Will A Headline Analyzer Save Your Story from Obscurity?
I was skeptical until I tried it
It’s happened to most of us. You’ve written what you thought was a great story only to hear the sound of silence after publishing it. Could the issue be your boring headline?
And if so, can you quickly learn to write better headlines?
I experimented recently with a headline analyzer tool. Here are my first impressions.
A Good Headline is NOT Clickbait
Nothing annoys me more than clickbait headlines that lure you in with false promises.
Because I have been fooled once too often, I was skeptical about tools to help you write better headlines.
Then I read a story by Julianne Buchler called Pleasurable Earnings Achievable After 3 Months on Medium With Titillating Headlines. Among other things, she describes her experience with a free headline analyzer tool.
There’s a Method Behind Attractive Titles
Julianne’s article intrigued me, so I immediately tested it out.
I fired up the tool and entered the title of a draft article called “My Experiment Writing an Evergreen Article.”
“Meh,” the tool said. “You can do better.” And so in a matter of minutes, I tried out several variations as shown here:
You don’t just guess how to improve your title. The tool shows you details in several categories, so you can see where your title is weakest:
You don’t just guess how to improve your title
Is Using a Headline Analyzer Worth Your Time?
Maybe you’re already a wizard at writing titles. I was surprised at how poorly my first drafts ranked.
The basic functionality is free, which is hard to argue with. It is also easy to use.
They do offer to upsell you a pro package, which includes:
- Information about how to improve your SEO score
- Headline suggestions and word banks
- More extensive history of your headline drafts
There’s a free browser plug-in, so you never need to leave the Medium platform while you’re drafting. As a way to get a quick gut check of your headline, I find it hard to beat.
In sum, I’d say a headline analyzer tool is worth checking out. You needn’t spend any money. It’s a small investment of your time.
And it might just save a worthy article from obscurity.
Be well.
PS — Do you use a headline tool? What’s your experience been?
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