Which word from this headline

Headline
Word

Meaning

Example

accord

*aid

*alert

axe
(v)

back
(v)

*ban

*bar

bid
(n)

blast
(n)

blaze
(n)

blow

boom

*boost

bring
(v)

bug
(n)

call
(for)

*clash

cop
(n)

coup

crook
(n)

*curb

*cut

deal
(n)

drama
(n)

*drive

envoy

*exit

fear

flee
(v)

gems

go
(v)

go-ahead

gunman

*halt

hail

*haul
(n)

*head

held

hit
(v)

horror
(n)

hurdle
(n)

jail

jet

jobless

key

killing
(n)

*link

loom
(v)

man

mob
(n)

net

net
(v)

no
(n)

ordeal
(n)

oust

output

pact

*pay

peril
(n)

pit

plea
(n)

*pledge

*plunge

poll

press
for

*probe

quit
(v)

quiz
(v)

*raid

rap

riddle
(n)

*row
(n)

*scare
(n)

seek
(v)

shock
(n)

slam
(v)

smash
(v)

snub
(v)

soar
(v)

*split

*squeeze

storm
(n)

strife

*switch

*swoop

talks

threat
(n)

toll
(n)

top

tragedy
(n)

urge
(v)

*vow

walkout

wed
(v)

win
(v)

woo
(v)

agreement

help,
assistance

warning
to be on the lookout for smth.

cut,
close, take away, dispense with

support

prohibition

exclude,
prohibit, prevent smth. from happening

attempt

explosion

fire,
usually large, out of control

disappointment
/ injury suffered, set-back

sudden
large beneficial increase

help,
incentive; lift

cause,
result in

disease,
infection, virus

demand

dispute,
violent argument

police
officer

revolution,
change in government

criminal

restraint,
limit

reduction

agreement

dramatic
action, incident

campaign,
effort

diplomat

leave

anxious
expectation

run
away from smth.

jewels

to
be knocked down, sold (of property), dismantled (of
institutions), resign.

approval

man
with a gun

stop

welcome,
praise

large
quantity which has been stolen and later discovered

lead,
direct

retained,
kept in custody

affect
badly, adversely

horrifying
incident

obstacle

to
imprison

airplane

unemployed

essential,
vital

murder,
incident of manslaughter

connection

approach
(of smth. threatening)

representative

large
gang, uncontrolled crowd

total

capture

refusal,
rejection

painful
experience, drama

push
out, drive out, replace

production

agreement,
treaty

wages,
salary

danger

coal
mine

request
for help

promise

steep
fall

election,
public opinion, survey

demand,
ask for, insist on

investigate

leave,
resign

interrogate

attack,
robbery

strong
criticism, reprimand

mystery

argument,
dispute

public
alarm

request

surprising
revelation (unpleasant)

criticize
severely

break
up, destroy

turn
down, reject (causing offence)

increase
dramatically

divide

shortage,
scarcity

angry
reaction, dispute

conflict

change,
deviation

sudden
attack or raid

discussions

smth.
negative that may happen

number
of people killed

exceed

fatal
accident, heart-breaking incident ending in death

recommend
strongly

promise

strike
(often unofficial)

marry

gain,
achieve

try
to win the favour of

WAGES
ACCORD REACHED

MAN
AIDS POLICE

TERRORIST
ALERT

LABOUR
AXE COLLEGES IN TORY TOWNS

UNIONS
BACK PEACE MOVE

BUS
BAN ON PUPILS AFTER ATTACK ON CREW

SOUTH
AFRICA BARS TEAN

NEW
BAR ON IMMIGRANTS

NEW
PEACE BID IN RHODESIA

POLICE
IN LONDON PROBE BLAST

FAMILY
DIES IN BLAZE

CARTER
POLL BLOW

SMITH
ILL: BLOW TO WORLD CUP HOPES

SALES
BOOM

INDUSTRY
GETS BOOST

FLOODS
BRING CHAOS

BUG
KILLS BABIES

BETTER
SECURITY CALL

STRIKERS
IN CLASH WITH POLICE

COP
IN CAR CHASE DRAMA

GENERALS
OUSTED IN COUP

OAP’S
CHEATED BY CROOK

NEW
CURBS ON IMIGRATION

BIG
CUTS IN AIR FARES

PAY
PITS DEAL HOPE

CHILDREN
IN ZOO DRAMA

PEACE
DRIVE SUCCEEDS

AMERICAN
ENVOY TAKEN HOSTAGE

EXIT
ENVOYS IN RACE STORM

ASSASSINATION
FEAR

HUNDREDS
FLEE FAMINE

ACTRESS
LOSES GEMS

CHURCH
TO GO

PM
TO GO?

