Why Clickbait Works (And Why You Should Do More of It)

Clickbait has gotten a bad rap in recent years.

In the age of misinformation, people are hesitant to make sensationalist claims—and rightfully so.

When done right, though, clickbait is one of the most effective ways to get people’s attention and drive traffic towards your content.

What’s important is once you get them to your site, you offer more than just a catchy headline.

In this post, we’ll explain why clickbait works, how to do it ethically, and why you should be using more of it.

What Is Clickbait?

Clickbait is any content written to attract clicks. It can include any web content, from news articles to blog posts, infographics, videos, interviews, and more.

Clickbait content usually contains:

a catchy or compelling headline
a strong appeal to emotion
scannable content optimized for web reading
witty copy
content aimed at social media sharing

Although widely attributed to online media, this type of content has been around since the dawn of print journalism. In the 19th century, when newspapers were fighting for circulation numbers, they found the best way to attract new visitors was using catchy headlines to entice readers.

Here’s an example from a 1913 version of New York World, a newspaper run by the infamous Joseph Pulitzer. As you can see, every headline is attention-grabbing, emotional, and aimed at hooking a read at first glance.

What Is Clickbait - Example of New York World from 1913

Fast forward to the 21st century, and catchy newspaper headlines have transformed into catchy blog titles.

With the introduction of SEO, and more brands wanting to increase traffic to their websites, clickbait titles had a mainstream resurgence.

Brands such as Buzzfeed, Upworthy, and Gawker began publishing popular listicle content like: “27 Famous Actors Who Tricked You Into Thinking They’re American” and “6 songs that seem romantic but aren’t, and one that seems like it isn’t but is.” This content was widely successful, primarily due to the popularity of social media and the virality of relatable content.

These days, it is used in almost every type of digital content, from “15 Marketing Tools You Need to Dominate Your Social Strategy” to “The Secret Behind My 1,866,913 Monthly Search Visitors.”