When you're running a serious blog, publication or website, the greatest number of clicks can't be your goal. You want readers: people who not only arrive and look but also appreciate and then stick around, subscribe, tell others about your content or buy something.
One competently written headline has the potential to attract more than a thousand times more readers to an article than another one.
No headline should leave readers feeling cheated when they get to the story. Avoid the use of slang or cheap puns, tabloid-like provocation, and don't give away how a story ends.
Vivid wording, some tension and a conversational tone are key.