GO-AHEAD
FOR DEARER GAS

GUNMAN
RAIDS 3 BANKS

CHANNEL
TUNNEL HALT

PM
HAILS PEACE PLANS

CANNABIS
HAUL

TRAIN
ROBBERY:BIG GOLD HAUL

BUCHANAN
TO HEAD PEACE MISSION

MURDER:
TWO MEN HELD

FUEL
STRIKE HITS HOSPITALS

PLANE
HORROR

NEW
NURDLE TO PEACE

KILLER
JAILED

THREE
KILLED IN JET PLUNGE

NUMBER
OF JOBLESS INCREASES

KEY
WITNESS DIES

TERRORIST
BOMB KILLING

MAFIA
LINK SCANDAL BREAKS

STRIKE
LOOMS

CARTER
MAN IN CHINA

MOB
ATTACKS KILLER

DRUG
RAID NETS £1 M

POLICE
NET ESCAPEES

GOVERNMENT
NO TO WAGE RISE

JAIL
ORDEAL ENDS

ARGENTINA
OUSTS UNION LEADRES

INDUSTRIAL
OUTPUT INCREASES IN ITALY

PITS
PACT ENDS

PAY
RISES FOR MINERS

FLU
PERIL

PIT
TALKS END

“FREE
CHILDREN” PLEA

LABOUR
PLEDGES HIGHER PENSIONS

DOLLAR
PLUNGES

SWEDISH
POLL SHOWS SWING TO RIGHT

TEACHERS
PRESS FOR PAY RISE

NEW
VACCINE TO BE PROBED

WILL
CARTER QUIT?

MAN
QUIZZED

£21.5M
DRUG RAID

SCHOOL
RAP

GIRL
IN SHOTGUN DEATH RIDDLE

BBC
BOSS QUITS IN ROW

RABIES
SCARE HITS BRITAIN

FLOOD
VILLAGE SEEKS ACTION

ROCK
STAR SHOCK

UNIONS
SLAMMED

DRUGS
RING SMASHED

MINISTER
SNUBBED

TICKET
SALES SOAR

NATIONALIZATION
SPLITS PARTY AT CONFERENCE

PETROL
SQUEEZE AHEAD

MP’S
RACIST SPEECH STORM GROWS

INTERUNION
STRIFE THREATENS PEACE DEAL

DRAMATIC
SWITCH IN INCOMES POLICY ANNOUNCED

DRUG
SWOOP IN MAYFAIR

PEACE
TALKS THREATENED

DROUGHT
THREAT

TOLL
RISES TO 100

POST
OFFICE PROFITS TOP £40M

GUN
TRAGEDY

PM
URGES INQUIRY

WOMAN
VOWS VENGEAGE

FACTORY
WALKOUT THREAT OVER SACKING

FINANCIER
FREE TO WED

STEEL
WORKERS WIN RISE

TORIES
WOO HOUSEHOLDERS

*
− can be found in headlines as a noun or a verb with this meaning

TASKS
TO HEADLINES

A.
Bearing in mind that in headlines the maximum impact must be made
with the minimum number of strong words choose a match for a longer
or a more neutral word

1)
increase
a) curb

2)
restrict
b) hit

3)
cut
c) key

4)
affect badly d)
boost

5)
vital, important e)
oust

6)
connection/contact f) axe

7)
drive out/ replace g)
probe

8)
investigation h)
link

9)
mystery
i) scare

10)
public alarm j)
riddle

B.
Complete the gaps in the headlines below using the headline synonyms
to the italicized words. Rephrase each headline turning it into a
full sentence.

    1. FLOOD
      warning
      ON EAST COAST

    2. SMALL
      SCHOOLS FACE closure

    3. HOTEL
      refuses
      entry to

      FOOTBALL FANS

    4. SIX
      DIE IN HOTEL fire

    5. SCOTTISH
      ROAD PLAN GETS approval

    6. important
      WITNESS VANISHES

    7. NEW
      TRADE connections
      WITH PERU

    8. EXILED
      PRESIDENT promises
      TO RETURN

    9. HAITI
      QUAKE: number
      killed

      COULD REACH 200,000

    10. MISSING
      diplomat
      mystery
      :
      WOMAN arrested

    11. BISHOP
      violently
      criticizes

      DEFENCE POLICY

    12. JAPANESE
      WOMEN IN NEW EVEREST attempt

C.
Prepare a 10-word quiz. Choose the words from the headlines and ask
your group-mates to give their neutral equivalents.

D.
Prepare a 10-word quiz. Choose the standard words that have more
vivid headline equivalents. Tell these words to your group-mates and
ask them to provide their headline equivalents.

E.
Look through the newspaper and find the headlines containing the
words you have studied in this unit. Present these headlines to the
class. Ask your group-mates to interpret them in a full sentence.

