Headline Analyzer

Your headline is the only part of your content that most people will ever read. It's what shows up in search results, social feeds, inboxes, and link previews, and it decides whether anyone sees the rest. This analyzer looks at your headline from six angles and rolls them into one score out of 100:

• Length. Character count and word count, measured against the ranges where headlines tend to perform best.
• Word balance. The mix of common, uncommon, emotional, and power words that makes a headline readable and compelling at the same time.
• Headline type. Whether your headline is a list, how-to, question, explainer, guide, comparison, review, story, command, announcement, or a generic statement.
• Numbers. Whether you use numbers, where they sit, and whether they're written in a scannable way.
• Sentiment. Whether the headline reads as positive, negative, or neutral, and which words are driving that.
• Pixel width. How wide your headline renders in Google's title font, and exactly where it'll get cut off in search results.

On top of that, it flags clarity problems like all caps, stacked exclamation points, and clickbait phrases, shows you the first and last three words readers skim, and checks the placement of your focus keyword if you add one.

This tool grades one headline at a time. To check the H1 to H6 heading tags across a whole article, use our H1-H6 Heading Tag Checker.

Each part of the analysis earns points, and the total is scaled to a score out of 100:

• Word balance (50 points): How close your common, uncommon, emotional, and power word percentages are to their target ranges. This carries the most weight because it's what separates a compelling headline from a flat one.
• Length (15 points): Character count (ideal: 40 to 60) and word count (ideal: 6 to 12).
• Headline type (10 points): Structured formats like lists, how-tos, and questions earn more than generic statements.
• Sentiment (8 points): Headlines with a clear emotional direction earn more than flat, neutral ones.
• Clarity (8 points): Deductions for all caps, excessive punctuation, clickbait phrases, and repeated words. All caps and clickbait also cost an extra 10-point penalty each.
• Google pixel width (5 points): Whether the full headline fits in a desktop search result without being truncated.
• Numbers (4 points): A small bonus for using specific numbers.

If you enter a focus keyword, up to 10 more points are added to the pool for including the keyword, placing it near the front, and keeping it visible before Google's cutoff. The score is then rescaled so it's still out of 100.

A score of 70 or higher is a strong headline. Between 50 and 70 is workable but has clear room to improve. Below 50 usually means the headline is missing something important, like a clear promise, an emotional hook, or a reasonable length.

Great headlines balance four kinds of words. Too many of one kind and the headline either reads like a robot wrote it or like it's shouting at you.

Common words (target: 20 to 30 percent). The everyday connecting words like "you," "your," "how," "this," "the," and "for." They make a headline flow like natural speech. A headline with no common words reads like a string of keywords. A headline that's mostly common words says nothing specific.

Uncommon words (target: 10 to 20 percent). Words that show up less often but still feel familiar, like "actually," "reasons," "finally," "mistakes," "simple," and "ideas." They add specificity and help the headline stand out from the dozens of near-identical titles around it.

Emotional words (target: 10 to 15 percent). Words that make the reader feel something: "surprising," "painful," "brilliant," "heartbreaking," "hilarious," "terrifying." Emotion is what turns a headline from information into a reason to click.

Power words (target: at least one). Persuasive trigger words with a long track record in advertising and copywriting: "proven," "free," "secret," "instantly," "essential," "ultimate," "mistakes." One or two in a headline sharpen the promise. Four or five start to sound like an infomercial. For a deeper look at power words in longer copy, try our Power Word Analyzer.

Words that don't fit any of these groups, like topic nouns, brand names, and numbers, are counted as "other." That's normal. Your topic words are what make the headline about something.

There's no single best format, but headlines with a clear structure consistently outperform vague statements because they tell the reader exactly what they're going to get.

• List: "9 Email Subject Lines That Doubled Our Opens." Lists set a clear expectation and promise easy scanning.
• How-to: "How to Write a Blog Post in 60 Minutes." How-tos match the way people search and promise a practical outcome.
• Explainer: "Why Your Blog Isn't Getting Traffic." Explainers open a curiosity gap around a problem the reader already feels.
• Question: "Is Your Website Losing You Customers?" Questions start a conversation the reader wants to finish.
• Guide: "The Complete Beginner's Guide to SEO." Guides signal depth and bookmark-worthy value.
• Comparison: "Mailchimp vs. ConvertKit: Which Is Better for Creators?" Comparisons catch readers who are close to a decision.
• Review: "We Tested 12 CRMs for 30 Days." Reviews promise first-hand proof.
• Story or case study: "How We Grew Organic Traffic 312% in 6 Months." Stories trade on real results.
• Command: "Stop Writing Boring Headlines." Commands are direct and confident.
• Announcement: "Introducing Our 2026 Content Marketing Report." Announcements trade on timeliness.

