Headline analyzer
The tool runs your headline through six checks — length in characters and in words, a number, an address to the reader, strong words, concreteness — and shows what each one contributes to a score from zero to a hundred. Penalties are counted separately: all caps, three exclamation marks, cliches, vague phrases, a repeated stem. On top of that it estimates the pixel width, because Google cuts a headline by the width of the line, not by the number of characters. This is an editor checklist made measurable. Not an oracle: a headline scoring 90 can flop and one scoring 45 can work.
Headline
The dictionaries are built into the page, the analysis is local, there are no network requests.
Score
Width in Google results
What the score is made of
| Component | Contribution | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Enter a headline and the score breakdown will appear here. | ||
Three examples to compare
| Headline | Score | What is different |
|---|
How the score adds up
Six components make up the hundred points. Length in characters gives up to 20 points, length in words up to 14, the presence of a number 12, a question or an address to the reader 12, emotional words from the dictionary up to 20, and concreteness up to 22. Inside the optimal range a component gives full points; outside it the points fade linearly to zero. Penalties are subtracted from the total: a word in all caps costs 12, three or more exclamation marks cost 10, each cliche costs 12 (never more than 20 in total), phrases that are too vague cost 10, and a repeated stem costs 8. The final number is clamped between zero and a hundred. Every row of the table shows both the points and what to do about them. That is why the score is not a black box: you can disagree with any item and do it your own way.
The optimal length depends on where the headline is published
For a blog article the working range is 50 to 65 characters and 6 to 12 words. That is the length that fits into Google results and still has room to say who the piece is for and what it promises. A guest post gets a wider range, 45 to 70 characters, because someone else’s blog often gives a headline more room. A book title goes the other way: 12 to 40 characters and 2 to 7 words, because it has to be read off a cover in a second. An email subject line sits at 28 to 45 characters, since phone mail apps cut anything longer. Pick the type in the list and the range is recalculated. Every other check stays the same for all types.
Why Google counts pixels rather than characters
In search results the headline is drawn in Arial at 16 pixels, and the letters in it have different widths: an "i" takes 3.6 pixels while an "m" takes 13.3. So two headlines of 60 characters each can be cut in different places, and the advice to stay under 60 characters only works on average. The tool measures the width from a built-in table of Arial widths and shows the character after which the line is cut if it crosses the limit of about 600 pixels. The struck-through part is what a reader in search results never sees. This is an estimate, not a measurement. The real column width depends on the device, and Google is free to rewrite your headline itself if it decides yours does not match the query.
What the analyzer does not do
It does not know your topic or your audience. The dictionaries of strong words and cliches are built into the page and are the same for everyone: what counts as a strong word for a blog about earning money is a cheap trick in an academic publication. It does not predict clicks. No formula knows how many people will click your headline: that depends on the query, the competitors in the results, the domain and even the time of day. And it does not make the choice for you. If the checks found no penalties, that means exactly that the built-in dictionaries stayed quiet, not that the headline is good. The best test is still the old one: show three versions to three people from your audience.