CULTURALLY-BOUND
ITEMS

Headlines
often use culturally-bound abbreviations. Study the table below to
see the most typical ones:

BA

British
Airways

BA
MAKES RECORD LOSS

Brussels

The
European Community Parliament and administration

BRUSSELS
BANS BRITISH BLACKBERRY WINE

GOP

Grand
Old Party – a traditional nickname for the Republican Party in
the USA

DEMOCRATS
APPEAL TO GOP ON FINANCIAL OVERHAUL

Commons

The
House of Commons

MINISTERS
IN COMMONS CLASH OVER HOUSING

IRA

Irish
Republican Army

IRA
LEADER MAKES STATEMENT

Lords

The
House of Lords

LORDS
VOTE ON DOG REGISTRATION

MEP

Member
of the European Parliament

MEPS
WANT MORE PAY

MP

Member
of Parliament

MP
DENIES DRUG CHARGE

OAP

Old-age
pensioner, anyone over 65

OAPS
MARCH AGAINST WAR PLANS

PC

Police
constable

PC
SHOT IN BANK RAID

PM

Prime
Minister

EGG
THROWN AT PM

Tory

Representative
of the Conservative Party

VICTORY
FOR TORY MODERATES

Ulster

Northern
Ireland

PM
IN SECRET TRIP TO ULSTER

Apart
from abbreviation, headlines often contain culturally-bound items
which interpretation requires background knowledge. Identify them in
the examples below in and comment on their meaning:

  1. Toyota
    (and Toyoda) in the hot seat (hint – Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda).

  2. Toyoda’s
    performance gets an F (hint – The number of Toyotas being
    recalled now tops 5.3 million vehicles).

  3. Orange
    Squashed (hint – Ukraine election).

  4. Eyes
    Wide Shut – Western Media over South Ossetian War.

  5. Illinois
    primary: GOP jockeys to make gains in Obama’s home state.

  6. Bush
    and Putin on nicknames terms (hint – ex-president of the US has
    a habit of giving nicknames to his entourage and political
    leaders).

  7. US
    awakens Chinese dragon over Taiwan arms deal.

  8. McDonald’s
    dishes up diplomas to go (hint – Fast food chain Mc Donald to
    offer high school diploma training).

  9. St.
    Tatiana’s Day kicks off winter holidays for Russian students.

  10. The black
    hole that the PIGS
    [Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain] countries
    opened is now spreading to other European countries.

    Business — Europe’s PIGS:
    Country
    by country
    .
    Just
    how bad a situation are the PIGS
    in, and how does that compare with the UK?

REVISION

  1. Translate
    the sentences into English using the vocabulary you have studied:

  1. На
    первой странице газеты мы увидели
    заголовок «Мир на грани войны». Он
    занимал почти половину страницы.

  2. С
    тех пор как в этой медиа-корпорации
    сменилось руководство, тираж ее изданий
    увеличился почти на 10 000 экземпляров
    в месяц.

  3. В
    Британии пресса делится на «качественную»
    и «популярную». К первой категории
    относятся, например, The
    Times
    и the
    Daily
    Telegraph.
    Их отличает серьезная подача новостей.
    Представители второй категории – The
    Sun
    и the
    Daily
    Mirror

    стремятся нажиться на сенсациях и
    печатают много фотографий, в основном,
    знаменитостей.

  4. Редакторы
    обычно очень тщательно подбирают
    формулировку предложений, которые
    сопровождают фотографии.

  5. Многие
    воскресные издания выходят с бесплатным
    приложением, например, с журналом,
    отрывком из нового романа, путеводителем
    или диском.

  6. Сегодня
    в газете очень интересная редакторская
    колонка, в которой приводится мнение
    издания о последних событиях в Иране.
    Ситуация в этой стране продолжает
    оставаться главной темой информационных
    материалов как в России, так и за
    рубежом.

  7. Новый
    сериал получил очень плохие отзывы в
    сегодняшней газете. В издании помещен
    краткий комментарий эксперта в области
    СМИ, который назвал сериал «самым
    худшим продуктом ВВС за последние 15
    лет».

SUPPLEMENT 1:

CONFUSABLES:

I. The
words PERSPECTIVE,
PROSPECT(S), PROSPECTIVE, PROMISING

usually prove to be confusing for learners.

PERSPECTIVE
stands for точка
зрения,
ракурс,
видение:

The
novel is written from the perspective of a child.

His
father’s death gave him a whole new perspective on life.

What
I aim to provide here is an insider’s guide to philosophy from a
perspective
that is both
humanistic
and rationalistic.

It may
also refer to the ability to perceive things in their actual
interrelations or comparative importance:

I tried
to keep my perspective throughout the crisis.

PROSPECT(S)
is translated into Russian as перспектива(ы),
планы
на
будущее:

There is little prospect
of employment, I’m afraid.

There are good prospects
for growth in the retail sector.

Do higher degrees really
improve your career prospects?

The
expression EVERY
PROSPECT

means a strong possibility:

We
have
every
prospect of

reducing the number of accidents.

