5 Ways to Avoid Writing Clickbait
Follow these tips to create compelling content without resorting to clickbait.
Everyone wants readers to click on their content, visit their website, and buy their products. However, in trying to write appealing headlines, people can often resort to creating “clickbait.” But what is clickbait? In general, these headlines consist of words and symbols to provoke curiosity and grab those clicks at any cost. However, promising astonishing information in your headline and failing to deliver on it can increase your bounce page rates, decrease your Google rankings, and lose your business credibility. Fortunately, there are still ways you can write compelling headlines without misleading readers. Read on for five tips on how to avoid writing clickbait articles.
State the Benefits
Stating the benefits of a headline is considerate and useful. You can be considerate by writing from the reader’s perspective and useful by setting an expectation about what is to come in the article. Stating the benefits will help your reader answer the question, “why should I read this?”
Be Clear Over Clever
Catchy can be good, but nothing beats clarity. Don’t make the reader do the heavy lifting by trying to figure out what you mean, because they will decide to read something else instead. You should also avoid using jargon in headlines, as most readers will not know what you mean. You can avoid writing clickbait by making sure your headlines are clear, and your content follows suit.
Ask a Question
A question mark in a headline provokes the reader’s interest. The best questions also show empathy for your readers. Asking a question with your headline and backing it up with clear, honest, and related content helps you avoid writing clickbait articles that mislead readers.
Include Numbers
Readers are attracted to numbers, and including them in your headlines when applicable can increase your readers’ interest. Numbers not only let the reader know that the content will likely be easy to understand, because numbers are easy to process, but they also provide predictability and certainty. For instance, readers of this article will know that it will only contain five tips on how to avoid writing clickbait, and not ten.
Express a Problem
If you state a problem your readers may be experiencing, your reader will feel you understand them, and they will want to read more to see how you can help them. However, you must back this up by doing your homework on the subject. Before writing an article, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- What’s the problem?
- Who’s experiencing it?
- Why is it a problem?
- How does it make them feel?
Answering these questions will help you write honest, clear, and useful articles without resorting to elaborate clickbait practices to get readers to your website.
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