Grade your headline,then aim it at the right reader.
Every other headline tool scores words in a vacuum. This one scores the levers that move clicks, length, power words, emotion, specificity, and then tells you the one thing they miss: which stage of awareness your headline is actually built for. A great headline for the wrong reader still loses.
Your headline
Tip: write five or six variations and grade each. Keep the highest score that fits your reader's awareness stage.
The read
Headline score
C
Words
11
Characters
53
Type
How-to
Sentiment
Neutral
Built for
Solution aware readers
This reads as built for a solution-aware audience — it promises an outcome or method. Great for how-to and mechanism-led copy; add proof if they're comparing vendors.
Find your audience's stage ↗Signal by signal
11 words
Right in the sweet spot — long enough to say something, short enough to scan.
53 characters
Won't get cut off in search results or subject previews.
No power words
Add a conversion word — you, free, proven, now, because — to give it pull.
No emotional words
Headlines that carry emotion get shared and clicked more. Consider one.
Has a number
Specific numbers raise believability and click-through.
Distinctive wording
A healthy mix of common and uncommon words — readable but not generic.
Word balance
- Power words0
- Emotional words0
- Uncommon words64%
- Common words36%
Your move
A scored headline is a start. A page that converts is the job.
Your headline scored 68/100 (C) — built for solution aware readers.
I write the headline, the page under it, and the funnel behind that, matched to exactly how aware your buyer is. Bring me the page you're trying to fix and I'll show you, free, where the message and the reader are missing each other.
Plain English
A headline isn't good or bad. It's right or wrong for the reader.
Your headline does 80% of the work. David Ogilvy's old line still holds: five times as many people read the headline as read the body. If it doesn't earn the next sentence, nothing else you wrote matters. So it's worth more than a gut check.
Most analyzers grade mechanics, word count, a sprinkle of 'power words,' a sentiment guess, and hand you a number. Useful, but incomplete. A headline that scores 90 can still flop if it talks to a stranger like they already want to buy, or pitches a product to someone who doesn't know they have a problem.
This tool grades the mechanics and maps your headline to Eugene Schwartz's five stages of awareness, unaware, problem aware, solution aware, product aware, most aware. You get a score, a letter grade, a signal by signal breakdown, and a read on who this headline is for. Fix the mechanics, then make sure you're aiming at the right person.
The formula
Score = length + word balance + power + emotion + specificity − friction
A 6 to 12 word headline (40 to 60 characters) that carries at least one power word, one emotional word, and a specific number, without ALL CAPS or hype punctuation, scores in the A range. Drop the number and the emotion and the same structure slips to a C. We show you exactly which lever moved the grade.
What strong headlines have in common
Across studied datasets, the headlines that get clicked share a recognizable shape. Use these as guardrails, not gospel, the awareness match matters more than any single number:
| Lever | What works |
|---|---|
| Word count | 6 to 12 words |
| Character length | Under ~60 (no truncation) |
| Power words | At least 1 |
| Emotional words | At least 1 |
| Specificity | A number or named mechanism |
| Case & punctuation | Sentence/title case, one mark |
Source: Aggregated headline CTR studies (CoSchedule, Backlinko, Ogilvy) · 2025
Your headline scored low. Here's the likely culprit.
No power or emotional words.
It's accurate but inert. Trade a flat word for one with pull or feeling, 'guide' becomes 'playbook,' 'improve' becomes 'fix.' Emotion is what makes a headline travel.
Over 70 characters.
Search results and subject line previews cut you off around 60. Front load the hook so the part that earns the click survives the truncation.
No specificity.
Vague promises read as noise. A number, a timeframe, or a named mechanism ('in 30 days,' 'with one re written page') raises believability and click through.
Wrong awareness stage.
If you're pitching the product to a cold, unaware reader, or explaining the problem again to someone ready to buy, the mechanics don't matter. Match the message to where their head actually is.
Mostly common words.
It's readable but generic, it could front any article in your niche. Swap in one vivid, distinctive word to make it unmistakably yours.
ALL CAPS or stacked punctuation.
Shouting reads as spam and drains trust. Sentence or title case, one punctuation mark. Let the words carry the energy.
How to lift a headline fast
01Write 10, keep 1
Pros don't write the headline, they write twenty and pick one. Run several through this tool and ship the highest score that fits your reader's awareness.
02Lead with the reader, not you
'You' and 'your' outperform 'we' and 'our' almost everywhere. Make the headline about their outcome, not your offering.
03Add one specific number
Specifics beat adjectives. '7 ways' and '$1,200 saved' are believable in a way 'lots of ways' never is.
04Borrow a proven structure
How to, list, question, and curiosity gap formats earn clicks because brains are primed for them. Use the structure, fill it with your specifics.
05Promise one thing, clearly
Two ideas in a headline halve the force of each. Cut to the single most compelling promise and make it unmistakable.
06Match the awareness stage
Cold readers need a story or a problem; warm readers need proof; hot readers need the offer. The right mechanics on the wrong stage still misses.
The vocabulary
- Power word
- A conversion oriented word, free, you, proven, because, now, that adds persuasive pull beyond its literal meaning.
- Emotional word
- A high arousal word (amazing, brutal, effortless) that triggers feeling, which drives sharing and clicks.
- Awareness stage
- Eugene Schwartz's model of how much a prospect knows about their problem and your solution, from unaware to most aware.
- Curiosity gap
- A headline that promises an answer it withholds, creating the itch to click. Powerful, but it must pay off.
- Click through rate (CTR)
- The share of people who saw the headline and clicked it. The number a headline ultimately exists to move.
Headline questions, straight answers
It checks the levers that correlate with click through, word count (6 to 12 is the sweet spot), character length (under ~60 so it isn't truncated), the presence of power and emotional words, specificity like numbers, and word balance, then subtracts for spam signals like ALL CAPS. The result is a 0 to 100 score and a letter grade, with each signal shown so you know what to fix.
A calculator tells you what. A call tells you what to do about it.
Send me the account behind these numbers. I'll tell you straight where the money's leaking and what I'd fix first — free, and you keep it whether you hire me or not.