Headline Analyzer
Score headlines on power words, emotion, length, and type
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Why use Headline Analyzer
- Scores update on every keystroke, so you can iterate between drafts without reloading or re-pasting.
- Word-balance breakdown splits the headline into common, uncommon, emotional, and power buckets so you can see whether the language earns its length.
- Per-check feedback tells you exactly which lever to pull next - add a power word, shorten by five characters, switch to how-to framing.
- Detects the headline archetype (list, how-to, question, reader-benefit) so you can swap in a higher-performing format when the current one is falling flat.
- Works on blog posts, articles, newsletters, YouTube titles, and product launch copy - anywhere a headline has to earn a click.
How it works
The analyzer lowercases the headline and tokenizes it into words. Each word is matched against four curated banks: common filler words, power words, emotional words, and everything else (uncommon words). Counts and percentages feed a word-balance panel. Detection routines look for list patterns (a leading number), how-to patterns ("how to" at the start), question patterns (trailing question marks or interrogative openers), and reader-benefit framing (second-person pronouns). A lightweight sentiment pass tags each word against positive and negative seed sets to produce an overall polarity. Nine checks run against a base score of 50, each adding or subtracting points, with an ALL-CAPS penalty applied at the end. The final score is clamped to 0-100 and mapped to a letter grade from F to A+.
About this tool
You've drafted a blog post and the headline feels flat. Is it? Paste it here and get a 0-100 score that tells you what is working and what isn't. The analyzer evaluates nine signals: character length against the 40-70 range that typically fits Google SERPs and social previews, word count against the 6-12 sweet spot, power-word density (proven, ultimate, essential, effortless), emotional pull (words like amazing, painful, incredible), uncommon-word ratio (how much of the headline is filler), headline type (list, how-to, question, reader-benefit, or general), sentiment polarity, numeric specificity, and ALL-CAPS penalty. Each signal contributes to a letter grade from F to A+, and every check explains what would move the needle. If the power-word section flags zero hits, you see a short list of swaps to try. If the headline reads as neutral, the tool suggests polarizing the framing. If the headline is likely to get truncated in search results, the character check shows exactly how many characters over the line it sits. The word-balance panel breaks the headline into common, uncommon, emotional, and power buckets with percentages, so you can see at a glance whether the headline leans on filler or earns its length with specific language. Hover or scan the matched words in each bucket to learn which phrases triggered which signal, then iterate on swaps with immediate feedback. Content marketers, bloggers, and newsletter editors can use the analyzer as a pre-publish gate: every draft title gets scored, anything under a B gets rewritten, and the ones that land in the A range ship. The same loop works for YouTube titles, product launch copy, podcast episode names, and social captions where a strong hook earns the click. Nothing is sent to a server and nothing is logged.
How to use Headline Analyzer
- Paste your headline. Type or paste the headline into the input. Analysis begins on the first keystroke.
- Read the grade and score. The letter grade and 0-100 score appear alongside the detected type and sentiment.
- Review the word balance. Check the common, uncommon, emotional, and power percentages. High power and emotional percentages signal a stronger hook.
- Address each check. Work through the detailed checks. Warnings and failures explain what is missing and what to add.
- Refine and retest. Edit the headline and watch the score update live. Iterate until you land in the A range.
Use cases
- Testing three versions of a blog post title side by side before scheduling to find the one with the strongest power-word and emotional signal.
- Rewriting a neutral newsletter subject into something polarized to lift the open rate.
- A content marketer audits every SEO article title in a backlog of 50 drafts, upgrading any title that scores below a B.
- Is the headline on your homepage hero doing any work? Paste it here and find out before the next A/B test.
- Tightening a YouTube video title from 85 characters down to 62 so it stops getting truncated in search results.
Frequently Asked Questions
A high-scoring headline falls in the 40-70 character range, uses 6-12 words, stacks at least one power word and one emotional word, picks a proven format (list, how-to, question, or reader-benefit), includes a number for specificity, and leans positive or negative rather than neutral. Hitting most of those lifts the score past 80.
Power words are high-impact terms that sharpen a promise or sharpen curiosity. Examples: proven, ultimate, essential, effortless, secret, remarkable, stunning, insider, breakthrough, guaranteed. One well-placed power word often separates a headline that gets scrolled past from one that earns the click.
The analyzer starts at 50 and adjusts based on nine signals: character length, word count, power-word count, emotional-word count, uncommon-word ratio, headline type (list, how-to, question, reader-benefit, general), sentiment polarity, whether a number is present, and an ALL-CAPS penalty. Each signal adds or subtracts, and the result is clamped to 0-100 before being mapped to a letter grade.
40-70 characters, 6-12 words. Google truncates SERP titles by pixel width rather than a fixed character count, but in most desktop fonts that maps to roughly 50-60 characters; social previews typically hold another 10 or so. Below 40 tends to under-deliver on the promise; much above 70 risks getting cut mid-phrase.
Headlines with strong polarity, positive or negative, consistently outperform neutral ones. Polarized language triggers an emotional response, which is what gets people to click, share, and read. Neutral headlines feel like descriptions, which is why the analyzer flags them.
Numbers help because they promise specificity: "7 tactics" sets a clearer expectation than "some tactics." Listicle headlines often outperform general variants in click-through tests, though the effect size varies by audience and topic. How-to and question headlines can score well without a number if the hook is strong enough.
The model is inspired by public research on headline performance, including the Advanced Marketing Institute's EMV framework and CoSchedule's well-known analyzer. This is an independent, open implementation with its own word lists and scoring rules. Scores are not directly comparable with any third-party tool.
No. The tool is free, runs in your browser, and requires no account. Nothing is sent to a server.
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