I notice that the format of the “find a sitter” has changed to a list rather than a grid view.
I have often wondered how the ranking of the list is determined and who gets “pole” position, it seems even more prominent for those now within the first few pages of the “list” whereas previously in the grid format it would display many more on a single page.
Anyone able to throw light on the ranking of the display of profiles?
I believe it’s randomized and always changing so as to give everyone exposure. But I do use the app.
@Martin_S Interesting question! I just ran a little test of my own by searching for sitters in Napa, CA which is where we are from. The first 2 sitters listed aren’t even from Napa - strange, right? The 3rd sitter has no reviews. We are Premium members with 62 5-star reviews in the location I searched and appear halfway down page 2 of the search results. That’s bananas!!
Hi @Martin_S as @Edith says I also understand the positioning of sitters to be a random algorithm to give everyone a fair chance of being seen. I’m going to tag @Therese who will be able to confirm this when she’s back on Monday.
The trouble is, I’m not sure that agreement would ever be reached as to how it should be ranked if at all…
Maybe some high level options need to be selected prior to a list of sitters being displayed would help?
Some additional sort options like “most completed sittings” or by “animal type” (using the sitter profile preferences selected).
For example, I do not sit for dogs, but I do get invites for dogs even though I have not checked that box on my preferred animals list.
In tests I’ve done, our profile always jumps to the top of a search in Kelowna after I have updated our profile.
True, how to prioritize would get lots of differing opinions. I would think those who live in the actual city being searched for would appear first? There are some filters for dates, pets and reviews. But yes, a sort function would be nice!
Any possibility of creating some filter options being selected prior to display of sitters??
That could reduce the prospect of display bias being an issue
@Kelownagurl I just changed one word in our profile and HOLY SMOKES it works! We are first on the list now!
Yep, works every time. That being said, I don’t care a wit if we are first on the list in Kelowna. I don’t want to sit in Kelowna - I already live there. I’d like to be first on the list in Provence. 
I wonder if updating it regularly does the same thing as it would on a website and helps your SEO as the crawlers see fresh content…?? 
@Kelownagurl Fair point! 
You can always change your location to where you would like to find a sit . . .
@Martin_S @Vanessa_A @Therese I recently posed a similar question, but using the ‘contact us’ on the main website. I ask my questions using that route, directly to membership services, rather than on the forum.
I will add the response I received. I am still a little puzzled by the use of ‘homeowner’s specific availability’, given I was asking about sitters. However, I’m not bothered enough to take this further.
I am merely relaying what I received. No other comment on my part, as I’m not convinced by the answer. I did also reply, stating that. 
Search results are arranged by location, the homeowner’s specific availability, preferred origin, and pets. According to our analytics, the vast majority of homeowners use search filters when finding a sitter, such that any automatic sorting applied by our algorithm is overridden by these set parameters.
I’m still seeing the grid view on both the app and the website
@Crookie If you look at this post and Angela’s responses you will see why there are various versions of the sitter search page.
Hi @Martin_S @WanderingAmber There are some filters used for searching sitters are on the right hand side, date, pets, and experience, but they do not naturally assort in order of highest Reviews to lowest. These are moved randomly around, so to offer every sitter an opportunity to be on page 1 at some point. It should only show sitter profiles specified for the location set so if this is not working for you, please always send a screenshot to membership services, so we can investigate this further.
I hope this helps answer.
Hi Therese,
As a matter of curiosity, I just tried going through the pages of profiles (without using filters) page by page and notice that despite the page numbers changing, many of the profiles are just repeated for several pages!
I then reset and tried filtering by “Reviews>Members”
This brought up mixed results of some profiles with 35 review and others with 1 - So not much consistency there.
I reset again and filtered by “My Pets>Cats”
Mixed results again showing sitters who sit for multiple animals not just cats
Not much consistency there either, I do understand that sitters sit many pet types so why even bother having a “Cats” option if the search returns every pet type?
I didn’t bother trying to use the location or dates options as those are largely irrelevant when looking for a sitter as a willing sitter could be located anywhere at anytime.
I just think the whole “search for a sitter” needs a rethink as it just appears to promote those that edit their profiles each day (according to other posters).
Properly filtered check boxes could be created PRIOR to showing any profiles, this would then remove the “suggestion” that some profiles get a pole position on the current default search criteria.
Hi @Martin_S
Thank you for your input on this, and I will certainly send what you wrote to our product team to look at streamlining this better in the future… This is much appreciated.