PROSPECTS
can be STRONG or WEAK, GOOD or BAD.

PROSPECTIVE
is an adjective meaning предполагаемый,
потенциальный,
будущий.

I am meeting a
prospective buyer for the house today.

The
prospective students visited the university they were hoping to
attend.

We
got some details on the prospective dealproposed by ourcompetitors.
Rate:

PROMISING
stands for многообещающий,
перспективный.

A
promising young man

should go into politics so that he can go on
promising
for the rest of his life (quote by Robert Byrne).

Many
a
promising career

has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman.

  1. Give
    the English for the following Russian expressions:

Перспективы роста,
перспективный сотрудник, потенциальный
сотрудник, перспективы трудоустройства,
перспективный журналист, многообещающий
репортер, перспектива развития,
потенциальные студенты, серьезные
перспективы, потенциальный работодатель.

  1. Use these expressions in
    sentences of your own.

  2. Translate the sentences
    into English paying attention to the words discussed in this
    section:

  1. Вчера в Кремле
    Президент России обсуждал перспективы
    развития российских печатных СМИ с
    главными редакторами крупнейших газет
    и журналов.

  2. Репортер журнала
    New
    Yorker
    представляет свою точку зрения на
    ситуацию в Китае и оценивает перспективы
    развития китайской экономики на
    ближайшие несколько лет.

  3. Сегодня компания
    проводит конкурс среди потенциальных
    сотрудников, чтобы выявить самых
    талантливых и многообещающих кандидатов.

  4. Каждый год
    факультет проводит «Дни открытых
    дверей» для потенциальных студентов.

  5. К сожалению,
    перспективы трудоустройства большинства
    людей, не владеющих хотя бы одним
    иностранным языком, остаются очень
    невысокими.

  6. С этой точки
    зрения, в его решении назначить нового
    главного редактора, нет ничего нового
    или сенсационного.

  7. Есть очень большая
    вероятность слияния нескольких
    российских медиа-компаний в одну
    крупную.

  8. Это молодой
    перспективный журналист. Он подготовил
    серию самостоятельных репортажей,
    посвященных самым актуальным событиям
    жизни региона.

II.
The verbs RISE,
RAISE, ARISE, AROUSE
usually
cause a great deal of confusion with learners:

RISE
is translated into Russian as расти,
подниматься,
увеличиваться.
It is an intransitive verb, which means it cannot be followed by a
noun/pronoun without any preposition:

Oil prices have been
rising for a month.

RAISE
is translated into Russian as поднимать,
увеличивать.
It is a transitive verb, so it is normally followed by a
noun/pronoun without any preposition:

The government is planning
to raise the income tax.

ARISE
is translated into Russian as возникать,
случаться.
It is an intransitive verb thus it has no direct object:

Unfortunately,
situations like these arise regularly.

AROUSE
is translated into Russian as вызывать
(интерес),
провоцировать,
пробуждать.
It is transitive, so it takes a direct object:

The
political situation in the Ukraine usually arouses a great deal of
comment in the Russian media.

  1. Consult the dictionary to
    complete the table with the forms of the 4 verbs:

PRESENT

PAST

PAST
PARTICIPLE

RISE

RAISE

ARISE

AROUSE

  1. Study the sentences below
    and say if the 4 verbs have been used correctly. Correct the
    mistakes you find.

  1. The
    bank might raise the interest rate.

  2. The
    interest rate will raise.

  3. A
    problem arose with our account.

  4. It
    arose a problem.

  5. It
    will not arise this problem again.

  6. The
    bank will rise the prices soon.

  7. His
    latest book has aroused a lot of debate.

  8. Prices
    rose by 3% last year.

  9. Our
    supplier rose their prices last year.

  10. The
    bank is going to raise our credit level.

  11. The
    odd sight aroused our curiosity.

  12. Their
    prices raised in April.

  13. It
    arises a problem.

  14. Let’s
    hope nobody arises this issue.

  15. He
    arised a problem at the meeting.

  16. The new
    building proposals in the village are arising unneeded discomfort.

  17. The
    same problem might arise on the new account.

  18. This
    rises a problem.

  19. The
    rate of inflation is rising steadily.

  20. The
    sight of the poor mother, studying late into the night, arised
    sympathy from her children.

  1. Complete the gaps using
    the appropriate form of RISE, RAISE, ARISE, or AROUSE.

  1. The company’s turnover
    …………….. dramatically last year.

  2. That’s a good point. I’ll
    ……………… it at the next sales meeting.

  3. Some
    difficulties ……………. when we tried to install the new
    software.

  4. I’m afraid a rather
    serious problem has ……………….

  5. The media mogul hopes to
    …………. interest in Israel.

  6. In the last six months 10
    museums have been robbed and this number is has been ……………….
    steadily over the last few years.

