You may have heard that people shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But when you consider that 7.5 million blog posts are published each day, it’s hard to deny that people look at the cover (headline) before deciding whether they want to read a post. If your headline is bland, generic and doesn’t capture your audience’s attention right away, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll move on to another post, and your article will be all but forgotten.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way! Headline analyzers are excellent tools that make it easy to come up with eye-catching, effective headlines that will help you improve traffic and grow your email list.
I’ll explain how a headline analyzer works and outline several elements that you should consider when creating your next blog title.
What is a headline analyzer?
A headline analyzer is a tool that examines your headline for readability, intrigue and overall effectiveness. It then provides an average score and suggestions on how to improve it.
It considers factors like length, sentiment and emotional appeal, among others, before providing a rating.
The idea is to find the perfect mix that will catch your audiences’ attention and convince them that your content marketing is worth their time.
Headline analyzers are able to work their magic because they are fed successful posts and copy from writers and advertisers. Often, this data is curated by the original creator from hundreds to thousands of different sources.
Some of the factors headline analyzers consider when they look at this data include:
- Word balance: Analyzers check for a balance of common, uncommon, emotional and power words.
- Headline type: Identifies if the headline is a question, list-based, how-to guide, etc.
- Sentiment: Analyzers gauge the overall emotional tone of the headline (positive, negative, urgent).
- Character and word count: Assess if the headline falls within the ideal length for readability.
- Keywords: Analyzers determine if relevant keywords are present for search engine optimization.
- Target audience: Some tools consider if the language and tone are appropriate for the intended audience.
Here are some of the most popular free headline analyzers:
- CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
- OptinMonster Headline Analyzer
- Sharethrough Headline Analyzer
- AIOSEO Headline Analyzer
5 tips for writing effective headlines
Now that you know what a headline analyzer is and how it works, let’s talk about actionable tips you can use to write effective headlines for your next blog post. We will also explain how many of these tips are analyzed and calculated by these tools.
Make sure it’s relevant
The most important thing to remember is your headline has to be relevant to your target audience. If people don’t resonate with the title of your article, they will not have a reason to click through to your post or read it.
Imagine you visit a cooking website that features a ton of great recipes. But when you look at their official blog, there are a lot of seemingly off-topic posts mixed in that talk about fashion and accessories. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, right?
Odds are, people will not click these posts because they are there to learn about how to cook food, not fall dresses.
Therefore, when you’re coming up with a title for your post, make sure it directly ties back to the goals, needs and pain points of your target audience. You’re far more likely to get clicks if people care about the overarching topic of your content.
Use power words
You want to avoid bland titles and instead, think about how you can use power words to your advantage.
Power words are essentially attention-grabbing words that trigger an emotional response in your reader, even if it’s very subtle.
Here are a few examples for you to consider:
- Trust power words: proven, expert, tested, reliable, official
- Ease and convenience power words: accessible, how-to, simple, straightforward, efficient
- Curiosity power words: astonishing, shocking, stunning, little-known, exclusive
There are a ton of other types of power words, including ones that inspire fear, anger, greed and all of the other “big” emotions you can think of.
When you use a headline tool, it will often rate what you wrote based on how many power words you use.
Check for readability
Most people skim content instead of reading it, which is why it’s important to make sure your headlines are easy to read.
Articles that feature complex words, acronyms or lengthy phrases tend to be harder to read at a glance. As a result, people will skip over your post and move on to something a little more accessible.
For example, instead of “Maximizing ROI through the strategic implementation of personalized email campaigns,” you’d be much better off going with something like “How personalized emails can boost your ROI.”
Think about the simplest and easiest way to get your message across, and you can almost guarantee more people will check out your article. You can elaborate and get into details once they’re in there, but catching their attention with a readable title is a crucial first step.
Choose the right word count
If your article headline is too long, even if the message is crystal clear, people will not read it.
An ideal word count is 6 to13 words, plus or minus a few words. You do not want to go too far above this because your content will lose some of its meaning, which will result in fewer clicks.
But most importantly, long headlines do not read well on smartphones. When you consider that there are approximately 18 billion mobile devices, it’s not hard to see how choosing the wrong word count could affect your traffic.
It will take some time to find the right balance. However, many headline analyzers will give you suggestions on what words don’t add value if your title is too long.
Use popular formats
Finally, some proven formats simply work for getting people to check out your post. Here are some to try:
- Lists: People love listicle-style articles. These headlines include numbers and invite readers to check out the full list. For example, “5 little-known ways to cook with eggs.” Titles like this promise a finite list and information that resonates with their needs, so they’re far more likely to click through.
- Resources: You’re probably familiar with this format. They are often designed for people with specific goals or pain points who need help. For example, an article titled “The ultimate guide to growing your email list (+ free tools)” fits this criteria. It addresses a problem and offers solutions that include downloadable tools.
- How-to: How-to guides are extremely popular across all industries. Everyone wants to learn how to do something new. How-to style articles take this desire and put it front and center. “How to grow your Instagram following” is an example of this type of article. How-to guides are often in tutorial format so readers can follow along and learn something new.
There are other types of formats out there, but these three tend to see the best results. You’ll notice that most headline analyzers will mark a title favorably if it follows one of these styles.
However, don’t be afraid to experiment a little and see if there are other ways of writing effective headlines that will capture your audience’s attention.
Final thoughts
The tips and advice on effective headlines above have helped us grow over the years, and I believe the same is possible for you. Always go into this with a curiosity-based mindset, and you can bet that you’ll learn something new and find exciting ways to elevate your content marketing strategy.