation. I'll scroll down to some more. You can see really goodreviews, really good feedback, a lot of great clientsthat I've worked with, very amazing people. And this is something thatI always focus on highly. My mindset is that my feedback and job ratings are moreimportant than the money that I make on projects. If you have great feedback,you have great ratings, it's gonna lead to makingmore money on Upwork and being more successful as well. Think about going to Amazon,searching for a product. If that product has, say,three stars or below, I'm personally likely notgonna buy that product. I'm not gonna invest insomething that has low ratings or low feedback. If I go to a product, it hasfour to five star ratings, really great feedback,really great reviews, that's something I'm gonna buy and I'm gonna invest my money in. And the second part for job ratings, that's the rating thatthe client is leaving you when they give you your feedback. So you can see this onehas a five star rating. It's also something Ido my best to maintain. You're not always gonna get five stars. Some clients are just gonnagive you a little bit less than five stars, it happens. However, almost every oneof mine are five stars. I think I maybe have like twoor three different feedbacks where I got somethingbetween a 4.5 and five, somewhere in that range,but most of them are five. If we scroll up and look at those, you can see these are allfive stars, all five stars. There will eventually be one, I think I had one by the top, okay 4.5 so like I said, my goal is five stars on every one of my jobs. It doesn't always happen. At the very minimum, do yourbest to get between a four and five star rating for every job you do. If you could maintainbetween four and five stars, it's gonna boost your reputation and help you get rankedhigher in Upwork search. So make it a goal ofyours to focus heavily on your client feedback andyour job ratings as well to help you, in turn, getranked higher in Upwork search. Now, we're gonna move onto the third pro-rated tip for being ranked higher in Upwork search, which is keywords and skill tags. So when I say keywords, I mean keywords in the sense of the waythey're using Google and/or Youtube when you're searching for videos, your keywordsare gonna be the jobs you're gonna be applyingfor around your skills. So for myself, some examplesof keywords would be: SQL server database administration, SQL server development, and business intelligencedevelopment as well. Those are the three types of jobs that I focus on personally,that I bid on, and apply for. So if we take a look at my profile, first we'll look at my overviewand I'll expand it out. So we're gonna be lookingfor these keywords: SQL server DBA. We start taking a look at my overview, we can see how many timesthat I mention my keywords. In the first sentence, youcan see I mention all three: SQL server DBA, database development, business intelligence development. Scrolling down further,again, SQL server DBA, SQL server, SQL servermentioned various times. So I probably could've mentionedmy keywords a little bit more in my job overview, honestly. In this section, I can mentionSQL server development, which I don't currently have in there. It's probably something Ineed to come in and add. So overall, I feel likeI mention my keywords pretty organically andwell within my overview. However, there are things I could improve. Like I said, I could mentionSQL server development, I could come in andadd something different for business intelligence development. There's definitelythings I could improve on within my overview,however for the most part, it's pretty organic. I didn't keyword stuff andadd a bunch of keywords in. That's not something I recommend. So just make sure you do it organically. Don't keyword stuff andjust make sure it flows well when you're going throughyour job overview. I do have another video whichcovers Upwork top-rated tips. I go in depth into the job overview, explain how I created mine,and give tips and pointers. So that's gonna be linked in the cards that's at the top of the screen. Make sure you check that out. And then other areas whereyou can apply keywords are in the jobs you're applying for. Apply for jobs that around your keywords like database administration, SQL server, database, SQL server. Apply for jobs around your skills, which is gonna help out your keywords and help you get rankedhigher for those keywords in searches and then in your portfolio, you can add portfolioitems around your keywords, SQL server DBA for instance. And then for your employment history, make sure that you'reincluding your keywords around jobs that you've hadpreviously if applicable. If you take a look at mine, you can see various waysthat I use my keywords: SQL server DBA, business intelligence. I definitely use it pretty well with my employment historyso make sure you're doing that if applicable. And then for the second portion of this top-rated tip are skill