Understanding Your Trust Score & Brand Ranking
What actually moves your public ranking on Market Trends, and how to improve it.
3 min readYour Trust Score blends two things
It's a weighted mix of your reply-time performance (the inverse of your Ghost Index) and real candidate-reported experience ratings, so responding fast alone isn't the whole game, and neither is a good interview process alone.
It sorts you into a tier
Scores land in one of four bands: Highly Trusted, Reliable, Needs Improvement, or High Risk, shown on your company profile and anywhere your brand appears on the platform.
A sustained Highly Trusted tier earns a real badge
Hold Highly Trusted across a real sample of tracked applications and your company page shows a Verified Employer badge. This is a performance badge, earned by actually replying, not the same thing as a Verified Recruiter badge on an individual person (see the AI Features Explained category for that one).
It also affects where your jobs show up in search
A currently-employed, ID-verified recruiter posting for a Highly Trusted or Reliable employer earns a real placement boost in job search results, a separate 'Verified & Trusted' lane ranked just behind paid Featured listings. It's earned, not bought.
Respond before tickets breach
The single biggest lever is simple: respond to open reply-time tickets before they breach the window. Every breach directly weighs down your Ghost Index.
Keep resolving reviews and your profile current
Responding to candidate reviews, keeping your company bio, services, and socials up to date, and adding a profile photo all feed into how your brand is perceived, and, over time, your ranking.
Can I pay to raise my Trust Score or move up a tier?
No. Trust Score is computed the same way for every employer on the platform, free or paying, from real tracked applications and candidate ratings. There's no upgrade path that changes the number itself.
What's the fastest way to move from Needs Improvement to Reliable?
Respond to open tickets before they breach the response window; that's the single biggest lever, since every breach directly weighs down your Ghost Index. Resolving outstanding candidate reviews and keeping your profile current help too, but reply speed dominates the score.