I’m a big fan of the Lore podcast, and in a recent episode[1], the host discussed a book called the Malleus Maleficarum.
Two words starting with the “mal” prefix doesn’t sound super friendly, right?
Well, the book is essentially a guide on how to identify witches and conduct witch trials. It turned out to have quite the horrible impact on society — as we’ve learned in history classes — but the host notes that it’s also one of the first how-tos ever written.
And it was published in 1486, ore than 500 years ago.
How-to content isn’t new, and from what I can tell, it isn’t going anywhere. Look at how many search results come back when you narrow content down to titles including “how to.”
It’s not just that there’s a ton of this type of content, either. People want to read it.
The prominence of “how-to” content
My team at Fractl[2] did a study about how different generations search online[3]. We gave nearly 1,000 people this prompt:
You just got engaged! It’s time to start thinking about the wedding, but you’re not sure where to start. What is the first word or phrase you would search using Google or another search engine?
Thirteen percent of all the respondents’ hypothetical searches had “how to” in them, and the youngest respondents — millennials and Gen Zers — used it the most.
It serves as additional proof for what we already suspected: how-to content remains a staple in the content world.
And it makes sense, doesn’t it? How-tos not only lend themselves to the thrill of learning new information online (and the seemingly endless number of things that are available to learn); they also serve as a tool of empowerment. Even