tags. So if you scroll down onyour profile in Upwork, you'll get to a section called skills. If you take a look at mine here, you can see the skills that I have. I'm gonna go ahead and zoom in just a tad. So you can edit these at any time. If you click on thepencil icon right here, it'll open up all your skills and you can have up to 10 skills. So I have all 10 of mine here. You can see the differentkeywords that are in here around the jobs I'm applying for. So we'll take a look:database administration, SQL, business intelligence,SQL server, SQL server. Make sure that these skilltags apply to the jobs that you're gonna be bidding on and that you want to receive invites for. So when a client goes andsearches for a specific skill, say they have a job around SQL server database administration, they go to Upwork likewe did in the first demo of this video, type in SQL server DBA, one way to rank you higherin that results set is to have the skills enteredfor your skill tags that are gonna be applicable to that job that the client created. So for instance, if a client creates a job for Microsoft SQL server administration or database administration, my skill tags are gonnaapply directly to it. It's gonna help me getranked higher in that search. And then same for business intelligence and all these other skillstags that I have entered. Make sure that these apply specifically to the type of jobs that you want. Now for the fourthtop-rated tip to rank higher in Upwork search, we have response time. So if you take a lookat my profile right now, I'm gonna hover over thequestion mark by available. So you have response time. Mine is currently less than24 hours response time, another goal that I strive to maintain. And if you hover over the question mark, it's gonna explain whatyour response time is. So your response timeshows how often you respond to client invitations. Top freelancers accept ordecline all invitations within 24 hours. That's why this is one of the main goals for myself in rankinghigh in Upwork search. The top freelancers reply within 24 hours. This is why it's one of my top goals to rank high in Upwork search. Maintaining that less than24 hours response time not only will help you rankhigher in Upwork search, but it will give clientsa sense of reliability when they come to your profile and they see that yourespond within 24 hours. That's something you definitelywant to strive to maintain. So when you get invites tobid on jobs from clients, make sure that you replyto those invitations in less than 24 hours. For the fifth top-rated tip to rank higher in Upwork search, we have skill tests. So I recommend that you take skill tests around the jobs you'regonna be applying for. If you take a look at mine, you can see that I took one on knowledgeof SQL server 2008 skill test, data structures test,Microsoft SQL server 2005 test, SQL test, and I also tookthe Upwork readiness test. You should definitelytake that one as well. Most freelancers end uptaking that skill test. But when you take skill tests related to the type of jobs thatyou're applying for, it's gonna help you rankhigher in Upwork search. You can see earlier atthe first of the video when I did a demo showing you how I search for SQL server DBA and we saw my profile on that list of all thedifferent result sets, it showed the number oftests that I had taken when it was showing myprofile in that list of all the other profiles. And don't be afraid totake the skill test. For instance, if you took oneand you didn't do well on it, you don't have to displayit on your profile. You have the option,it's an on/off option. You can turn it off so it won't display it and you can retake these tests. So if you don't do well the first time, you can go ahead and retake it until you get a score you want and then display that on your profile. You have the abilityto turn that off or on. There's tons of differenttests you can take on Upwork. I recommend taking theones that apply directly to the jobs that youwant to get invites for and bid on as well. Make sure you're taking those. Take the Upwork readinesstest and then just explore and take a look at all the other tests that are available to you. So if you follow thetechniques that I detailed out in this video, apply themto you in your job category for your niche, I am confident that you will be rankedsystematically high in Upwork searches and youwill start getting invites to jobs from clients. So for the question of theday, in the comments section below, let me know whichtechnique has worked for you to be able to rank highand get job invites from clients on Upwork andalso if there's any type of freelancing topic that youwant to see me do a video on, leave that in the comments section below. I would love to hear those. My channel focuses on tech how-to videos, tech reviews, andfreelance consulting tips. So on this end screen, be sure to hit that subscribe button formore videos just like this. Until next time. (gentle music)