Setting up a white label dating site is a fairly easy task even for those who have never done it before. Even so, you will have to spend some time figuring things out on your own and determining what exactly needs to be done. Having created numerous dating sites on nearly all of the white label platforms out there, we have compiled a list of the most important parts of the process for you to tick off as you create your own site.
1. Register a domain
Before creating any site you need to obtain a web address for it. There is an array of domain registrars that you can use to acquire a domain name.
Choosing between a short, clickable, hopefully memorable domain and a keyword-rich domain that can potentially be ranked higher by search engines is always a dilemma. Unfortunately, one option is not necessarily better than the other. Follow your personal intuition and go for the domain that sticks with you the most.
Some white label platforms give you an opportunity to run your site under their subdomains, so if you prefer that, check with your account manager if this is a possibility.
If you already have a website – blog, forum or any other special interest or community-related site – you can integrate the dating element by adding your white label under the same subdomain.
2. Change name servers
Your domain name records should be pointing to the servers of the white label platform that you want to run your site on (unless you choose to host your landing pages yourself, then you would need to point the domain to the servers of your hosting provider). You will find the information on the name servers in the admin area of your white label provider’s system. Copy them and make changes via your domain registrar account.
Usually it takes up to 24 hours for name server changes to take full effect, but sometimes it may take as long as 48 hours, so be prepared for this eventuality.
3. Build the site
The capabilities of website creation tools vary slightly from platform to platform, but most white label providers give access to a self-managed admin interface where you can create your dating site in just a few clicks. You will only have to choose a design template, determine the geography of your database and select the language you want your site to be in.
Some platforms allow you to add your own custom-coded front page design if you want a more unique final product.
4. Upload a logo
You will need a .PNG format logo with a transparent background. When making a logo keep in mind that it should be easily readable when displayed in a small size as it will have to fit into a relatively narrow header area. If your logo is light (e.g. white, light blue), consider adding a shadow so it doesn’t blend with any light background you may need to use it on. It is always better to get your logo designed larger or in vector format (as you might need to use it in other promotional materials or social media) and then scale it down to the size that is required by the platform.
5. Find a featured image
While white label platforms usually offer design templates with imagery to choose from, uploading your own visual is highly recommended. Not only will it better reflect your unique value proposition, but it will help you stand out from competitors. This rule is especially applicable to niche dating sites where you need more specific personalisation than a generic image of a happy couple.
There are a few large stock image repositories that you can browse for imagery to use under a royalty-free license, but bare in mind that some of these websites have restrictions on using their pictures for dating and adult-related services (usually meaning that you can’t use photos containing people). Be sure to take your time reading terms of service and license agreements before downloading any images.
6. Write relevant copy
The copy of a website serves two purposes. First, it conveys the value proposition to the customer and second, it helps to bump your dating site to the top of search results.
Do SEO keyword research using Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Google Trends or any other online tool to get some suggestions on keywords and search volume estimates. Select those that are most relevant (not most popular) with significant search volume that can potentially bring traffic to your site and include these keywords in your copy.
Aim for a few long tail keywords that accurately describe your service rather than trying to cram in as many generic keywords as you can and risking your copy reading like randomly generated word strings. Search engines are after original and relevant content and so are your customers.
7. Create titles and meta descriptions
A meta description is a preview snippet displayed in search results along with the relevant page title. Crafting a compelling title and meta description using important keywords helps to advertise your content and can increase click-through rates as search engines bold keywords that match search queries.
If you have already done keyword research before writing your copy, choose a keyword that you want to optimise each of your pages for, make sure it is included in your copy and use it in both the page title and meta description. Optimal title length is around 55 characters and meta description length around 160.
It is important that titles and meta descriptions on each page are unique, so if you have a few different landing pages based on interest or dating preferences, make sure you adjust each title and meta description accordingly so that they contain the most relevant keywords.
Not all white label platforms give you direct access to HTML or tools for editing your page title and adding a meta description, but if yours does it’s worth spending a few minutes filling in these areas.
8. Register your site on Google Analytics
All white label platforms have built-in statistics monitoring functionality that will help you see the volume of registrations, amounts of payments, conversion rates and other dating-industry-specific KPI’s. However, they won’t be able to show where your traffic comes from, which visitor segments are most valuable or what search terms/keywords bring conversions.
Google Analytics is a popular tool that will help you gain valuable insights on your landing page performance, measure the ROI of your advertising campaigns and enable you to make data-driven marketing decisions.
Register an account if you haven’t already and add your website. You will find a unique tracking code under the ‘Tracking Info’ section in your Google Analytics admin area.
9. Add tracking codes
For external services to be able to collect data you need to add a tracking code to your dating site.
When editing the settings of your white label site, look for a designated field for inputting a tracking code or tracking ID that you obtained from Google Analytics or other statistics monitoring platform of your choice. Insert the code into the field, then save and publish the site so performance tracking begins taking effect. After a few days you will be able to analyse your traffic and start gaining insight into possible areas of improvement.
10. Register with Google Search Console
Signing up with Google Search Console will give you access to selecting a preferred domain version and target country as well as the possibility to upload a sitemap that will help Googlebot discover your pages more quickly.
There are a few options for verifying your site on Google Search Console, but if you have already signed up for a Google Analytics account, linking it to your Console would be the easiest way. Click the ‘Verify’ button after adding your site and you should get an instant confirmation.
Make sure both www and non-www versions of your site’s domain are added to your Google Search Console account. The reason you need to do this is that people may use both versions of the domain and even though either version would work to access the site itself, Google won’t treat them as the same link. Selecting a preferred domain will attribute both variations to the same domain and help boost your site rankings.
If your domain ends in .com or .net and you want to target users in a specific country, you will have to set your geographic preference. For country-specific domain endings (e.g. .co.uk, .se) the target country will be assigned automatically.
Google suggests adding a sitemap to Google Search Console. You can create it using any online sitemap generator. Once you upload it and your page gets crawled by Googlebots, you will see if there are any crawl errors, the number of sites linking to yours and how many pages Google has indexed.