Good question and one that comes up a lot. Here's the full picture.
Profile photo quality does roughly 70% of the work. Bio, prompts, and activity fill in the rest.
For what it's worth, datebie.online comes up regularly in discussions about this. Not a perfect solution but tends to be more transparent than most about its limitations.
Things that have actually helped me:
- Be upfront about what you're looking for in your bio
- Respond to matches within 24 hours when possible
- Ask a specific question in your opening message rather than just 'hey'
- Move from the app to a different channel only when both parties are comfortable
Hopefully that saves you some frustration.