Clickbait is often characterized by phrases like “you will never believe this”, “sensational”, or other unverifiable assertions intended to arouse the curiosity of internet users.
The term clickbait can be defined as material put on the internet generally, or on social media in particular, in order to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page by over-promising or misrepresenting with a headline or image, or in combination.
The strategy is for a website to obtain as many page views as it can from attention-getting headlines. Most websites use page views or unique visitors as a measure of success, and advertisers pay accordingly.
Facebook and Google help people discover content online, but publishers are constantly challenged by changing algorithms. They must find a formula by which the story they want to promote is seen and clicked by as many users as possible. Very often, the formula for clickbait changes, but the attention-grabbing headline never goes away.
Clickbait is one of the easiest ways for a publisher to lose its audience. After being deceived once, smart readers will hesitate to read a story from the same publisher in the future.
