Image of Tantalus courtesy of Clayton Cusak

What if I told you I could teach you to write the perfect headline? One that is so irresistible every person who sees it will click on it. You'd sign up immediately and maybe even promise me your firstborn.

But what if I then told you not one single person out of all the millions who will click on that headline will convert? And that you might lose all your credibility in the process. Would all the traffic generated by that "perfect" headline be worth it?

Help us solve a dispute

It isn't really that bad, but with all the emphasis lately on headline science and the curiosity gap, Trevor (your faithful editor) and I (a recovering copywriter) started talking about the importance of headlines and what their role should be in regards to content. I'm for clickability (as long as there is strong content to back the headline) and, if he has to choose, Trevor is for credibility (with an equal emphasis on quality of the eventual content).

What's the purpose of a headline?

Back in the good ol' days, headlines were created to sell newspapers. Newsboys stood on street corners shouting the headlines in an attempt to hawk those newspapers. Headlines had to be enough of a tease to get readers interested but they had to be trustworthy enough to get a reader to buy again tomorrow. Competition for eyeballs was less fierce because a town only had so many newspapers, but paper cost money and editors were always happy to get a repeat customer.

Nowadays the competition for eyeballs feels even stiffer because it's hard to get noticed in the vast sea of the internet. It's easy to feel a little desperate. And it seems like the opportunity cost of turning away a customer is much lower than it was before. But aren't we doing content as a product? Does the quality of that product matter?

The forbidden secrets of clickable headlines

There's no arguing that headlines are important. In fact, at MozCon this year, Nathalie Nahai reminded us that many copywriters recommend an 80:20 ratio of energy spent on headline to copy. That might be taking things a bit far, but a bad (or even just boring) headline will tank your traffic. Here is some expert advice on writing headlines that convert: 

• Nahai advises that you take advantage of psychological trigger words like, "weird," "free," "incredible," and "secret" to create a sense of urgency in the reader. Can you possibly wait to read "Secret Ways Butter can Save Your Life"?
• Use question headlines like "Can You Increase Your Sales by 45% in Only 5 Minutes a Day?" that get a reader asking themselves, "I dunno, can I?" and clicking to read more.
• Key into the curiosity gap with a headline like "What Mother Should Have Told You about Banking. (And How Not Knowing is Costing You Friends.)" Ridiculous claim? Maybe, but this kind of headline gets a reader hooked on narrative and they have to click through to see how the story comes together.
• And if you're looking for a formula for the best headlines ever, Nahai proposes the following:
  Number/Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise = Killer Headline.

Many readers still (consciously or not) consider headlines a promise. So remember, as you fill the headline with hyperbole and only write eleven of the twelve tips you set out to write, there is a reader on the other end hoping butter really is good for them.

The headline danger zone

This is where headline science can get ugly. Because a lot of "perfect" titles simply do not have the quality or depth of content to back them.

Those types of headlines remind me of the Greek myth of Tantalus. For sharing the secrets of the gods with the common folk, Tantalus was condemned to spend eternity surrounded by food and drink that were forever out of his reach. Now, content is hardly the secrets of the gods, but are we tantalizing our customers with teasing headlines that will never satisfy?

For me, reading headlines on BuzzFeed and Upworthy and their ilk is like talking to the guy at the party with all those super wild anecdotes. He's entertaining, but I don't believe a word he says, soon wish he would shut up, and can't remember his name five seconds later. Maybe I don't believe in clickability as much as I thought…

So I turn to credible news sources for credible headlines.

I'm having trouble deciding at this point if I'm more bothered by the headline at The Washington Post, the fact that they're covering that topic at all, or that they didn't really go for true clickbait with something like "You Won't Believe the Bizarre Reasons Girls Scream at Boy Band Concerts." But one (or all) of those things makes me very sad. 

Are we developing an immunity to clickbait headlines?

Even Upworthy is shifting their headline creation tactics a little. But that doesn't mean they are switching from clickbait, it just means they've seen their audience get tired of the same old tactics. So they're looking for new and better tactics to keep you engaged and clicking.

The importance of traffic

I think many of us would sell a little of our soul if it would increase our traffic, and of course those clickbaity curiosity gap headlines are designed to do that (and are mostly working, for now).

But we also want good traffic. The kind of people who are going to engage with our brand and build relationships with us over the long haul, right? Back to what we were discussing in the intro, we want the kind of traffic that's likely to convert. Don't we?

As much as I advocate for clickable headlines, the riskier the headline I write, the more closely I compare overall traffic (especially returning visitors) to click-throughs, time on page, and bounce rate to see if I've pushed it too far and am alienating our most loyal fans. Because new visitors are awesome, but loyal customers are priceless.

Headline science at Moz

At Moz, we're trying to find the delicate balance between attracting all the customers and attracting the right customers. In my first week here when Trevor and Cyrus were polling readers on what headline they'd prefer to read, I advocated for a more clickable version. See if you can pick out which is mine…

Yep, you guessed it. I suggested "Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird" because it contained a trigger word and a keyword, plus it was punchy. I actually liked "A Layman's Explanation of the Panda Algorithm, the Penguin Algorithm, and Hummingbird," but I was pretty sure no one would click on it.

Last time I checked, that has more traffic than any other post for the month of June. I won't say that's all because of the headline—it's a really strong and useful post—but I think the headline helped a lot.

But that's just one data point. I've also been spicing up the subject lines on the Moz Top 10 newsletter to see what gets the most traffic.

And the results here are more mixed. Titles I felt like were much more clickbaity like "Did Google Kill Spam?..." and "Are You Using Robots.txt the Right Way?..." underperformed compared to the straight up "Moz Top 10."

While the most clickbaity "Groupon Did What?..." and the two about Google selling domains (which was accurate but suggested that Google was selling it's own domains, which worried me a bit) have the most opens overall.

Help us resolve the dispute

As you can tell, I have some unresolved feelings about this whole clickbait versus credibility thing. While Trevor and I have strong opinions, we also have a lot of questions that we hope you can help us with. Blow my mind with your headline logic in the comments by sharing your opinion on any of the following:

• Do clickbait titles erode trust? If yes, do you ever worry about that affecting your bottom line?
• Would you sacrifice credibility for clickability? Does it have to be a choice?
• Is there such thing as a formula for a perfect headline? What standards do you use when writing headlines?
• Does a clickbait title affect how likely you are to read an article? What about sharing one? Do you ever feel duped by the content? Does that affect your behavior the next time?  
• How much of your soul would you sell for more traffic?