It’s official, online dating is cool! In an article today for Glamour.com, Jessica Simpson has revealed that she would consider online dating, confirming that online dating may at last have shed it’s image as a place for the hopeless and desperate.

The American singer and actress admitted that she hasn’t actually tried it yet but stated “Anybody can find love online, so be it.”

Back in February a survey by OnePoll also found 44% of 20 to 40 year olds now consider it “cooler” to find love via online community sites than by traditional means. The main reasons for using online dating being convenience, number of potential partners, cost, safety and having the option to instantly to pull the plug if things aren’t going smoothly.

Match.com continues to be the most searched for online dating site with over 800,000 UK searches in September 2009, but eHarmony has seen a steady increase in the last five months, with over 200,000 for the same period this year, according to Google trends.

The Daily Telegraph and Guardian dating sites are also increasingly popular, with The Guardian seeing membership rise to over 135,000 users. Both sites are investing heavily in customer acquisition, retaining top Google rankings in the pay per click results, with The Guardian ranking particularly well for dating keywords in the natural search engine position rankings. Newspaper websites often rank well due to the sheer volume of fresh and original content and other sites which link to their content, as opposed to any specific SEO push for the dating sector keywords.

It’s not just the young seeking love online either – searches for “mature dating” increased steadily over the last six months, with over 70,000 UK searches in September 2009. This proves that the “grey pound” and “silver surfers” will continue to play a vital role in the online dating game.

Gary Collins, CEO, at Status Media, a uk based digital agency which specialises in online customer acquisition stated that, “Matrimonial websites in India have the highest online advertising spend in their local market. We are working towards a new breakthrough to assist online dating companies to cost effectively acquire new members.”

The difficulty for online dating sites is in retaining members – obviously those that find love have no further need for the service, and those that don’t, often lose heart, with average customer retention rates being highest in the adult sector. Affiliates refer a lot of subscribers to major dating brands, and companies such as Easy Date, White Label Dating and World Dating Partners offer advanced white label dating solutions for those looking for a uniquely branded site or perhaps to target a specific niche market such as local dating.

Traditionally co-registration and online lead generation channels are not used by major dating companies in the UK, however this could soon change. The challenge for online dating companies is to capture sufficient profile data and managing the conversion rate from “free” sign up members to paid online subscribers at an acceptable CPA.

Statistics suggest that the current average CPA for online dating “free member” sign ups in the US is $7.00-$9.00 with the major cpa networks delivering thousands of monthly acquisitions, these gained mostly by email marketing. In the UK many online dating brands are cautious about paying on “free member” sign ups preferring more traditional acquisition channels such as Google Adwords and TV.

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