Remember blind dates? When a friend would set you up with a stranger, and then you'd just show up for the date without knowing anything whatsoever about that person? You had to find out in real time whether somebody was a douche.
These days, long before you pick her up for your first date, she's done a full online background check on you. “At this point, we have to look at Google searches and looking at social media as a part of digital courtship,” says Julie Spira, an online dating expert and founder of CyberDatingExpert.com.
(Related: How to Raise Your Lulu Score.)
What are they looking for? The obvious stuff, like whether you're married or have a criminal past. But they might also be evaluating you in ways you haven't considered
We asked the readers at Women's Health to tell us what they look for when Google-vetting a guy. Here's what we learned.
A Barren LinkedIn
Of the women surveyed, 41 percent would scan your LinkedIn profile. Which comes as no surprise to Jennifer Gibbs, Ph.D., an Associate Professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information.
LinkedIn, unlike a dating profile (or even Facebook), is considered more credible, she says, because it “involves not just the person's own self-generated information but links to their social network as well, including testimonials and endorsements from others.”
(Related: The Most Obviously Fabricated Job Titles on LinkedIn.)
Friday Night Pics
Some 62 percent dislike partying photos. Which means you should get rid of the boozy pics, at least for now.
“While you'll probably get wasted with your gal in the future, she doesn't want to see it on the screen before she meets the appropriate part of you,” says Laurie Davis, founder of online dating consultancy eFlirt Expert and author of Love @ First Click.
Which isn't to say you should pull down all your party photos. As long as you're not doing keg stands, a few photos of you being social “are a sign of outgoingness and less neuroticism,” says flirting expert Jeffrey Hall, Ph.D.
Lame One-Liners
Being truly funny can enhance your attractiveness online, the survey revealed. Assuming you can figure out what “truly funny” means to her.
In a 2014 study of what's perceived as humorous on Facebook, Hall and his co-authors found that “funny people tended to steer clear of politics,” and the best-received humor was usually “me” focused, and “tended to show an ability to laugh at oneself.”
Mike Sacks, a humor writer and author of Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers, says that a great joke should be “self-deprecating but not in a humble-brag way.”
In general, humor can be tough, he says, “because you know what your friends like and what makes them laugh. On the other hand, you don't know what makes a stranger laugh.”
His advice: Don't over-think or over-analyze it. “Write the type of joke that you would say to a friend,” he says. If she finds it offensive or unfunny, “you don't share a sense of humor, so it's not worth pursuing anyway.”
(Related: The Scientific Formula for Being Funny.)
An Outdated Blog
Delete any potentially embarrassing content, hopefully before she sees it.
“Just like you wouldn't flash your baby pics in your Tinder profile, you should delete old blogs or info that doesn't represent the you of today,” Davis says. “Who we are changes over time, but you can't give context to the information when she's viewing it on a screen.”
Just deleting a blog may not be enough. Look up “Google removal tool” for details on scrubbing the search results.
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