Find the persuasion in your copy.Then fix the dose.
Power words are the verbs and adjectives that make a reader feel something and act. Too few and your copy reads like a spec sheet; too many and it reads like a late-night infomercial. Paste your copy and get a persuasion score, a category-by-category breakdown, and a verdict on whether you're under-seasoned or laying it on thick.
Your copy
Aim for roughly three to eight power words per hundred words. The counter checks five levers: urgency, emotional, trust, value, and curiosity.
The read
Persuasion score
D
Lever by lever
Urgency: 1
Found "today". This lever helps create time pressure that nudges the reader to act now.
No emotional words
Nothing here to make the reader feel something instead of just reading. Worth a deliberate choice — strong copy usually fires three or more of the five levers.
Trust: 3
Found "proven", "guaranteed", "results". This lever helps anchor your claims in proof so the excitement is believable.
Value: 2
Found "free", "save". This lever helps make the offer feel like a deal worth taking.
No curiosity words
Nothing here to open a gap that pulls the reader to keep going. Worth a deliberate choice — strong copy usually fires three or more of the five levers.
Light — 13.0 per 100
Almost there. 6 power words in 46 words is on the low side of the 3–8 sweet spot. A couple more charged words on the lines that matter would lift it.
Power words in your copy
Get the proven marketing system that gets you booked solid. In just a few hours you'll discover the exact, research-backed playbook our clients use to save hours and win more deals. Claim your free spot today and start seeing results this week. No fluff, guaranteed.
Your move
The right word in the right place is worth a thousand average ones.
Your copy scored 65/100 (D) — 6 power words across 46 words.
A counter tells you the dose; it can't tell you which word your buyer's been waiting to hear. That's the work I do, in their language, on the lines that decide the sale. Send me a page that's getting read but not converting and I'll show you, free, where the words are leaking and which ones would close it.
Plain English
Power words are dosage, not decoration.
A power word is a high-charge word that triggers an emotional or psychological response: urgency, fear of missing out, trust, desire, curiosity. 'Free,' 'proven,' 'secret,' 'instant,' 'guaranteed.' Used well, they're the difference between copy that informs and copy that moves. They turn 'a marketing course' into 'the proven, no-fluff system that gets you booked solid.'
But power words follow a dose-response curve, not a more-is-better line. Sprinkle a few across a paragraph and they lift it. Cram one into every sentence and the reader's brain flags it as hype, the same instinct that makes spam filters and skeptical buyers tune out. The sweet spot for most marketing copy is roughly three to eight power words per hundred words: present enough to feel alive, restrained enough to stay credible.
This tool counts your power words across five categories, urgency, emotional, trust, value, and curiosity, then scores the density against that sweet spot. It tells you which lever you're leaning on, which you've left on the table, and whether the overall dose is bland, dialed in, or tipping into spammy. Then you adjust by hand, where the judgment belongs.
The formula
Density = power words ÷ total words × 100 (target ≈ 3–8 per 100)
A 100-word paragraph with 5 power words scores in the sweet spot. The same paragraph with 1 power word reads flat and scores low ('bland'). Push it to 20 power words and the score drops again: that's one hype word every five words, the cadence of a scam, and the tool flags it as overhyped.
Your score came back off. Here's the read.
Density under ~2 per 100 (bland).
Your copy is describing, not selling. Find the flat verbs and nouns and trade up: 'a guide' becomes 'the proven playbook,' 'sign up' becomes 'claim your free spot.' Add charge to the lines that matter most: headline, subhead, CTA.
Density over ~15 per 100 (hypey).
You've crossed from persuasive into infomercial. Every other word is a flare, so none of them land. Cut the weakest ones and keep one strong power word per idea. Restraint reads as confidence; hype reads as desperation.
One category doing all the work.
If every power word is 'urgency,' your copy nags. If it's all 'value' ('free, free, save, bonus'), it feels cheap. Mix levers: pair a trust word with a curiosity word, urgency with a concrete benefit. Variety reads as credibility.
Strong score but no trust words.
Charged copy with zero proof is just noise. 'Proven,' 'guaranteed,' 'backed,' 'results', these anchor the excitement in something believable. Without them, an emotional, curiosity-heavy block can feel like a con.
How to use power words without sounding like an ad
01Front-load the headline
The headline does the heaviest lifting, so spend your strongest power word there. One charged word in the first thing they read beats five buried in paragraph three.
02One power word per idea
Stacking ('amazing, incredible, jaw-dropping results') cancels out. Pick the single best word for each claim and let the surrounding plain language make it credible.
03Anchor emotion with trust
Pair the exciting words with proof words. 'Stunning results' is a claim; 'proven, stunning results' is a claim with a backbone. Trust words keep emotional copy from reading as hype.
04Match the lever to the goal
Selling scarcity? Lean urgency. Selling transformation? Lean emotional and value. Selling a click? Lean curiosity. Don't fire every lever at once, choose the one the moment needs.
05Earn the urgency word
'Now,' 'today,' 'expires' only work if the deadline is real. Fake urgency is the fastest way to torch trust, and once burned, it doesn't come back.
06Power up verbs, not just adjectives
Adjectives stack into hype fast. Strong verbs ('unlock,' 'claim,' 'discover') carry charge with less risk of sounding inflated. Reach for the verb first.
07Read it out loud
If it sounds like a person who's excited about a real thing, you're in the sweet spot. If it sounds like a 2 a.m. infomercial, you're over the line. Your ear catches what the counter can't.
08Trim before you add
Most over-dense copy gets better by deletion, not rewriting. Cut the weakest power word in each sentence first, then judge whether anything's actually missing.
The vocabulary
- Power word
- A high-charge word that triggers an emotional or psychological response and nudges action, e.g. 'free,' 'proven,' 'secret.'
- Power word density
- Power words as a share of total words, per 100. The headline metric this tool scores against a sweet spot.
- Urgency words
- Words that create time pressure or scarcity ('now,' 'today,' 'limited,' 'expires'). Powerful, but only when the deadline is real.
- Trust words
- Proof and credibility words ('proven,' 'guaranteed,' 'certified,' 'results') that anchor emotional claims in something believable.
- Curiosity words
- Words that open an information gap ('secret,' 'hidden,' 'reveal,' 'little-known') and pull the reader to keep going.
- Hype
- Over-dense power-word copy that the reader's brain flags as exaggeration. The thing this tool helps you stay just under.
Power word questions, straight answers
Power words are high-charge words that trigger an emotional or psychological reaction and make a reader more likely to act, words like 'free,' 'proven,' 'secret,' 'instant,' and 'guaranteed.' They work by tapping urgency, trust, desire, or curiosity. This tool groups them into five categories and counts how many your copy uses.
Keep going
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.