Turn a weak Indeed rating into more applicants, not fewer.

Indeed is first and foremost a job board, not a review site — and that changes everything about how its company reviews behave compared to a review-first platform like Glassdoor. On Indeed, the 1-5 star rating and employee reviews sit directly on the employer profile that a job seeker lands on right before they click apply, often after finding your listing through a job search rather than a reputation search.

That proximity matters. A mediocre rating next to an open role doesn’t just damage brand perception in the abstract — it directly suppresses applications on the same page where you’re paying, or considering paying, to promote that job. Indeed reputation management is the work of improving the underlying employee experience and the reviews that reflect it, specifically because the rating and the job posting are never more than a scroll apart.

Why an Indeed rating behaves differently from a review-site rating

Indeed’s company rating is built from reviews left by current and former employees, covering an overall 1-5 star score plus sub-ratings for areas like work/life balance, pay and benefits, job security and advancement, management, and culture. Job seekers frequently open the reviews tab before applying, and on mobile the rating is visible right alongside the job title and company name in search results.

Because reviews live on the same employer profile as your job postings, the relationship runs in both directions: a company that’s actively hiring on Indeed generates more review volume and more visibility for that rating, and a rating that drops after a rough stretch — layoffs, a management change, a wave of frustrated seasonal hires — can suppress applications on postings you’re running at that exact moment. Few other platforms put cause and effect that close together.

You cannot remove a genuine negative review simply because it’s unflattering. Indeed will act on content that violates its guidelines — reviews that aren’t from real employees, that contain no actual workplace content, or that violate its policies — but a truthful account of a bad experience stays up. The reliable lever is the same one Indeed’s own guidance points to: a better employee experience, professional employer responses to reviews, and a steady flow of reviews from real current and former staff.

Reference: Indeed’s guidelines.