  7. The Chairman of the Federal
    Reserve has been to Tokyo to discuss the problems which have
    ………………. from the pressure in Congress to tackle the
    deficit.

  8. The government ………………………
    interest rates last month.

  9. There is news that interest
    rates are to be ……………… by an average of half a
    percentage point in the US.

  10. I hope
    the problem of late payment will not …………………. again.

  11. His
    absence caused doubts to …………… in my mind.

  12. His
    absence ………………. doubts in my mind.

D.
Translate the following sentences into English:

  1. Данное
    событие продолжает вызывать большое
    количество комментариев в российской
    и зарубежной прессе.

  2. Подобная
    проблема может возникнуть вновь, если
    правительство не примет своевременных
    мер.

  3. Решение
    правительства повысить некоторые
    налоги может негативно повлиять на
    положение малого и среднего бизнеса.

  4. В
    последние 5-7 лет доходы компаний,
    занятых в медиа-бизнесе, стабильно
    росли.

  5. Назначение
    этого крупного бизнесмена министром
    финансов вызывает некоторые сомнения
    у влиятельных обозревателей.

  6. Вопрос
    взаимодействия СМИ и власти поднимается
    на каждом крупном международном форуме.

  7. Сокращение
    расходов на образование вызывает
    озабоченность у общественности.

  8. Его
    последняя работа вызвала много споров
    у критиков.

  9. Сегодня
    в редакторской колонке говорится о
    том, что проблема транзита газа в Европу
    может возникнуть вновь.

  10. Факт
    опубликования подобных материалов в
    прессе вызывает серьезную озабоченность,
    однако, мы надеемся, что такая ситуация
    не возникнет снова.

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Up and to the right graph

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So many different variables go into a viral post—timing, emotion, engagement, and so many others that you cannot control. There is no viral blueprint. The greatest chance we have to understand viral content is to study the posts and places that do it best, figure out what worked for them, and try it for ourselves.

Thanks to some incredible work by the team at Ripenn, we have access to headline analysis from four of the top viral sites on the web—who happen to be really good at headline writing. Based on this information—plus a little extra from our own Buffer favorites—we can get a glimpse into the science of how to write a great headline and what words to choose.

The headline data from Ripenn came from four of the most click-worthy sites on the web—BuzzFeed, ViralNova, UpWorthy and Wimp. Each of these sites receives more than 4,000,000 monthly unique visits, and headlines are a big reason why.

To give some variety to the list, I added the top headlines from 20 different tech, social media and productivity sites that we find ourselves reading and sharing often here at Buffer—sites like Seth Godin, 99u, Social Media Explorer and more (the full list is available in spreadsheet form)—for an additional 400 headlines to be analyzed.

In total, I examined 3,016 headlines from 24 top content sites. Here are the most popular words found in their headlines.

(The table at left shows common words—articles, prepositions, pronouns, etc.—and the table at right shows less common, more specific words—nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.)

Top words used in viral headlinesMost popular uncommon words in viral headlines

Click here to see a more complete list of top words beyond the 50 mentioned above.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

Analyzing top headlines: Which words stand out?

There’s a lot to glean from here, and everyone has a unique way of implementing data like this on their site. Although you can interpret this data any number of different ways, here are my top observations.

You and Your

Content’s No. 1 goal is to help other people. This is evident in the viral headlines examined here. “You” was the No. 5 most popular word, and we find “your” in the Top 20 as well. Combined, these two pronouns appeared in 16 percent of all the headlines in this study.

What does this say about viral headlines? They seek to add value for you, the reader. Make content about the reader, not about the writer.

You and Your

examples from the study include:

  • What Would You Buy With an Extra $12,000?
  • A Chart About Silence That Will Leave You Speechless
  • 6 Things You Need to Know Today

Academic research supports this concept. A Norwegian business school experimented with different headline structures, including referential headlines, rhetorical headlines, and declarative headlines. They found that question headlines referencing the reader were the most effective.

This

The power of “this” is in its specificity. When you use “this” in a headline, the reader’s mind switches to a concrete view of whatever you’re talking about, as if the object in question were imminent and attainable. There is an immediacy to the word.

See these three examples of headlines from the study:

  • This Guy Sticks Household Objects in His Beard and It’s Weirdly Mesmerizing
  • This Woman’s Massive Instagram Following Helped Her Launch a Business
  • Is This the Airport of the Future?

What, Which, and When

What do all these words have in common? (OK, I kind of gave away the answer.) They are all about questions.

Here are some examples of question headlines from the study:

  • Which Countries Pay Its Teachers What They’re Worth?
  • Which Old-School Pro Wrestling Legend Are You?
  • What Happens When a Dump Truck Going 50mph Hits a Military-Grade Concrete Barrier?

Copyblogger’s Jerod Morris has preached the value of question headlines before, and his conclusions are definitely supported in this study. What are the advantages of headlines as questions?

