Photos: recent, real, and in motion
The single most common profile mistake reported by matchmakers is outdated photos. A picture from five years and one haircut ago doesn't buy goodwill — it spends it, because the first in-person impression starts with a correction.
A working set is simple: one clear head-and-shoulders shot with good light, one full-length photo, and two or three photos of you doing something you actually do — hiking, cooking, at a game with friends. Skip the gym-mirror shot and the sunglasses-in-every-photo pattern; both hide more than they show.
The bio: specificity beats adjectives
'Easygoing, love to laugh, partner in crime' describes roughly everyone and therefore no one. Specific details do the work adjectives can't: the cuisine you cook on Sundays, the trail you're trying to finish this summer, the album you've worn out this year.
Two or three concrete lines outperform a paragraph of self-description, because they give a stranger something to reply to. A good bio is less a résumé and more an easy opening move you're handing the other person.
What to state and what to save
State the structural facts that shape compatibility: whether you have kids, roughly what you're looking for, anything non-negotiable about location or lifestyle. Hiding these to widen the funnel wastes everyone's evenings, including yours.
Save the history. Past relationships, old grievances, and detailed life stories belong in conversations, once there's a person on the other side who has earned the context.