Last updated on 2019-10-20

Whether your aim on Tinder (or Bumble, or Hinge) is to get as many matches as possible, or you’re trying to find the one, the perfect profile to help you achieve your goal will look almost the same. At least assuming your further goals include actually meeting your matches, and you’re looking for some sort of connection (relationship or no).

That might sound counter intuitive, but as explained in “Casting a Wide Net vs. Spearfishing”, you still need to appeal to the masses, even if you are only looking for one very special type of person. This, in short, because Tinder ranks your profile in terms of popularity, and if your score is very low, almost no one will get to see your profile. I.e. your perfect match will probably never get the chance to read the bio you custom tailored to them. Update 2019_10: Since Tinder updated their algorithm, this may no longer be accurate. Caution is still advised.



Making your intentions known, and finding out if someone shares them, should be reserved for the texting phase. But before you can start that phase by agonizing over what to put in your first message, it all starts with two profiles. Yours, and theirs. You need to appear generally attractive enough to get enough likes for Tinder to estimate your “type”, while appealing to the people you would actually want to meet. Keep in mind that attractiveness is not limited to beauty.

Helping you get your profile as close as possible to that sweet spot is the purpose of this article. Because I have already written detailed guides on some aspects of a perfect profile, I will be taking the liberty to link to those pages where relevant, while providing a summary with the most important points here. So, let’s get started with

Profile Picture Selection

On swipe based dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble, your main profile picture is arguably the single most important thing about your profile. Followed by your second picture, followed by your third. This is especially true if you’re female.

Don’t get me wrong, a good bio is not useless. It will turn likes into super likes, or send people running for the hills. In rare cases, it might even turn a maybe into a yes, and more often a missing bio leads to a nope (though I think that is unwise). It’s just that they will never get to your bio if they aren’t at least intrigued by your main photo. Add to that that most people swipe without opening profiles, and there should not be any doubt left that your first picture is simply not allowed to be the weak link.

In depth guide: Choosing Tinder Profile Pictures – Ground Rules for Men and Women

DO:

Make the first and last pictures in your reel your strongest ones

Show your face ( Especially for your main pic )

) Be accompanied by a furry friend that seems to be enjoying being near you ( Especially for your main pic )

) Use group shots ( not as your main pic )

) Show off some activity you enjoy

DON’T

Use bad pictures to fill all the available slots. Stop while you’re ahead.

Use (too many) filters

Use (mirror) selfies

Do any “controversial” stuff in your pictures

Be accompanied by a member of the opposite sex (group settings excluded)

Be accompanied by a member of the short and loud persuasion (Doesn’t matter if it’s your kid or your niece)

So much for choosing from the pictures you have, but what if you don’t have a single good picture to begin with? I’ve got you covered. Here’s an easy way to get at least one decent picture that doesn’t seem like a selfie.

Writing a Good Bio

What exactly makes a bio good? As mentioned, it shouldn’t be custom tailored to your ideal match, especially if that means alienating the general public. Of course, it shouldn’t exactly be devoid of personality either.

For example, I used to just list my height, spoken languages (more relevant in EU), hobbies and favorite film/literature/music genres, slipping in the less popular ones among stuff everyone likes. Of course, I left out things like my sword collection.

While I am aware of the irony when comparing the last sentence before the example and the example itself, I fared quite well with such a bio. Much better in fact than with any other approach I tried.

But that’s my personality shining through, and it means most of my conversations were with people who like people who like lists and spreadsheets. Luckily for my match rate and score, most people don’t read bios until after a match. Or at least it’s not the major selling point for most.

Which brings us to this point:

Don’t stress too much over your bio.

Just let people know something about yourself without being too polarizing. Even just a joke or an ice breaker question will do. Give them a glimpse of your personality without going overboard. let them get to know you in conversation, where the chance of some minor detail turning them off is much lower than while they’re looking for reasons to swipe left.

Rest assured, if you are getting half as many matches as you could, it’s down to your pictures, not your profile text.

But don’t leave that space blank! Even, nay, especially when you just created your profile. Remember that many people will swipe left on profiles without a bio, for various reasons.

One Final Piece of Advice

Before you create your Tinder Account:

Think about what you want to tell prospective matches about yourself. Take about 30 minutes and use whatever line, list, copy pasta you like best at that time, then stop obsessing.

Pick your 4+ best pictures. Try to follow the above advice, but remember there are no one size fits all solutions. Your mileage may vary. If possible, ask your friends to help you choose. If at all possible, ask your friends of the opposite sex to help you choose.

Only once you have everything ready to go should you create your account. As quickly as possible, add your pictures and bio. Otherwise you’re hurting your score during that crucial initial placement phase, and it will be difficult to recover.

If you already have an account, and you’re looking for ways to optimize, resetting your account may seem like an attractive option to get you the results you’re looking for much faster than waiting for your score to catch up with your new pictures. Keep in mind, however, that the whole process of resetting has gotten much more complicated recently and you’d be risking getting shadow-banned.

What do you think? Would you like to add something? Feel free to leave a comment below, or visit the SwipeHelper Subreddit. We have cookies! And advice. And surveys. And stories (maybe yours?). See you there ?