If you’re reading through this blog worrying about your fate on social media because you rely on clickbait headlines to drive traffic, take a deep breath. Although clickbait was once popular and easy to fall for, users are smarter. Clickbating your posts will only create a distrust between your brand and your readers. It may be hard to be a new business, or a smaller site wanting to grow your site visitors, but getting quality traffic will get you further than a million bounced clicks.
Headlines don’t have to be boring or dull to avoid facebook’s wrath, they just have to be honest. Avoid using the typical clickbait phrasing like “you’ll never believe” or “what happens next will shock you.” there are a few things you can use to write a great headline.
Facts and statistics if you’ve done something notable or have any interesting data
Google hit with record $22.5 million dollar penalty for improperly tracking safari users.” this headline tells the reader exactly what they’ll read about, but still draws them in wanting to know more.
Ask questions: there’s nothing more enticing than a great question that makes people think. Be sure to make your question descriptive free telemarketing leads and have the body of the article clearly answer that question.
Lists: some people would argue that lists headlines are clickbait, but when done right, they can be effective without being annoying. The list should be interesting and factual and relevant to your business. A travel website could post an article called “inane list of 8 things to do in sioux falls.”
This is not a complete list of ways to write headlines, but should give you a good start. The most important thing to remember is to keep the headline simple and honest. Even if you don’t get as many clicks, you want your users to trust you and stay on your website.
Facebook’s war on clickbait is hopefully about to bring some change to our newsfeeds
As user experience is prioritized over publisher content, we’ll see more and more bad content weeded from our social accounts. If you’re a IS Lists brand or publisher relying on clickbait traffic, it’s going to be more difficult to get your content out in the coming months as platforms crack down on it. Put the user first, create quality content, and craft truthful and creative headlines. If you do these things, you won’t need clickbait anymore.
