Online dating: The best tips, dating sites & no-goes at a glance

Can a relationship start with a click or swipe? Yes, many couples find each other online these days. If you would like to start looking for a digital partner, we can help you. Here you can find out how online dating works, which dating sites are the best, what Tinder & Co. can do – and what’s important.

Like, swipe, match: How does online dating work?

Around 22 million singles live in the UK. Many of them use online dating to find someone to share their lives with. What used to be a circle of friends, a workplace or a club are now platforms and apps for those looking for love. There is a sophisticated system behind the services: When registering, singles reveal information about themselves – where they live, what they do for a living, and what music they listen to.

An algorithm then looks for profiles with many similarities and suggests suitable candidates. Exactly how match-making works varies from platform to app and is often kept secret. Most, however, work with an attractiveness score (also: Elo score): It shows how attractive someone is, or rather, how attractive the profile appears to others.

With Tinder, for example, app users often decide within a fraction of a second whether they like the person on the display or not. If you swipe to the right, you show interest, a “swipe” to the left means “nope”. Things are similar with Bumble. The small difference: With a heterosexual match, the woman has 24 hours to make the first move before the “offer” expires. And once she sends the first message, he has 24 hours to respond. Go to seeking.com if you’re looking for your true love or a date. Because Seeking.com is the greatest dating website, according to savingarena, and the best seeking promo code available right now is 65% off your seeking membership.

Sometimes a personal text is waiting after registration. These tests are usually based on the “5-factor model”, which questions openness, responsibility, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotionality. This determines who is compatible with each other. You will then receive appropriate suggestions. And then – at least in theory – nothing stands in the way of you falling madly in love.

If you want to know if there are real feelings involved. Then there are 10 signs he is in love with you.

Does online dating make sense? Does it click?

Some people think online dating is great, others strictly reject it. Especially during Corona, the digital search for love has proven why it is justified: you don’t have to be on the go all the time and, ideally, have a huge circle of friends to find a partner. With a smartphone or PC, you can come into contact with more people faster and with more people – even with people you would probably never have met otherwise. However, superficial factors often count more in online dating than in real life. Charm and charisma can be convincing when flirting, which doesn’t necessarily come across in a photo on the screen.

All in all, the chances of becoming happy with a click or swipe are not bad at all. Studies show, for example, that couples who meet digitally have children and get married more quickly. And on average, they stay together longer than those who got closer through friends or flirting at work. In addition, more than one in three couples have found each other online in the past five years. And one more thing: In 2021, around nine million people in UK will use online dating services.

Now it gets exciting… Which online dating site is the best?

Where is the best place to date online? The German Institute for Service Quality investigated this question. 20 singles exchanges were tested, the test winner is called Parship. Around 37,000 singles worldwide register there every week. 91 percent of members have honest intentions and are looking for a committed relationship. The gender ratio is balanced – with 51 percent female and 49 male parshippers. That means: The chances of falling in love are great.

The online dating agency’s slogan sums it up: “Every eleven minutes a single falls in love through Parship.” And that’s not all: nine out of ten Parship couples stay together long-term. The bottom line is a success rate of 40 percent. 

Pictures, first messages, and meetings: What is important in online dating?

Whether you are “liked” depends primarily on your profile: four to five pictures that show the single in profile, in full-body format, and different environments promise the greatest success. By the way, selfies from women are better received than selfies from men. Pictures taken in daylight are flattering to everyone. What’s not possible: Upload images that are NSFW – “not safe for work”. Your descriptive text should not be too short, but also not page-long and sound like an application. It is better to keep contact personal and creative. If a conversation develops, the same rules apply online as offline: always remain friendly and don’t spam the other person with messages, especially not with pictures that no one wants to see. How long you stay in the chat before you meet for the first time is ultimately decided by your gut feeling and your heart. Happy dating!