How to Use SSO (Single Sign-On) at a Dating Site?

It proves to be very effective to use Single Sign-On (SSO) to boost registrations and members activity for any online dating website. Twitter/Gmail/Facebook Connect buttons for SSO are usually already integrated into main ready-made dating platforms. According to WhatIs.com, Single sign-on is a session/user authentication process that permits a user to enter one name and password in order to access multiple applications. In our case – a dating website. The process authenticates the user for all the applications they have been given rights to and eliminates further prompts when they switch applications during a particular session. As a result the user may register at your dating site with his Facebook or Twitter account data. Usually internet users, who join dating sites, also are parts of various social networks. The problem is that people tend to create completely different personalities on dating sites and social networks. Most of the times, a person would mind sharing his/her social networking data with a niche dating site for a quick registration. In this case having only a Single sign-on option for registration may be bad. People just won’t join. That’s why just make sure you have an option to opt out of SSO and to register by filling in registration forms at your dating site. We noticed that most of popular Dating site builders have this option and it should not be an issue for you if you start your dating site with a ready-made script. Some people would argue that SSO still saves tons of time. Yes and no. It’s mostly a security issue.

So if you decide to use SSO at your dating site, make sure you follow these simple rules:

• Use only 1 SSO provider. Do not put Facebook Connect, Twitter and Gmail buttons together. It may backfire when a user would come back and would try to use SSO form to log in (not register). If he used FB Connect button to register last time and now is using Gmail button to login, your system may create 2 different profiles and confusion for a member.
• Offer an alternative: allow SSO and on-site registration. Let users choose.
• If you plan to use Single sign-on only, let user know that you are not transferring his data into your dating site unless he wants it to be transferred. To do it, you can use SSO button, and then log the user in and show him a page with the data you have just got from his profile with an option to edit/delete. This also concerns email addresses, nicknames, and personal data and profile pictures.

If you decide to use SSO, then you might as well use its social discovery opportunities. Ask your members if they want to invite their friends into your dating site, import member’s interests and likes to be able to suggest like-minded people right at your site. Then make your site free and add special targeting algorithms to let your users discover others easily. Form a community and learn more about it. Place ads and banners, special discount coupons and valuable gifts only for site members. Look at big guys who are using SSO like Zoosk, and those who don’t like OkCupid. Decide for yourself. Anyways your decision should work well with your business plan.