Improve Your Score
How to increase your ATS score, in order of impact.
Scores move for predictable reasons. Work these fixes top down, re-checking after each, and you will see exactly which change earned the points rather than guessing.
- • Fix the layout first — a dropped section costs more than any keyword.
- • Match the exact job title in your headline.
- • Move true skills out of the skills strip and into bullets.
- • Quantify at least half your bullets.
- • Re-check after every edit and keep what moved the number.
The nine fixes, ranked
1. Convert to a single column and remove tables, text boxes, and header or footer content. This alone can add double digits.
2. Rewrite your headline to the posting's exact job title where honest.
3. Rewrite the two-line summary around the role's three most repeated requirements.
4. Move every genuine must-have skill into the bullet where you used it.
5. Add numbers: percentage, currency, volume, time saved, team size.
6. Use standard section headers and drop creative labels.
7. Spell out acronyms once with the short form in brackets so both tokens match.
8. Add a discrete Certifications section if the posting names any.
9. Export as a PDF with selectable text and a clean filename, then re-scan.
What does not raise your score
Hidden white text and keyword lists in the footer. Parsers read them and recruiters see them.
Adding skills you cannot defend. It converts a screening pass into a failed call.
Longer resumes. Beyond two pages, extra content dilutes rather than adds.
Design polish. It matters to the human after the filter, not before it.
Frequently asked questions
Above 80 is strong, 60 to 80 needs keyword work, and below 60 usually means a genuine gap or a layout the parser cannot read.
Layout and headline fixes take about fifteen minutes and usually produce the largest single jump.
A perfect match often means stuffing, which reads poorly to the human who opens the file next. Aim for honest and high, not perfect.
After each meaningful edit, and once per new posting you target.