It turns out that phrasing headlines in the form of a question … does indeed increase click-through rates. In fact it more than doubles them, on average.

Why

This one, too, could be about questions, but digging deeper into the individual instances of “why” in viral headlines revealed that there’s more here: “Why” promises an explanation. Here are some examples:

  • Why Your Brand Shouldn’t Fear Assigning Authorship
  • Why So Many Creatives Love Working on Trains
  • Why the Best Social Media Education Might Be Right Under Your Nose

Finding out “why” is satisfying to us because of a phenomenon called the curiosity gap. Carnegie Melon University professor George Loewenstein coined this term to describe the gap between what we know and what we want to know. This gap creates something like an itch in your brain, and it can only be “scratched” by learning more (and thus, clicking on the post).

Upworthy cofounder Peter Koechley says the site uses the curiosity gap to create headlines that tells the reader enough to pique curiosity but not enough to give the whole story away.

And these headlines play a huge role in the virality of Upworthy content.

Viral content formula

People

As the number one uncommon word in the headline study, “people” came up a lot and very often in a similar fashion:

  • The most successful people
  • The happiest people
  • The most interesting people

The superlatives in these headlines make promises that the reader finds intriguing. We want to know what the most successful people are doing, how the happiest people live, and what makes the most interesting people interesting. Similar to some of the single words listed above like “why” and “this,” readers enjoy discovering, learning, and challenging the details behind blanket assertions like this.

Video

You likely know the value of video in content marketing, but in headlines specifically? Turns out that being up front that your post contains video is a good tactic to use when writing your headline. Many places find a way to stick the word “video” into the headline naturally, but when a natural fit can’t happen, there was no hesitation to place the word at the end surrounded by parentheses or brackets. Some examples:

  • Why You Should Listen First, Market Later (Video)
  • Superstars of Psychology: 10 Best Short Talks (Video)
  • Everything You Need to Know About Facebook Buttons [Video]

The most common viral headline phrases

To take things one step further, I also looked at the top phrases that appeared in these popular headlines. The numbers were smaller here compared to instances of single words, but some patterns did develop. Let’s start with the two-word phrases.

Two-word phrases in viral headlines

Top 2-word phrases in viral headlines

The Most

Like the phrase “this is,” there is a certain level of authority when you say “the most.” It also taps into a reader’s argumentative side, giving them an opportunity to challenge you as to whether or not your superlative really rings true.

Previous headline studies—like this one at Startup Moon—show that other words that indicate a comprehensive or superlative resource can lead to success.

The most viral posts also tend to include the following in their titles: Smart, surprising, science, history, hacks (hacking, hackers, etc), huge/ big, critical.

How To

You’ve probably seen and used this one many times over, and for good reason: “How to” is popular because it’s effective. These how-to posts promise a certain level of education, and provided the subject matter has value to the reader, you can expect lots of clicks.

Startup Moon also noticed positive results for posts titled with “beginner’s guide,” “introductory,” and “in 5 minutes,” showing that the blog reading audience loves to learn how to as quickly as possible.

Three-word phrases in viral headlines

Top 3-word phrases in viral headlines

The notable ones for me from this list were “what happens when” and “this is what.” Both are explanatory and promise a certain level of discovery.

(And for an even deeper level of phrases, here is a chart of the top four-word phrases.)

Even more viral headline stats

I went ahead and pulled some additional numbers of elements that intrigued me. Ripenn was nice enough to open the data up to a creative commons license for anyone to use with attribution. Dig in. It’s neat to be able to see what kind of insights you can draw from such a deep well of viral data. For instance …

The average length of a viral headline is 62 characters.

To give you an idea of what that might look like, here’s a headline that is 60 characters: The Best Time to Write and Get Ideas, According to Science.

The percentage of headlines with a number was 19%.

This shows both the draw of the listicle and the ability of other headlines to still pull big numbers.

Takeaways

After looking at the initial data, Ripenn found

seven key commonalities

. I’ve reworded them here into some helpful headline tips:

  1. Make the most of current events: Tie your headline to news and newsmakers
  2. Break some “rules” of headline writing, like length
  3. Seek to pique the reader’s curiosity
  4. Never underestimate the emotional factor of a headline
  5. Call the reader to action with direct action words
  6. Make bold claims
  7. Sound like a human, not a robot

Play around with some of the most popular headline words mentioned above to test some new, unique combinations in your own content.

What words stood out to you in this headline study? How do you plan to integrate this with your next headline? Shoot me some links of what you come up with. I’d love to see what you come up with!

P.S. If you liked this post, you might also like 5 Key Elements for Your Content to Go Viral and A Scientific Guide to Writing Great Headlines.

Image credit: baboon, Slideshare

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I feel that both captivate and engross imply a subject of a pleasant nature. I would be captivated by the beautiful dawn and can get engrossed in a good book.

