Clickbait Tactic can do your Website more Harm than Good
When was the last time you happened to click on a catchy headline only to be served something else instead, both in terms of content and product description. Well, these rather cheap marketing tactics are nothing new and often termed as “clickbaits”.
This marketing concept of clickbait dates back to 1800s where it was initially coined as a part of “Yellow Journalism” where the readership hungry newspapers used it to good effect to sell their rather ill-researched and sensational piece of news coverage.
And with evolving times, it might have taken a different name altogether but the concept remains the same. A big proof of that is your internet domain which is rather cluttered with more than thousands of such live websites competing for your kind attention.
This is the reason why even Facebook who was one of the modern pioneers of this form of social marketing, had to create an algorithm to keep it away from it’s news feed section. Having said that, there are some reasons to believe that Click-baiting does not work as such. Here’s why:
Look beyond the clicks and views count
If only clicks and views are the two primary reasons that you are currently exploring this form of marketing then you are not only doing dis-service to your customer but also not helping the bottom-line of your business. But in doing so, you are rather compromising on the quality of your content and thus the reputation of your brand as well. According to a Chartbeat survey, you only get 15 seconds to impress upon your average readers and if your content quality and positioning is not up to the mark then there are chances that they may fly away from your page sooner than you may think, leaving you with only clicks and views count, but no engagement and takeaways as such. Coming back to Facebooks algorithm update, the new improved algorithm looks for reader’s engagement as a sign of reader’s satisfaction level. And if you are able to clickbait him to your content page but unable to get his due content attention for significant period of time then Facebook marks it as red flag as a sign of reader’s unsatisfying level.
Moreover, if your content is able to garner thousands of clicks and a few likes then Facebook will again mark it as red flag as a sign of an unsatisfactory visitor of your not so much impressive content. Thus, if there are no shares or engagement report of your content then clicks and views won’t help matters and you will only have to blame one thing its clickbait, mate.
Disappointed and Confused
If somehow your clickbait article is able to sneak past through Facebooks algorithm update manages to find itself into the newsfeed section then your clickthrough reader will examine the quality of your content on one of the two following parameters as below.
- Disappointed: Your clickthrough reader isn’t satisfied with the solutions that is on offer through your content and wants to be compensated for wasting his due time on your content. This is rather disappointing side of the clickbait style of content marketing.
- Confused: The Headline of the content provides your user with a fair idea about what he can possibly expect out of your content description. In that sense it not only plays with the sense of imagination of your customer but also mars your customers overall content experience both in terms of takeaways and richness of your content. A recent research findings by The Journal of Experimental Psychology too, talks about the same disappointing aspect of your clickbait style of content marketing where things are unnecessarily blown out of proportion to get more clickthrough attention.
Clearly, you may lose your clickthrough audience on both content parameters and the clicks and view count to show for your unimpressive content effort that won’t impact the bottom-line of your business as such.
Quality Scores over Clickbaits
The fact about the quality of your content, Google recently announced that it only ranks those websites which are high on the content quality both in terms of user engagement and your clickthroughs overall content experience. So, if your content isn’t delivering on quality parameters then clickbait won’t help matters. Talking about delivering output, quality scores over clickbait. Hence, it’s important to get beyond your unimpressive clicks and views and deliver more on the quality front to get the engagement, shares and conversions happening. A lot of businesses and especially the B2B businesses are acknowledging this fact and in turn trying to do the needful. In fact, a recent B2B content marketing research by the Content Marketing Institute nailed the fact that rich and quality content is all you need to rank ahead not only in searches but also to improve the bottom-line of your business.
So, do you still feel the need to employ the clickbait form of marketing?
Well, your guess is as good as mine. As they say, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.
The Click-bait tactic work only when you have quality content to back you up. Otherwise, not only it will shoo away your customer in 15 seconds but also will spoil your clickthroughs overall web experience.
And if you need some assistance in enhancing the quality of your web experience, check out our Search Engine Marketing Services. You can also email sales@agencyplatform.comor call (888) 736-0541 (Toll-Free) for assistance.
