How the score works
The score is out of 100 and made of six checks. Each one is shown with the points it earned, so you can see exactly why.
| Check | Points | What earns full points |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 20 | Within the typical range for where it is used (e.g. 6–12 words for a page headline, under about 40 characters for an ad headline, under about 50 for an email subject). |
| Specificity | 20 | A number, timeframe, place, named outcome or concrete detail. |
| Clarity | 20 | No vague buzzwords (“solutions”, “innovative”, “world-class”) and mostly short, common words. |
| Reader focus | 15 | Speaks to the reader (“you”, “your”, or an instruction) rather than about the company (“we”, “our”). |
| Benefit or outcome | 15 | Says what the reader gets or avoids (save, fix, get, stop, without, faster…). |
| Topic match | 10 | Includes your main topic if you gave one (otherwise these points are given automatically). |
Points are deducted for all capitals, multiple exclamation marks or clickbait phrases such as “you won’t believe”. These are our rules of thumb from writing and testing copy, not a validated predictor of clicks. A headline that scores 70 and matches your audience perfectly will beat a 95 that does not.
What makes a good headline
- It says what you do and for whom, especially on a homepage. Clever wordplay is fine in a magazine; on a business website it usually costs clarity.
- It is specific. “Boiler repairs in Leeds, usually same day” beats “Heating solutions you can trust”.
- It matches the search or ad that brought people there. Check this with the Message Match Checker.
- It leads into the next line. The subheading should explain how, and the first section should prove it.
Write more than one
Write five to ten versions, run each through the analyzer, then read the top three out loud to someone in your audience. Use the strongest as your headline and another as an ad or email variant to test. If you are starting from scratch, the Value Proposition Builder gives you structured drafts, and our guide to writing a homepage that explains what you do shows how the headline fits the page.