Before we begin, let me tell you that this post was originally going to be called;
‘Check the Effectiveness of Your Title with Coschedule Tool’
Would you have read this?
According to a new tool, probably not. I then input 13 more title suggestions before settling on this for the post.
So, why did I go to all this trouble?
The answer is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyser, which I’ve been using for the past few working days to test my titles and try to gain maximum exposure for my content.
Discovering the Tool;
Found originally by my colleague (and fellow Austin Powers fan!) Tom McShane, I’ve become slightly obsessed with this tool and striving for the best title.
As with anything new and shiny, I’ve taken it upon myself to take a look at some of the titles we’ve created before and whether we can work on these – with some pretty surprising results.
Let’s Go for Test Drive
Upon landing on the site you’re presented with this; simply input your current title (and get ready to lose 15 minutes of your working day playing around with it).
You’re then given a headline Score which in the case of my first attempt was;
Now, as initial headlines go this isn’t a bad score. But as with anything, there is always room for improvement.
The analysis is then broken down into the following;
- Word Balance
This is split out into 4x main areas and weights your overall headline score. This is how my title weighed up;
- Headline Type
- Length Analysis
- Google Search Preview
- First and Last snippets
- Keywords
- Sentiment
- Headline Tip
Within these sections there are suggestions for improving your score and what to include, remove or change.
There are also some handy tips, which go into more detail including some teachings on headline types.
In Conclusion
All in all it’s a really clean tool which shows how simple changes and choice of words can impact readership and engagement.
I don’t agree with all the suggestions, and it seems to score highly on lengthy titles (which are then recommended to be shortened) but as a rough guide it’s pretty handy and I’d thoroughly recommend it.
Watch out for a follow up post to see whether the impact of using this has some weight in terms of our own readership.
Lastly, please see the whole list of the titles I went through to get my final score;
Let me know whether you agree or disagree with my final choice of title and your opinions of this tool in the comments below – we’d love to know your experiences and potential successes.