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Clickbait headlines

Headlines that withhold the point in order to be clicked.

Why it matters

A headline that says what happened is complete. Nobody needs to click it. A headline that says what happened next will shock you is incomplete, and incompleteness is the most reliable driver of traffic yet discovered.

Headlines ending in a number test 36% better.

How Outhouse measures it

Outhouse counts headline formulas such as you won't believe, this one trick, what happened next, doctors hate and nobody is talking about. Three or more scores in full.

This audit counts towards Dark Patterns, with a weight of 1. A category is 75% its two highest-scoring audits and 25% all of its audits, weighted, so a site is judged mostly on what it does most and partly on how many things it does.

How to improve your score

Install Tab Recall. Available on selected plans. See all products.

Related audits

• AI slop phrasing: Text with the tell-tale phrasing of machine-written filler.