How To Craft A
Winning Upwork Profile

A well-crafted profile is an important key to the Upwork puzzle. By optimizing the keywords in your title and overview, you can increase your chances of being found by potential clients.

Here are my top tips for a profile that attracts more clients!

Verify Your Account.

When you first sign up for Upwork, they will send you a confirmation email to verify your account. From there, most freelancers are asked to complete a short interview as a means to verify their identity. I recommend starting with a client account and then adding a freelancer account to it.

View other profiles in your niche.

By creating a client account you can view other freelancers in your niche. Take note of what keywords they’re using in their titles and try to include as many as possible. For example, if you want to offer social media services, you might notice that some of the other freelancer titles include “social media management” and others include “social media marketing”. Think about including both of these terms in your profile or overview to show up in searches for both terms.

You can also use the search filters to look for the highest-rated and highest-earning freelancers. I like to read the overviews for all the top freelancers in my industry because it gives me great ideas for what my overview should include. I don’t recommend copying anyone’s text, but it can be helpful to make a list of things you notice. For example, maybe they’re including testimonials or an FAQ.

Pick a specialty.

I very strongly recommend going niche, especially when starting. For example, if I go on Upwork and search for social media managers in the US, I get almost 12,000 results. However, if I narrow that search and instead look for Instagram experts, the results go down to just 400. It is far better to compete with 400 other experts than 12,000, but going niche has other benefits too. By offering just one service, you can streamline your service into an easy to follow template that can be repeated for every client. It will also make it easy to train assistants if your business becomes large enough to start outsourcing.

Pick A Good Profile Photo.

Don’t get stuck on this part. You need a decent photo on your profile, but it doesn’t have to be a professional headshot. Just make sure the photo is clear and that you’re smiling without hiding any of your face.  

Complete Your Profile.

A complete profile will help Upwork and potential clients to view you as a professional. By being thorough, you will also keep viewers on your page longer which will help make a more permanent impression in their minds when deciding who to hire.

Title. Use your keyword research to craft a compelling, niche-specific title. I recommend using up all the space that you can while still making sure your title reads well

Overview. This is the meat of your profile. A lot of freelancers make the mistake of talking about all their experience here, but I recommend focusing on the client and how you can help them. Think of it as an extension of your cover letter and include the types of clients you work with, how you work, why your specialty is helpful to people, what your services include and past success stories. Save your credentials and education history for other parts of your profile.

Hourly Rate. This is another instance where I would use a client account to do some research and compare what other freelancers are charging. A low rate will make people value your work less and will attract high maintenance, difficult clients. Charging higher will make them value and respect you more. Clients who pay higher rates are also usually more invested in getting you what you need to complete the job. Keep in mind that you can change your profile rates at any time and you can choose a custom price for every job you apply to.

Portfolio. Your portfolio is a great place to highlight past work, and it allows you to add a title, completion date, deliverables, a description, a URL and photos for each project. You don’t have to be too detailed here, but you do want to make sure you include some kind of title, a brief description and especially an image. If you leave the image field blank, Upwork will show an empty box where the image should be, which tends to look unprofessional. Try to include at least 4 examples because those will show up on the first page of your portfolio.

Skills. This is another way to optimize your profile for searches. You can think of them as categories or tags that you add to your profile from a menu provided by Upwork. Make sure you pick all the skills you can find related to your niche. From there, I would go broader if you have extra room.

Employment History. This section is more like a resume where you can list past work. I recommend focusing on the skills related to your freelancing more than the company itself or your formal title, especially if it’s unrelated to your freelancing work.

Education. This section is where you can add formal education including the name of the school, dates, degree, area of study and any extra details. Don’t get too stuck on this part- most clients are more concerned with your pitch and profile overview.

Other Experiences. This is a great place to add any non-formal education including online courses.

Languages. One big pain-point from a client’s perspective is freelancers claiming to be fluent in a language like English when they are not. Include any languages you know, but be honest about your level of experience in them.

Make changes. Your profile is not set in stone, and it should not take that long to complete. Many freelancers get stuck on minute details here instead of getting it done and moving on. Your profile should not take more than a day to complete, just get it done and remember that you can make changes later if you need to.

Consider adding a video. I prefer to send my clients screen recordings in a private message after starting a conversation, but many freelancers include a video in their profile and that can be another great option. By including a video you increase your trust factor, confirm your language fluency and show that you’re a good communicator.