Skip to content
Redmoon Calculators
Writing & editing

Headline Analyzer

Free blog title / headline analyzer. Scores your headline on length, word balance (common / uncommon / power / emotional), type (how-to / list / question), and gives specific suggestions.

Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software

When to use this

Use the headline analyzer before publishing any blog post, email subject, YouTube video, or news article. Headlines drive click-through; a 30% improvement in headline often beats a 30% improvement in body copy.

How it compares

A focused alternative to CoSchedule's gated headline analyzer. Open-source word lists, transparent scoring, no signup. Use it as a first-pass filter, then A/B test in production.

0 chars

How it works

The headline analyzer scores a single headline on five axes: length (chars and words), word balance (common, uncommon, power, emotional), type (how-to, list, question, statement), readability of the headline itself, and platform-tuned ideal length.

Power and emotional word lists are drawn from public-domain marketing lexicons. Words that match neither power nor emotional are tagged as "common" (everyday) or "uncommon" (interesting / unfamiliar).

The composite score is heuristic, not a prediction. Use it as a first-pass filter, then A/B test in production.

FAQs

How is the score calculated?

A composite of length match, word balance (common / uncommon / power / emotional), and headline type (how-to, list, question, statement). Heuristic, not predictive.

What are power and emotional words?

Power words drive action and authority (proven, ultimate, revealed). Emotional words trigger feeling (amazing, terrifying, beloved). Both improve click-through in tests.

Does platform really matter?

Yes. Email subjects work best at 30-60 chars; YouTube titles tolerate 40-70; blog posts target 50-70. The platform selector tunes the ideal range.

Worked example

Input

"7 Proven Ways to Boost Your Blog Traffic"

Output

Score 88/100 — strong. List headline with 1 power word, 1 emotional word.

A number ("7"), a power word ("proven"), an emotional word ("boost"), and good length (40 chars). List headlines consistently outperform statements.

Common pitfalls

  • Score is a heuristic, not a prediction — test the top 2-3 variants in production.
  • Word lists are English-only and skewed toward marketing language.
  • Highly emotional words ("amazing", "shocking") may improve clicks but hurt brand authority.
  • Platform matters — what works on YouTube fails on LinkedIn.

What the analysis weighs

The score combines length, word mix and structure. Length is the hard constraint, because a headline that truncates in search or in a feed loses its ending, and endings are where headlines usually put the payoff.

Word mix is the softer part: the balance of common words, uncommon words, emotional words and power words. That framework comes from headline-testing practice rather than from any published research, so treat the score as a structured checklist rather than a measurement.

The number is not the goal

Optimising a headline score is easy and frequently counterproductive. The vocabulary that scores well overlaps heavily with clickbait, and a headline that overpromises relative to the page costs more in trust and bounce rate than it gains in clicks.

The parts worth acting on are mechanical: is it going to truncate, does it front-load the meaningful words so it survives truncation, does it say what the page is actually about. Those improve outcomes reliably. The emotional-word ratio does not, on its own.

Read more about this

Related tools

Send feedback

We read every message. Tell us what could be better or what you love.