> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://wiki.platelunchcollective.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Reputation Signal > A reputation signal is any external cue about how a brand is regarded, from reviews to press to the tenor of mentions, that a system reads to gauge standing. *Core concept* ยท *Entity & Knowledge Graph* ## Definition A reputation signal is any external cue about how a brand or entity is regarded, drawn from reviews, press coverage, ratings, and the tenor of the way it gets mentioned. It is reputation made legible to a machine, the collected evidence of standing that a system can read without a human's judgment. No single mention is the signal. The pattern across many is. ## Why It Matters for AI Search A model recommending a business is staking its own credibility on the choice, so it leans on external corroboration of how that business is seen. Reputation signals are that corroboration, gathered from sources the model already trusts rather than from the brand's own pages. They overlap with trust signals and feed the entity reputation a knowledge graph holds, and because they come from outside, they are hard to manufacture and slow to change. Earning them is the work of being genuinely well regarded, which is why they carry weight a claim cannot. ## Related Terms See also See also See also See also See also ## Relevant Plate Lunch Collective Services [Entity SEO](https://www.platelunchcollective.com/services/entity-seo) [Context Map](https://www.platelunchcollective.com/services/context-map)