How We Rate Dating Sites
GoBrides is a platform where everyone who wants to date internationally can get all the necessary information, from research on singles from a particular country to rankings of top international dating websites.
However, the modern online dating market is huge, and we believe that a truly high-quality website must meet multiple quality criteria. So, how exactly do we create our rankings? Here, we’re going to share some insights into our strategy.
Criteria for rating dating sites at GoBrides.net
Our team focuses on certain parameters and criteria that together make up an excellent dating platform.
The idea is simple—in the best-case scenario, a user should be connected with the largest number of potential matches who meet their criteria.
For example, if the website is promoted as a perfect place to meet a middle-aged Asian woman ready to immigrate, we make sure that at least 30% of users meet this important criterion.
We analyze the traffic from different countries, demographics, and other important factors.
Of course, we also manually check members’ profiles, and at this stage, we also evaluate their quality. If a lot of profiles are fake or low-effort, if there are no detailed bios, verification, and enough photos, such a website will hardly be effective and get on our list.
The sets of features are always different. For example, the website may have no video chat but provide an opportunity for exchanging videos. There may be a real gift delivery service or only virtual gifts along with an opportunity to follow others as if it were a social networking site.
We focus not just on the availability of particular features but on how effective they are for a user considering the concept of the website.
For example, if it’s a mail-order bride platform, there must be video chat and some other advanced service. If it’s just an international dating website, it’s not necessary, but there must be enough other features to provide a top experience for a member.
Costs may be different, too. We don’t rank the site higher just because it’s cheaper and don’t rank it lower if it’s more expensive. It’s always about value for money.
In the international segment of the online dating market, websites usually use credit systems offering their users virtual currency instead of premium plans. In this case, full transparency is the main criterion.
We make sure that there are no hidden costs and that a user will know exactly how much they’re going to spend each time they’re using a particular service.
A member should have an opportunity to plan a budget and control their spending—that’s what distinguishes a good site from a low-quality platform.
There must be safety tips, good data encryption software, an opportunity to report scams, and real moderators suspending all low-effort accounts on the website.
Access to profiles must also be restricted for all Internet users except for the members of the community.
Also, everyone who joins the community should be encouraged to provide detailed information—personality quizzes, as well as bonuses for confirming email, verifying profiles, and sharing photos are always appreciated.
It may seem that this criterion is less important than the above-listed ones, but we believe that it matters considering that a user is going to spend a lot of time on the website.
We rank the platform higher if it has a polished design and intuitive interface, has no annoying ads and pop-ups, and provides a high-quality experience overall.
Though we definitely rely mostly on our own research and testing results, we also realize that we can’t know all the scenarios.
That’s why we search for reviews from real members, analyze the overall trust score, and consider all the most common difficulties users may face on the website, even if we didn’t experience them when using the platform.
Every website under analysis receives a certain score for each of the above-listed parameters, and that allows us to evaluate the work of the entire system and rank the platforms accordingly.
Process of evaluating dating sites on Gobrides.net
Now you know the criteria, but what about the process of evaluating the site? For us, it always consists of the following stages:
Creating an account and testing free & premium versions
We don’t draw any conclusions from what the company is saying in their FAQ or ads. We create accounts on every website we’re reviewing. Registration is always free (if it’s not, the website already isn’t worth using), but international dating platforms are usually freemium sites.
We, however, don’t buy credits right after we sign up. At the early stage, it’s crucially important to understand what a member can do for free. For example, most high-quality websites don’t restrict access to profiles, let members use search filters, and there may be some free communication features.
After we evaluate the free version of the website, we buy credits and start spending them for all or almost all premium services (we don’t usually buy and send real gifts). Our team pays a lot of attention to the efficiency and cost of all premium features.
Communication with users
We’re not just using the tools to find out that online messenger on the website is or isn’t buggy. Technical process matters, but evaluating it isn’t our main goal.
Our main purpose is to find out who you can meet on the website, what to expect from other members, how many people are looking for serious relationships or just for something casual, etc. At this stage, we also can see how active the community is and which communication features work best.
Collecting feedback and reviews
As we’ve noted previously, it’s important for us to know how others evaluate their experiences on the website. We search for real reviews on Trustpilot, Sitejabber, and similar websites, read all the reviews, and pay attention to both positive and negative feedback.
We compare this information to our own experience on the website. Reputation is another important criterion that impacts the website’s position on our ranking.
Quality evaluation and benchmarking
At this stage, it’s time to draw conclusions. We consider our scores given for each important criterion and the overall impression of the website and the community. We evaluate its efficiency for a single person with a specific relationship goal and consider feedback from other members. Then, we compare all the websites in this segment of the market, create rankings, and write detailed reviews on each particular platform.
Though multiple criteria are considered, the two main things we focus on when creating rankings are the effectiveness of the website for a particular category of users and value for money.
Conclusion—The importance of informed choices in online dating
Now you know a bit more about GoBrides.net and how we work. You can see why you can rely on the information we share.
If you notice any inaccuracy or just want to share your experience of using any of the websites you see on our platform, feel free to contact us at [email protected].