This page explains, in plain words, the order in which we show you results when you search on SmallJobs, and what can change that order. We publish it because the law requires us to, but also because we think you should know how the platform you are using actually works.

Legal basis: Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services (the "P2B Regulation"), which requires us to set out the main ranking parameters and their relative importance; and Article 7(4a) of Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices, transposed in Romania by Law no. 363/2007, which requires the same information to be made available to consumers in a section directly accessible from the results page.

What follows applies to: the jobs and services list (/job-list), the craftsmen directory (/craftsmen), and the similar-listing strips shown on listing pages. It does not apply to private messages, which are shown strictly chronologically.

We describe the system as it actually behaves in code as of the date above. If we change how ordering works, we update this page.

Filters first, then ranking

These are two different things and it helps not to confuse them. Filters — locality, county, radius distance, category, type (job or service), "verified craftsmen only" — narrow the set of results: anything that fails a filter does not appear at all. Ranking only kicks in afterwards and decides the order of what is left. There is one exception to the filter rule, and it concerns paid promotions — we explain it below under "Reach expansion", because it is the most important thing on this page.

Listings: jobs and services

The parameters, in the exact order they are applied. Each parameter only breaks ties left by the one before it.

1. 1. Active paid promotion. Listings with a purchased promotion that matches the coverage area bought (one county, a group of counties, or the whole country) are shown ahead of all others. This is the parameter with the greatest importance, because it is the only one that can move a listing above every other one regardless of how well they match your search. Why it ranks first: a promotion is a paid service whose very object is the position in the list — if it had no effect, there would be nothing to sell.
2. 2. Completion state. Unfinished listings appear before those marked as finalised. Reason: a finalised listing has nothing to offer someone searching now.
3. 3. The author's subscription tier. This parameter applies only when you have an active search (keyword, category or location). At equal relevance, listings from users on a paid tier (Aur, Diamant) appear ahead of those on the free tier. Why it matters less than promotion: a tier is not bought for list position but for a bundle of features; the effect on ordering is a secondary benefit of the subscription, not its object.
4. 4. Publication date, descending. Where everything above is equal, the most recent listing comes first. This is the default when you browse the list without any search: if nobody has bought a matching promotion, the list is simply chronological.

Important note: a listing's view count does NOT influence its position. We show it to the author in their own statistics panel, but we do not use it for ordering.

The craftsmen directory

Profile order in /craftsmen is determined as follows:

1. 1. Active paid promotion of the profile, with the same logic and the same effect as for listings.
2. 2. Relevance to the search term. Applies only if you typed a search term, and is computed by full-text search across the craftsman's name, description and categories. A strong textual match is decisive; a category-only match scores zero at this step and falls through.
3. 3. Verification / subscription tier priority. At equal relevance, higher tiers come first.
4. 4. Whether the profile has a location set. Profiles with no locality appear after those that have one. Reason: many users arriving via social sign-in never fill it in, and a craftsman with no locality is of no use to someone searching by area. We still show them, just lower down.
5. 5. Last login time, descending. Why this last criterion exists: without it, the same profiles would sit permanently at the top. Rotating by recent activity gives an active craftsman a chance to surface instead of an abandoned account.

As with listings: average rating, number of reviews and profile view count do NOT enter into the ordering.

How payment affects ranking

The P2B Regulation requires us to state not merely that payment influences ranking, but in what way and with what effect. Here is the full answer.

Direct remuneration — promotions ("boosts"). You buy a promotion for a listing or for your profile, for a chosen duration and geographic area (one county, a group of counties, or the whole country). The effect is the strongest in the entire system: for the duration of the promotion and within the area purchased, your listing or profile is displayed ahead of every non-promoted result, regardless of relevance, recency or tier. Where several users hold active promotions matching the same search, the criteria listed above decide the order between them.

Indirect remuneration — paid tiers (Aur, Diamant). You are not buying a position; you are buying a bundle of features. But one effect of the subscription is that, at equal relevance, you appear ahead of free-tier users. The effect is real but considerably weaker than a promotion: a tier only breaks ties between otherwise equal results and can never overtake a promoted result.

Reach expansion — read this carefully. A promotion does not merely reorder results; it can cause a listing to appear in a search it would NOT otherwise have matched. Depending on the area purchased, a promotion can bypass the category filter, the location filter, or both (in the case of national coverage). Concretely: if you searched for "plumber in Alba", you may see at the top a nationally promoted listing that is not from Alba. Such a result is always labelled "Promovat".

Labelling. Any result whose position was obtained for payment carries a visible "Promovat" label, both in the listings list and in the craftsmen directory. This is an absolute obligation: point 11a of Annex I to Directive 2005/29/EC prohibits, in all circumstances, providing search results without clearly disclosing paid advertising or payment made specifically to achieve a higher ranking. If you ever see an unlabelled promoted result, that is a bug — please report it to contact@smalljobs.ro.

What does NOT influence ranking

For clarity, we also state explicitly what does not count, so you do not assume otherwise: average rating and number of reviews received; view counts on listings or profiles; account age; number of listings published; whether you installed the mobile app; whether you accepted cookies; and any profile data not listed above. We do not practise personalised pricing and we do not order results differently depending on who you are.

Differentiated treatment

Article 7 of the P2B Regulation requires us to declare whether we grant ourselves, or users we control, preferential treatment over others. We declare that we do not: SmallJobs SRL does not publish listings and does not hold craftsman profiles on its own platform, and no account receives positioning, data access or commercial conditions different from those publicly described. The only differences in treatment between accounts are those flowing from subscription tier and purchased promotions, described above and available to anyone at the same price.

An effect of tier that is not about ranking: alert speed

Beyond ordering within lists, your subscription tier also affects how quickly you receive notifications about new listings matching your preferences. Free tiers receive alerts batched into a limited number of slots per day; higher tiers receive them more frequently, up to near-immediate delivery. We mention it here because it is also an effect of payment on visibility of information, even if it is not strictly a ranking parameter.

Changes to these parameters

If we change the main ranking parameters, we update this page and, where the change is significant for users offering their services through the platform, we communicate it in advance on a durable medium, at least 15 days beforehand, in accordance with Article 3(2) of the P2B Regulation.

Questions

If anything on this page does not match what you see in the app, write to contact@smalljobs.ro and we will check. We would rather hear it from you than let the page fall behind the code.