Complicated, confusing, and time-consuming.
When you devise headlines, you need to consider so much.
Blogging advice posts suggest your headline start with a number or the words “How to.”
Other articles stress you need a certain amount of characters and words for your blog post to be found by Google.
Other articles discuss the need for power words, trigger words, and emotional words.
My own post 13 Foolproof Ways You Can Stop Writing Ineffective Blog Headlines discussed 13 different criteria for successful headline writing.
Now that I’ve been blogging longer, I know even more ways to ensure your headline is a success.
After all, it is your readers’ first impression of your blog , along with your graphic. It should be effective.
This post will tell you how to write headlines that meet all the criteria. You can do it quickly, and it is absolutely free.
Welcome to my Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer Tutorial!
Step 1: Go to Coschedule Blog Post Headline Analyzer. I have never had to sign in.
Step 2: Type in an idea you have for your headline. Click “Analyze Now.”
If you look under the section where you were asked to type your headline, you will see a history of your headline ideas start forming.
The advantage of this is clear. You don’t have to remember which headlines you tried and which got a higher analysis than others.
By looking at the history of my attempts, you can see that the headline I chose for this post got a higher analysis than any other I tried. This is why I picked it for this post.
How Co-Schedule Analyzes Your Headlines
Step 3: To raise your headline’s score, try varying the combination of word groups. Common, uncommon, emotional, and power words are all considered. Co-Schedule has links you can click which will offer you ideas to vary words. For an additional reference, here is also a link to CopyBlogger’s trigger words.
Step 4: Make sure your headline is the “right” type.
Readers like to read lists or steps to reach goals.
A list post will start with a number. A post that explains how to accomplish a goal should start with “how to”.
As can be seen from the screenshot, my headline passes the “type of headline” test since it is a “how to…”
Step 5: Check the character count.
The perfect headline is 55 characters. Mine is 62. Since this is close to 55, Co-Schedule told me my headline is the right length. The color of the circle relates to traffic lights. The circle is green since Co-Schedule is assuring me I can “go” ahead with my headline.
Step 6: Check the word count.
As can be seen, my headline received a “B+”, not an “A”.
Where my headline fell short was when it came to the number of words. It is too long. This circle’s color is not green for “go”. It is yellow for “caution”. Co-Schedule advised me to shorten the headline to improve the posts’ SEO ranking.
Step 7: Check to see how your headline would look as an Email subject line.
Your blog followers will get the post in their inbox, so Co-Schedule shows you the subject line they will see.
As can be seen, while the word “headlines” is visible in my post’s subject line, “traffic” is not. This could be another reason my headline did not receive an “A” or a higher score.
Step 8: Check to see if your keyword is in the first three or last three words of your headline.
Research shows that readers skim, so they only read the first and last three words of your headline when deciding if they want to read the post.
This could be another reason my headline didn’t score higher. The word “headline,” which is the subject of this post, is not apparent in the first or last three words of the headline.
It does seem to be common knowledge that your keyword should be in the first three words of the headline. However, mine, headline, doesn’t appear until the fourth word.
Step 9: Check keywords so you know what to research at Google Adwords Keywords Planner.
This is important so potential readers using search engines can find your post.
Step 10: Check “Sentiment”.
Although I have heard that headlines that have words with both positive and negative connotations perform well, Co-Schedule explains that headlines with positive words perform best.
My headline has words with positive connotations like “wealth”. People like wealth–it’s a positive word. Therefore, the face is smiling.
You will smile too when your posts bring you traffic with high page views.
My post uses the word “guaranteed” because Co-Schedule has incorporated all the criteria you need to use to examine the success of a potential headline.
The guesswork and research are both gone. For headlines that are faster to write, do well on Google, and have a greater potential for readers to click on and read, use Co-Schedule. As a headline analyzer, it’s got it all.
Readers, if you think others can benefit from these headline-writing tips, please share.
How do you come up with your headlines? If you are already using Co-Schedule, do you find it effective in writing headlines with high page views? If not, is there another site you use? I look forward to your views.
Related Post:
3 Amazing Shortcuts for Writing Headlines in Record Time