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This is solid, and the big thing I would add is that curiosity works best when it creates an information gap without feeling clickbaity. The title should make the reader think “I did not know that” or “I might be doing this wrong,” but still clearly signal what they will get if they click. If the payoff is unclear, people bounce even if they click.
One simple trick is to start with the outcome, then hint at the cause. Instead of “How to make better toast,” something like “Your toast tastes bland because you are skipping this step.” It creates tension but still promises a clear answer. You are basically framing the title around a mistake, a surprise, or a contrast.
Another pattern that works consistently is specificity. Numbers, timeframes, or constraints make titles feel more real. “Why most people wash bread wrong” is decent, but “Why 90 percent of people wash bread wrong in under 10 seconds” feels more concrete and harder to ignore.
Questions are great, but they work best when they challenge an assumption. Not just “Have you seen X?” but “Why does everyone do X if it makes things worse?” That invites disagreement and curiosity at the same time.
Last thing is to write titles after the content, not before. Once you know the most interesting insight in the piece, you can reverse engineer a hook around it. The best curiosity titles usually come from the most unexpected sentence in the content itself.