The dictionary definition you have provided for captivate supports this since it mentions «beauty or excellence». I would use neither word to describe the obsession over horrific events that can affect people.

Additionally, the internet is a loose collection of computers communicating via certain protocols. It can be neither captivated nor engrossed. The people using it can be, but not the internet itself. For the specific usage of your question, I would say:

Horrific Accident On Live TV Sets The Internet Abuzz

or

Horrific Accident On Live TV Is All Over The Internet

or

Horrific Accident On Live TV Floods The Internet

If you can change the word order, this would be even better:

Internet Abuzz Over Horrific Accident On Live TV

Now, if you really really need to use to stick to the form of your original question, I would either go for grips as @KristinaLopez suggested or fascinates which has neither positive nor negative connotations and is often used in both contexts:

Horrific Accident On Live TV Fascinates The Internet

Are you fed up with low CTR? Are your blog posts getting ignored? Do you want to create catchy titles for your social media or videos? Well, don’t worry. This article got you covered. In this article, we are going to share the Best Free headline analyzer tools which help you to understand what’s going wrong in your current headlines. So that you can quickly take action and convert your poor headlines into perfect ones.

Table of Contents

What is a Headline Analyzer?

Headline Analyzer Tools are used to make or analyze how clickable a blog title is. Bloggers, copywriters, YouTubers, social media marketers, or anyone who wants to review their content headlines commonly used it. 

Almost every headline analyzer tool work in the same way as soon as a user enters a headline the analyzing process will start. After a few seconds headline analyzer tools come up with a detailed report which incorporates different factors including Headline overall score, Word Count, Emotional Sentiment, Power Words percentage, Uncommon Word percentage, Headline Length, and much more. 

In simple words, the user can use headline analyzer tools to improve their headlines and titles and gain a better click-through rate (CTR)

What Makes a Great Headline Analyzer Tool

You need to consider a headline analyzer tool as a good when:

  • It shows easy to follow report
  • It shows suggestions for each improvement required with clear and concise instructions
  • It has a readymade list of power words, uncommon words printed on the tool page itself.
  • It has a summary section that describes the whole analysis in a neat and simpler manner.
  • It has a SERP preview feature
  • It has a headline history dashboard
  • It is free
  • It has no restrictions on the number of headlines to be entered for analysis.

Note: If you are in hurry, just skip the entire article and analyze your headlines for free with the MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer Tool because this is the only tool that has all parameters mentioned above.

Video Tutorial: 9 Best Free Headline Analyzer Tools (2021)

For the reader’s convenience, we always create a video tutorial. Either you can watch and learn or simply skip the video and continue with the steps mentioned afterward.

After spending hours of research and play around with numerous headline analyzer tools, we would like to reveal the list of the top headline analyzer tools for you.  

After going through the tools list, don’t forget to check the conclusion section where we mentioned the rare tips to generate great headlines.

The list of best headline analyzer tools includes:

Now before exploring these tools in detail, it is a must to understand few glossary terms you are going to find in headline analyzer tools:

  • Power Words: These are special words that give an emotional touch to the headlines and are commonly used to create responsive headlines. Power words are categorized into multiple categories including Greed words, Sloth words, Vanity words, etc. You can download a complete power words pdf from here.
  • Common Words: Percentage of common words found in a headline
  • Uncommon Words: Percentage of uncommon words found in a headline
  • Emotional Words: Percentage of emotional words found in a headline
  • Sentiment: Type of sentiment triggered by the headline
  • Character Count: Number of characters included in a headline
  • Word Count: Number of words present in a headline
  • Skimmability: How quickly a headline can be read through
  • Related: Best Social Media Management Tools
  • 7 Great Signup Tools to Grow Your Email List

#1 MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer Tool: Best Free Headline Analyzer

MonsterInsights best free headline analyzer

MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer tool is on the top of our today’s list. Although MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin used to simplify the Google Analytics reports and link WordPress websites to GA as well. But on their website, you will find this amazing free headline analyzer tool which helps you to make catchy headlines. This tool not just analyzes but also gives you suggestions for improvements. 

MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer Highlighted Features:

Some of the highlighted features we really like about this headline analyzer tool are as follows:

Overall Score & Score History:

As soon as you enter the headline, the first thing you will see the overall score of your headline. And besides that in a “score history” tab, you will see all your previous headlines versions with their score. From here you can quickly review the current headline version with the previous version.

MonsterInsights headline analyzer showing headline overall score and score history

Word Balance Report:

Just after the overall score, the first thing you will find is the Word Balance Report. Inside this, first of all, you will learn whether your headline needs improvement or not. If yes, then this tool is telling you by showing this message “Can be Improved”. And just below that, in bold words, it is also mentioned that what changes should be required for improving the current headline. 

