What Makes a Headline Work
Years of A/B testing on high-traffic publishers converge on the same handful of drivers. A headline that triggers curiosity with specificity outperforms a headline that merely describes the content.
The Five Dimensions
- Length — 50–60 characters is the sweet spot for both SERP display and social feeds. Under 30 feels thin, over 70 truncates.
- Power words — "proven", "secret", "ultimate", "brutal", "surprising" trigger emotional engagement. One or two is optimal; five reads as clickbait.
- Numbers — Specific odd numbers ("7", "13") outperform round numbers ("10"). "7 ways" reads as more deliberate than "several ways".
- Curiosity gap — "you" language, question forms, and the word "why" or "how" create an open loop the reader wants to close.
- Specificity — Named entities (Google, Apple, GPT-4), dates, and concrete nouns outperform vague abstractions.
What We Score
| Dimension | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 15% | 40–65 characters |
| Power words | 20% | 1–2 present |
| Numbers | 15% | At least one number, ideally odd |
| Curiosity | 30% | "you", "why", "how", question mark |
| Specificity | 20% | Named entities, concrete nouns |
Common Headline Mistakes
- Title case on everything. Title case reads as ad copy; sentence case reads as editorial. Choose based on publication style.
- Clickbait without payoff. "You won't believe what happened next" only works if the payoff is genuinely surprising. Otherwise users bounce.
- Burying the lede. "How I Learned to Love Marketing: A Journey" — the interesting part ("marketing") is buried. Front-load the hook.
- Keyword stuffing. "Best CRM Software 2026 — Top CRM Tools for CRM Users" reads as spam. Pick one focus.
- Colons when periods work. "X: The Ultimate Guide to Y" is a well-worn template. Subvert it.
Iteration Workflow
- Write 10 versions of the headline.
- Score each one in this tool.
- Keep the top 3 scorers.
- Read them aloud — the one you'd click is usually the winner.
- Test on a small sample (Twitter, internal Slack) before publishing.