How to Increase Click-Through Rate with Tabloid Headlines

Rebecca Carey 9 years ago

In the fast moving world of SEO there is one thing that will always stand the test of time… a good headline. A good headline can do any number of things, but its most important attribute is an increase in click through rates, on even the most mundane article posted online.

A recent survey by Microsoft discovered that the average attention span of a person consuming content is around the eight second mark; this means you have little more than a headline to capture someone’s attention and draw them in.

Many would argue a good headline is as important as a well-written article – and they would be right - because without one, you must ask yourself, ‘is it worth writing a good article no one will look at?’ So, where has our love for a good headline come from? And what defines a ‘good’ one?

There is only one real example, to answer that question… the tabloids.

Tabloid newspapers have always reigned supreme, when it comes to thinking up captivating headlines. Competition between tabloids has always been fierce, so headlines had to be reactive. Therefore, newspapers have become great at using fear factor tactics to boost sales. It’s been said that the most reactive articles almost always involve money, sex or violence.

There are many different strategies and formulas that can be used to increase the click-through rate of an article, but what is most interesting is the psychology behind all of these strategies.

Here are some of the best strategies to consider, the psychology behind them and when they were best used:

Surprise

The classic shock tactic always works well. Emory neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains: “We find that so-called pleasure centres in the brain do not react equally to any pleasurable substance, but instead react more strongly when pleasures are unexpected.”

Essentially surprise will stimulate the brain and grab your attention more than say, a headline stating something you already knew, even if it’s something you take an active interest in.

Even if you say you don’t like surprises, your brain enjoys them, and that’s why these shocking headlines work so well.

This headline by The Sun is a perfect example. It has become one of the newspaper’s most famous and iconic headlines, even if it was later revealed to be a complete lie and actually helped revive Starr’s career. But who really cares, eh? It still sold well.

Curiosity

Curiosity arises when attention becomes focuses on a gap in one’s knowledge. These ‘information gaps’ produce a feeling of deprivation labelled as curiosity. Now, for curiosity to catch, the reader needs to know a little (or a lot) about the headline subject. But once it takes hold, it’s difficult to resist curiosity. In fact, it increases with knowledge. The more you know, the more you want to know.

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Again, The Sun has produced some fantastic headlines that spark curiosity over time. This one for example, encourages us to ask ‘what’s this’? Amanda Holden nearly died? Why? How? Is she okay? Curiosity is almost certainly going to get the better of you in this situation, even if you couldn’t care less about Holden, you want to know what happened and why her heart stopped.

Positives or Negatives?

Although superlatives (such as best and greatest) do work within headlines, it was actually found that negative superlatives (such as worst and never) capture the reader’s eye more effectively.

According to a recent survey by Outbrain.com it was found that headlines containing negative superlatives performed 30% better than their positive counterparts.

Questions

I was planning on adding question headlines into these ‘winning strategies’ but a lot of the research around them contradicts the idea that questions do attract the reader. This study indicates that headlines, albeit captivating ones, without questions actually performed much better in a field test than ones which utilised them.

Most popular headlines and words

With some research you can quickly learn what does and what doesn’t work in a headline. Despite the ideal length of a headline being just six words, there is so much that can go wrong in that small area to work with.

There’s a lot that can be said about the most popular words and phrases in viral headlines, from the study you can see what works best is:

• You and Your: People love personalised stories. If it personally appeals to them, they are far more likely to read it. Everybody loves being the centre of attention, so if an article directly relates to them, then they are more likely to click through.
• Man and Girl: Humans are naturally inquisitive and this is the reason why human interest stories always sell well. If a headline involves people rather than things, according to the study you are more likely to read on.
• What, which, why, when?: Questions, questions, questions. This one has already been alluded to, so I won’t go into too much detail but again, it taps into our inquisitive nature and the fact that people don’t like to leave a question unanswered. This is the reason they carry on reading – a headline involving a question will encourage a click through, because they want to know the answer.

Photo and Video

People are far more likely to click through to an article if it involves a picture or video - this could be a rich snippet on a Google search or if the headline indicates that the article features a video.

If you look at the Sun headlines, noted earlier, you’ll notice that almost everything that makes an online headline popular or ‘viral’ has been taken from strategies used by tabloid newspapers.

Eye Tracking

It has even become important to place your headline in the correct place, in order for your article to get maximum exposure on page. Many studies have looked at the pattern eyes take whilst on page. This means it’s really important to place your headline AND title image in the right area on the page.

There’s something called the F-Pattern in eye tracking studies, which shows that a Google user’s eyes will follow an F-Pattern, which means if your headline is too long (or too far down the page for that matter) it will barely get noticed.

Another important part of a headline is the image that accompanies it, also known as ‘the power of direction cue’. According to several studies people have a tendency to look where others are also looking, therefore a strong image accompanying your headline is always important and definitely something to consider featuring in the future.

Clickbaiting

So, what is the next step for headline writing? Where is it going to go from here?

Well, headlines are in the process of taking a whole new direction and Buzzfeed seem to know exactly what works at the moment. takes a look at the online publisher’s most popular headline titles and as you can see, Buzzfeed has taken the ‘listicle’ to great heights. You can guarantee almost every phrase in the study either starts or ends with, ’10 things you’, or, ‘these 10 things’.

Linkbaiting is simply defined as: ‘content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors.’ In basic terms, this means writing headlines that attract attention and encourage you to click on a website.

Long gone are the days of pun based newspaper headlines. The importance now is based on keywords and conversion rates. A website headline must do two things; rank highly for the keywords within the article AND engage the reader enough to want to click and read the article.

This is exactly why Buzzfeed - and other viral content sites - have a winning headline formula. Everything they write, including the dreaded ‘listicle’, is keyword heavy and intrigues the reader enough to click through.

In short, tabloid headlines have almost completely shaped the way we write headlines in the digital age. Their influence still massively resonates in newer headline writing techniques with their surprise, curiosity and shock tactics.

Therefore, if you want to increase your click through rates, get reading some old newspaper headlines for inspiration.