Tara Blair Ball
Jan 10, 20216 min
You can improve your match potential on Tinder. You just have to know some things first about how Tinder shows you to the opposite sex.
When I was active on Tinder, I got new matches every single day. My single guy friends, though, would never seem to get any. “I’ve gotten one match in the last two weeks,” one told me.
I’m not a bad looking woman and had written a good bio, but some of my female friends had only one profile picture and nothing in their bios, and they were still getting just as many matches as I was.
When I researched it, I discovered some truths that were beneficial for my male friends to know.
Since then, it’s likely the number of women users have gone down since Tinder now has so much competition with other dating apps like Bumble, Hinge, and OkCupid.
Since 62% or more of the members on Tinder are men and men also often are less selective in whom they match with (many men surveyed said they swiped right on every woman), women often deal with a flood of matches, unlike men.
Tinder previously used to apply a score to its users called the Elo score, but in a blog post posted in March 2019, they said, “Our current system adjusts the potential matches you see each and every time your profile is Liked or Noped, and any changes to the order of your potential matches are reflected within 24 hours or so.”
Regardless of how much you’ll need to stand out from the herd, you can still improve your match potential on Tinder. You just have to know some things first about how Tinder shows you to the opposite sex:
When you first open an account, Tinder shows you to a very wide audience for about a day. They use this time to calculate and determine whom your audience should be. This is why you might get a bunch of matches your first few days, but then it drops considerably in a week.
How you are shown potential matches seems based on several factors:
How many people like you as a whole,
how many people match with you,
who else the people who like you swipe right on,
how picky you are (swiping right 30 to 70% of the time seems like the sweet spot.),
and whether you send and receive messages.
Think of Tinder as a great big voting system: the more people swipe right on you, the more “votes” you’re getting, and how many “votes” those people who vote on you are also getting contributes to the potential matches you’re shown to.
How many “votes” you get might be based on how attractive you are, but it may be more influenced by your profile. This is why it’s incredibly important (especially for men) to have a great profile since it’s a way you can definitely stand out.
If you’re going through long stretches without any matches, here are some things you could think about doing:
Do you swipe right each and every time on every single lady? Tinder absolutely hates that kind of swiping activity.
Swiping right 30–70% of the time seems to be the sweet spot, so read the profiles, look over the pictures, actually consider whether this is someone you would want to match with and if they are interested in the same thing and things you are.
When you swipe right on every profile you see, Tinder can decide that you have no standards or, worse, mark you as a bot. Either can mean you would show up in no one’s feed, so you’d be pretty much invisible.
Also make sure to use those “super likes” you get. You’re three times more likely to match with someone you’ve “super-liked” since they can see that you have with the blue star that appears on your profile when you appear in their feed. A Super Like conveys that you’re interested, and women like it when they know you’re interested.
Tinder keeps track of that too. Sign up here to get a FREE list of 50 First Message Icebreakers that work and just do it. Whether they message you back or not doesn’t matter. Tinder will show you to more potential matches just because you have a profile that is swiping based on some standards and is active and responsive.
If you don’t message or respond to messages, or have begun swiping less and less, Tinder will dub your profile inactive and drop your placement in people’s feeds. Tinder won’t want to show you to someone who is active and responsive if you are inactive and irresponsive.
Your number of matches will recover after you’ve been active again for a few days, but you have to remain active to continue to show up in people’s feeds.
If you’re not getting matches, Tinder may be subtly telling you that you’re setting your sights too high and to think about lowering them a little.
Tinder wants to show you people who might likely match with, so don’t be so selective that you swipe left on everyone (just like you wouldn’t want to swipe right on everyone either).
Yes, you can have requirements and standards for a potential mate to live by, but Tinder is king when you’re using its app, so think about whether you’re being too picky and adjust accordingly.
Since you may have made your first profile without really knowing what to do and now you’ve been on Tinder a bit, make an attempt to make a really good profile! Having a good bio can substantially increase the number of people who swipe right on you.
Choosing some good and recent photos can help a lot as well. If you’re wanting some real feedback on what photos you should use on your profile, you can also try posting them on Photofeeler and seeing what kind of responses you get on there. It’s free to use and could help increase your matches.
Make sure to include at least three photos. Have at least one full body photo, and keep it classy. The majority of women find overtly sexual photos a huge turn-off.
Here are some other things to consider:
If you’ve got a dog or an interesting hobby, include pictures of those!
Limit the number of group photos you post since you don’t want that special lady to think your best buddy is hotter than you.
Avoid selfies.
Don’t include a photo of just your vehicle.
Go for natural lighting, as in outside, in the sunlight. “The Golden Hour” is the sixty minutes just after dawn or right before sunset. That lighting is universally flattering.
Make sure to show your face in at least some of your photos by not wearing sunglasses or a hat.
Let me say first that Tinder actually dislikes members resetting their profiles, and there have been threads saying this can actually lead to you being nearly invisible, but there still may be ways you can get around this.
It could help you to completely start over with a new profile and new pictures. You’ll get that awesome new account boost available to your “new” profile and you’ll be shown a huge audience and be able to be more selective with your swipes.
It makes sense from a business perspective for Tinder to limit your organic matches so you get frustrated and spend money.
If you upgrade your free account to a Tinder Plus account, you get unlimited likes, can rewind your last swipe (if you meant to swipe right, but accidentally swiped left), 5 Super Likes a day, 1 boost a month, and the ability to change your location to anywhere around the world with the Passport feature.
With Tinder Gold, you get access to everything that Plus offers with also the ability to see who likes you before you swipe and top picks every day.
Since Tinder Gold doesn’t offer a lot over Tinder Plus, you could start with a Tinder Plus account, or you could stick with your free account and just purchase “Boosts.”
A “Boost” makes your profile the top of other people’s queue for thirty minutes, which according to Tinder, increases your exposure ten times whatever it is currently. If you are in a highly populated area, this is a super attractive feature, and one you can keep getting and using as much as your wallet allows.
When it comes to Tinder and trying to reverse the sad state of your matches, all you can really do is work on your profile, make sure you’re being an active member who swipes selectively, and not take it too personally when things don’t start looking up overnight.
Put some work in and give it some time. I promise things will start to look up!
Want to figure out how to make online dating work for you? Click here to order my course, “How to Find Love Online for Men” for JUST $20!