If the analyzer labels your headline as generic, try rewriting it in two or three of these formats and compare the scores in the comparison table. The format that makes the clearest promise is usually the winner.

For most blog posts and articles, aim for 6 to 12 words and 40 to 60 characters. That's long enough to carry a topic, a benefit, and a hook, and short enough to display in full almost everywhere.

Google cuts titles off by pixels, not characters. Desktop search results show roughly 580 to 600 pixels of a title in a 20px Arial font. Wide letters like "W" and "M" use up that space much faster than narrow ones like "i" and "l," so two 60-character headlines can truncate in completely different places. This analyzer measures your headline in that font and shows you a preview of exactly where Google will cut it.

Email subject lines get cut off sooner. Mobile inboxes typically show only 30 to 40 characters of a subject line, and desktop clients around 60. If you're writing a subject line, front-load the most important words.

Readers skim the first and last three words. People rarely read a headline word for word. They grab the beginning and the end and fill in the rest. Make sure your first three and last three words carry the meaning on their own.

Usually, yes. Numbers make a promise concrete. "Ways to Save Money" is vague. "11 Ways to Save $500 This Month" tells the reader exactly how much content they're getting and what it's worth to them. Numbers also break up a line of text, so they catch the eye in a crowded feed or results page.

• Use digits, not words. "7" is faster to scan than "seven," and it's more likely to stand out in a list of results.
• Lead with the number in list headlines so readers see it first.
• Be specific. "37%" feels researched. "Lots" feels made up.
• Odd numbers are a popular choice in list headlines because they feel less rounded off and more genuine, but the right number is whatever your content actually delivers.
• Years signal freshness ("in 2026"), but they also date your headline, so update them when you update the content.

Either can work. The one direction that rarely works is neither. Neutral headlines blend into the background because they give readers no emotional reason to care.

Positive headlines promise an outcome: "The Simple Habit That Made Me a Better Writer." They work well for aspirational, educational, and how-to content.

Negative headlines warn about a loss: "The Costly Mistakes That Are Killing Your Conversion Rate." Loss aversion is a powerful motivator, so negative framing can outperform positive framing, especially for problem-solving content. Overdo it, though, and your brand starts to sound alarmist.

The analyzer scores sentiment with a word-level lexicon. It weighs words by emotional strength, boosts them when an intensifier like "really" or "extremely" comes first, and flips them when a negation like "not" or "never" appears just before, so "not bad" isn't scored as negative.

Yes. Many headline analyzers ask you to create an account or hand over your email before you see a single score. This one doesn't. There's no signup, no email gate, no usage limit, and no premium tier hiding the useful parts.

It's also private. The entire analysis runs in your browser, so your headlines are never sent to our server or anyone else's. The comparison table is stored in your own browser's local storage so it's still there when you come back, and you can clear it any time with the Clear button.

Writing one headline and calling it done. Professional copywriters often write 10 to 25 headlines for a single piece. Write several, run them all through the analyzer, and compare them side by side. The first idea is rarely the best one.

Promising more than the content delivers. "This One Trick Will Change Your Life" might earn a click, but a disappointed reader bounces, doesn't share, and won't trust your next headline. The analyzer flags common clickbait phrases for this reason.

Burying the keyword. If you want the headline to rank, put your main keyword near the front, and make sure it appears before the point where Google truncates the title.

Shouting. ALL CAPS and stacked punctuation like "!!!" read as spam to readers and to email filters alike. Use strong words for emphasis instead.

Being clever instead of clear. A pun or inside reference might make you smile, but if the reader can't tell what the article is about at a glance, they'll scroll past. Clarity first, personality second.

Ignoring where the headline will appear. A great blog title can make a terrible email subject line once it's truncated to 35 characters. Check the previews for every place your headline will show up.