Clickbait titles or headlines are titles created with the motive to bring attention to what you want a visitor to read or see on your website or blog. The catch is that the titles are normally misleading or at times don't relate to the actual content that the visitor will read or see on your website, blog, or even a landing page for a product or service you're trying to sell. These titles normally contain strong adjectives, exclamation marks or words that sway heavy on emotions or thoughts.
Some examples of clickbait title practices are titles written to make the viewer or visitor stop in their footsteps. They are intentionally written for you to stop scrolling (during your internet search), read the headline, click on the headline (to view the content), and them bam it happens right before your eyes. What you thought you were going to read is not what the content is about, and as a result you either close-out of the particular content hosting location you're on or you find yourself searching the internet (all over again) until you find what you're actually looking for.
The flip side to clickbait titles or headlines is that not all content-creators are maliciously creating titles with this motive, but because of the way they've chosen to word their headlines they may fall into this category without realizing it. For example, a wedding photographer may use a title for a blog such as, "3 Amazing Styling Tips for Fabulous Bridal Details". The intentions of the wedding photographer who more than likely spent more than an hour putting together this blog piece may not have been to "click-bait", but because of what they've chosen as a title they unintentionally fall into this category.
What Do Click-Bait Titles or Headlines Include (Look Like):
Strong Adjectives
Strong Absolutes
Images that make you want to look at the content
Take a look at this image below for a breakdown of what I've listed as bullet points.
