Good News

Your Headline Is To Blame for Poor Engagement And Low Earnings

8 Headline analyzers and generators plus tips to help you get that critical click!

Have you ever stayed up all night working on a post or an article because you just knew it was going to be the one?

I mean you just knew it.

If you’re a writer, you know the feeling I’m talking about.

You can feel it in your bones when you’ve written something groundbreaking.

• Maybe you made a connection between two things that no one else would think of and it just tied everything together.
• Or maybe you found that one quote or that statistic to back up everything you’d talked about in your post, so you just know you’re on the right track.
• Maybe you cried writing a post because it brought up old memories that you thought were long buried. I mean if it made you cry, it’s going to hit others right in the feels too, right?

So you finally finish your post.

It’s the one, you can feel it. You hit publish.

And then crickets…

Or perhaps a few people click or comment, but nothing like you thought it would be.

So you send it to friends, family, or even other writers to ask what you could do better. They all rave about the piece and can’t figure out why it didn’t get more attention.

Why does this happen?

Good news! It’s quite possible the problem is all in the headline. I’m going to give you a list of headline analyzers and title generators below that can help!

First impressions matter

Your mother or perhaps your father, a grandparent, or maybe a teacher, has probably told you about the importance of first impressions, right?

Stand up straight. Smile. Wear a belt with those pants. Shine your shoes.

Well, your headline is the first impression for your article. The headline, and the image, if it can be seen along with the headline, is what makes that first impression. And your relative or whoever that was that told you about first impressions was 100% correct.

First impressions in real life matter. And they matter even more online.

Whether it’s Medium, Amazon, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media platform, first impressions for your content matter.

Sure, your writing has to measure up too. But if your headline doesn’t do its job and get potential readers to click through, your writing doesn’t even get a shot at impressing anyone.

In real life, you can sometimes overcome a bad first impression with a little work. But online, you rarely if ever, get the chance to make a second impression on someone.

Here’s why

Think about how you choose what to read

Think about the last time you were on Amazon. Or Medium’s front page. Or any other social media platform.

How do YOU decide what to read?

If you’re anything like me, you notice the image first if there is one. But when you read the headline, that’s when you make that decision to click or go on to the next thing. Once you’ve moved on, you many times don’t come back, right?

If you’re writing content for people to read, it’s great that it shows up in their feed, or as something in their network, or on the first page of Google. When it comes to getting your work seen and read, getting it in front of viewers is definitely the first step.

The image might catch their eye and cause them to take notice. But the next step is getting them to click on it. And that’s where your headline can make it or break it for your content.

If they move on without clicking your headline, you’ve lost the chance to impress them with your writing. You won’t get a second chance in most cases.

So, what can you do?

How I use title generators and headline analyzers

One solution is to take more time with your headlines and titles. I’ve put together a list of headline analyzers and blog title generators below.

Some are designed to help you generate lists of possible titles or headlines. These are great if you don’t already have a headline or title in mind.

A few others are designed to analyze the headline you’ve chosen to help you choose the most engaging headline.

Keep in mind that you still need to do your research and use your best judgement when choosing any of these headlines. To do this, implement some of the suggestions by Jeff Goins in his post 5 Tricks for Writing Catchy Headlines that Lead to Viral Articles.

I like to use the title generators to come up with lists of titles before I write a post. But then I use the headline analyzers to make sure the words I’ve chosen will resonate as much as possible with potential readers.

Headline analyzers

I’m not affiliated with any of these companies. I just love resources so I bookmark cool tools so I can use them later. I decided it’s time to start sharing some of these resources with other business owners, especially writers. In the list below, I’ll let you know what I personally like or don’t like about each and give you a link so you can check it out for yourself.

1. One of the first headline analyzers I ever discovered was from Advanced Marketing Institute. When I found it several years ago, I thought it was really cool, I think because I’d never seen one work before. But as I’ve gotten more experience, I don’t find Advanced Marketing Institute’s analyzer to be as easy to use or as insightful as others, such as ShareThrough. There is some good information about the words you choose and how they impact emotion and other feelings so take a peek and see what you think.

2. I’ve used the headline analyzer by CoSchedule before and it is helpful. I mean let’s face it, they are one of the biggest names in digital marketing. They know their stuff. I think where this headline analyzer falls short is it requires you to enter your contact details before you can get any information about your title analysis.

3. I simply love the detailed analysis you get from Sharethough’s Headline Analyzer. I use it a lot. I also like that is saves your previous headlines in a history list so you can quickly compare one version to the next at the bottom. This means you can play around with wording in a headline until you get one that works best. There’s also some great information available from Sharethrough for those who want to learn more about the reasons behind the words we choose and how those can impact potential readers.

Once you analyze your headline with Sharethrough, you’ll see a list of strengths and suggestions with little arrows beside them. Click the arrows to expand each one and you’ll see something like this beneath your overall score. Want to know more about context words? Click the hyperlink for a downloadable word list and a ton of information on why these words matter.

Blog title generators

4. I just found this one recently and so I’ve only tried it out for the purposes of this article. But the immediate downside to this tool is that Seo Pressor only shows 2 to 3 titles at a time. Out of ten headlines I requested, at least one of the titles was nonsense. And my first impression is that they are definitely focused on selling you additional services while they have your attention on their site. If you use this one, make sure you carefully check each suggested title by doing your own research as well.

5. I do love the categories that are included in Tweak Your Biz’s title generator tool. They even have a category for “snarky” titles. This is a great tool for simply generating ideas. So if you are experiencing a block and not sure what angle to take on a post, you could pop the keyword in here for inspiration.

6. Blogabout by Impact has a nifty blog title generator which lets you save titles you love to a notebook as you go through them. Very handy. It also has this cool little doodle pad you can draw on if you have writer’s block.

7. Inbound’s title generator is handy if you’re looking for template title ideas. It reminds you to include a number and other important headline elements. I didn’t find their custom title generator helpful at all, it basically pulled up listings from Google, most of which were paid ads.

8. I thought the title generator by PressCable gave some very interesting titles. It was also really easy to use. You simply enter your keyword or phrase and get a suggested title. The only downside to this tool is that it gives you just one title suggestion at a time, so be prepared to take notes. But they were great titles.

So, in a nutshell, those are my thoughts and impressions of the headline analyzers and title generators I know about. My favorite headline analyzer is still Sharethrough. My new favorite title generator might be a toss up between Tweak You Biz and PressCable.

But the ultimate decision about word choice in your headline or title should come from you, a human, and not an algorithm.

Your headline is one of the two most important factors when it comes to getting views and earning money. Don’t just take my word for it. Below are some additional posts with tips and tricks about writing headlines straight from leading content writing experts.

Additional tips & tricks

6 Tips for Writing Headlines That Drive Traffic : Social Media Examiner

4 Easy Tips Writers Can Use to Create Irresistible Headlines

How To Craft Attention-Grabbing Headlines Readers Can’t Resist — PaidWrite

Do you have a headline analyzer you use that I didn’t mention here? Do you have tips or tricks you use to craft the perfect headline? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Meg Stewart is a full-time freelance writer who is passionate about helping others do the same. She founded the Freelance Filter to help writers get paid more and help solopreneurs do business better. She’s a multi-passionate skill hoarder and the intersection of freelance writing, technology, and teaching is her sweet spot. She lives in Ohio with her two youngest daughters, dog-Reese, and cats Scattle and Moo. Join her tribe for more posts like this one.