Headline Analyzer

What this tool is used for

• Comparing three candidate headlines before committing one to a page or a send.
• Checking whether a headline will be truncated in a search result at its current length.
• Finding out whether a headline is carrying any emotional weight at all.
• Rewriting a flat title without staring at it, by seeing which words score.
• Sanity-checking a headline written by someone else before publishing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a headline work on a web page?

It has to survive being SKIMMED in a list of search results and social cards, where it competes with other headlines. Front-loading the specific noun matters more than cleverness, because readers decide from the first two or three words.

How long should it be?

Google truncates around 580px, which is roughly 55-60 characters, so the key information must come first. Longer headlines are not penalised — they are simply cut off mid-phrase in the result, which loses the point.

What are power words and do they help?

Emotionally loaded words like proven, effortless or costly. They measurably lift click-through, but they are also what makes a headline read as clickbait when overused — the effect reverses once a reader distrusts the source.

Do numbers really improve headlines?

Consistently, in tested data — odd numbers and specific figures outperform round ones, because they read as counted rather than estimated. "7 ways" outperforms "several ways" and often "10 ways".

Is this the same as an SEO title tag?

Not necessarily. The on-page H1 and the <title> can differ deliberately: the title targets the search snippet and the H1 speaks to someone already on the page. Many sites make them identical and lose that flexibility.

Does headline length matter differently on social?

Yes. A search result truncates around 60 characters, but a social card gives you two or three lines before clipping and shows the full text in-feed. The same headline can read complete in one place and cut off in the other.

Why score sentiment at all?

Because emotionally neutral headlines are the ones readers skim past, and strongly negative ones outperform on click while underperforming on trust. The score is a prompt to check the tone is deliberate, not a target to maximise.

Common errors and gotchas

• Optimising for the score rather than the reader, which produces the clickbait register the score cannot detect.
• Treating the number as predictive, when only your own audience's behaviour is evidence.
• Stuffing power words until the headline stops describing the article.
• Ignoring the length rule for the actual surface, since search, social and email all truncate differently.
• Writing a headline the article does not deliver on, which costs more in bounce than it gains in clicks.