Clickbait floods content all over the Internet. The recent decision from Facebook to update their algorithm so that it only shows meaningful content isn’t their first backlash on clickbait type marketing; which goes to show this muddy type of advertising takes up more space than we think.

Clickbaits are manipulative, exaggerated headlines that thrive on the psychology of the reader, giving very little information and sparking curiosity. For example, if a video’s headline is, “This blind, autistic boy enters the stage- what happens next shocks everyone.” more than likely the reader will be intrigued to click on this video to see the surprising ending they were promised. And also more than likely, there will be not be any meaningful content at the end of the video or on the other side of the advertisement shown.

Although these types of headlines can drive enormous amounts of traffic to your site, they lack value in that the visitor will often bounce after they realize the content shown is not to the standard and excitement they expected.

How can you make a clickbait-free headline while still grabbing attention? This is a hard balance of sparking interest and under-promising. You need to get people to click on your headline while ‘wowing’ them once they arrive. Here are some tips Anita Sambol mentioned in her full article: tone the sensationalism down & build your authority, create honest and informative titles and inspire them to learn.

By following these guidelines you should be on your way to more traffic and more buyers on your site!

Get more tips and read the full article here.