3 Reasons Why You Should Be Wary of Listicles

See what I did there?

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There is a lot of writing advice out there that encourages writers to use numbers in the title of their articles, creating what is called a “listicle”. For example, this piece that in Better Marketing provides 6 reasons to use numbers in your title:

1. It makes the article sound authoritative
2. It lets readers know how much time they need to invest
3. They suit our brains
4. Google loves numbers
5. It provides structure for the writer and reader
6. The numbers back up the numbers

Feel free to dive into it to se the rationale. Some of these reasons are human and some are manipulative. And, these days, it’s hard to find the line between the two. If you want people to read what you wrote, don’t you have to get their attention by feeding the algorithm and the human mind?

I am not discouraging writers or readers from reading listicles. They can be useful, easy to read, and very helpful. But they can also be a little dangerous. And here are 3 reasons why :)

1. There is rarely a set number of ways to do things.