We have done a very thorough and detailed review of the most important and relevant online dating websites. We have rated the features of each one of these dating websites and checked how well each one of these sites accomplishes its objective of helping its members meet other singles to date and/or start a relationship. We first divided the features into the following categories and then reviewed them:
- Search/Find Members
- Communication with Other Members
- Free Membership
- Prices
- Other Services
- Number of visitors / Traffic
The results have been presented in an easily digestible manner which is simple to understand. When you review the different features, you will see that each site received a score from 1-10 score for each category and also received a 1-10 overall score. This 1-10 score is a weighted average of the overall features. In this document we explain how the results were tallied to give scores for each site.
1. We divided the features by categories that made sense in theme-related groups.
2. We scored each individual feature for each site with a score (0 to X). The more important a feature is in terms of website usability and desirability, the higher X can be.
The better a feature serves its goal, the higher the score will be. For example, for the feature “How complete are member’s profiles,” if most profiles on the site have very relevant information and are very helpful in presenting a person to the rest of the community, then the site will get a maximum score for that feature. If they are just OK, then that site won’t get very many points.
3. Each category can have a maximum of Y points, which is calculated by adding up the maximum points a feature can earn.
4. Each site has a total score for the category, which is calculated by adding all the individual scores of features in the category.
5. We divided the total score for each site in a category by the maximum number of points it can get and multiplied the result by 10, which gives a score between 1 & 10 for the site and for the category.
Total Score for a Site
1. The total score of a site is calculated by doing a weighted average of the four categories- that is- adding the scores of the four categories and dividing by 4. The resulting numbers will be an average score on a 1-10 scale, 10 being the maximum score. The following five categories are averaged:
- Search/Find Members
- Communication with Other Members
- Free Membership
- Prices
Other Services
Only the “Traffic / Number of visitors” Category has been left out of the weighted average and gives a special contribution to the total score of the site since this category is especially important. All the reviewed sites have very good traffic and a substantial number of members, so it would not be fair to rate this category in the same terms as the rest of the features. In the total scores, the higher the traffic of a specific site, the better and more positively it will contribute to the overall score of that site.
Specifically, the way the “Traffic / Number of visitors” category is added to the total score is by adding a score for traffic to the average score of the site. For example, the site with the maximum traffic score (Match.com) adds 2,5 points to its average score. If the site has a half the traffic of Match.com, it will add 1,25 point to its individual score and if it has 1/4th the traffic, it will add a total of 0.625 points (2/4ths = 0.625). This is the best way to add traffic to the equation.