Finally, you will see the main tabs of Word Balance Report which describing the percentages of common words, uncommon words, emotional words, and power words present in the headline. Not only just percentages, but this report also tells you whether your headline met the goal for each type of word or not.

With the help of this report, you will review your headline and add the missing words to make it more perfect and complete.

MonsterInsights headline analyzer - word balance report

Sentiment Analysis

MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer tool also reviews your headline and quickly lets you know about its sentimental view. You should always create a headline that expresses or generate positive sentiments in readers life. A headline that shows negative or neutral sentiment is bad and likely to be ignored by the readers. But positive sentiments engage readers and quickly attract their attention. 

In some cases, negative sentiments can grab attention too. For example when you review a product and wanted to explain the bad effects of its on the human body. In such cases, you can express negative sentiments with your headline. But neutral sentiments are the worst. They express nothing and hence always be ignored. 

MonsterInsights headline analyzer telling us the sentiment present in a headline

Character Count and Word Count

MonsterInsights headline analyzer also analyzes the headline characters and words and lets you know if a headline fully appears in a SERP or not. By reviewing the character’s minimum count, you can ensure headline visibility in search engines. 

MonsterInsights headline analyzer analyzes the character count and word count

Search Preview Feature

Without the SERP preview option, a headline analyzer tool will never be complete. The user can easily take a look and feel how the headline is going to appear in the Google search engine.

MonsterInsights headline analyzer - SERP Preview feature

Quick Summary

At the end of the report, MonsterInsights headline analyzer also presents a complete analysis report in a quick summary form. From here the user can quickly review the sections which need improvement. Also, suggestions are there accessible by expanding the “view suggestions” drop-down option.

MonsterInsights headliner analyzer - summary of a headline analysis

Word Banks

Last but not least, on the same headline report page, you will a list of Power Words, Emotion Words, and Uncommon Words. So if your headline lacks any of these words, you can quickly choose from here and add them to your headline. You don’t have to search manually on Google. Before adding any words, make sure to check the Word balance report first where you get to know about the missing words.

MonsterInsights-headline-analyzer-word-banks

MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer Pros:

  • It gives you suggestions and goals for improvements
  • Scores for previous headlines can be accessible
  • Understandable report
  • Summary at the end
  • Unlimited searches
  • SERP preview is available
  • A list of power words is available on the headline analyzer main page itself.

MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer Cons:

  • Headline Readability cannot be checked.
  • SEO Reports is absent

#2 ISITWP Headline Analyzer Tool: Another Best Headline checker

ISITWP headline analyzer is similar to MonsterInsights headline analyzer tool. All reports you have seen in the above tool can also be found here. The only difference here, that on an analysis result page lot of additional information related to headlines, and this tool are available. For example step by step instructions to use this tool, explanation of reports, tips to create the best headline, etc.

The only thing missing in this Headline analyzer tool, that you cannot view the score of previously searched headlines. And a list of power words is also not be found here.

#3 Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer: An Emotional Headline analyzer

advanced marketing institute headline analyzer

Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer tool is also known as the Emotional Marketing Value headline analyzer. This tool is mainly known for its ability to analyzing the emotional sentiments present in a headline. Or in simple words, this tool will let you know how emotionally powerful a headline is. Not just the emotional aspect, this tool also analyzes the marketing value available in a headline.

As per this tool, a headline must have at least 30-40% EMV value. 

So when you submit a headline for analysis, you won’t see multiple reports as we saw in the MonsterInsights headline analyzer. 

It only shows you the EMV percentage and also the type of emotion (Intellectual, Empathetic, Spiritual) present in the headline. 

We highly recommend this headline analyzer tool when you want to create truly emotions-packed headlines that grabs a user’s attention in seconds. The better you score, the more emotionally attached your headlines will gonna be.

headline analysis result shown by advanced marketing institute headline analyzer

Compare to the MonsterInsights headline analyzer, this EMV headline analyzer has few things missing:

  • Word balance report which shows the percentage of power words, uncommon words, and common words present in a headline
  • Character count
  • SERP preview option
  • Overall summary
  • Power words list
  • Related: 5 Best Graphic Design Tools (Online)

#4 Coschedule Headline Analyzer

coschedule headline analyzer

Coschedule Headline Analyzer is the next one on our list. Well, when you landed upon this website and enter a headline, you will be asked to complete a signup form. After creating a free account, you could analyze unlimited headlines. 

Coschedule headline analyzer has both free and premium versions. In a free version, you will only able to see the headline score and Thesaurus. However, the premium version offers you extra benefits including smart suggestions, SEO Score, Full Version History, Full Headline History, and Word Banks. 

The premium plans are very costly and as a trial user, you can enjoy or access the premium analysis reports for only 3 headlines.

To access the premium reports for free, users have the option to download the Coschedule headline analyzer free chrome extension which has the same features as you find in a web-based premium version. 

Let’s have a look at the headline report generated by the Coschedule free headline analyzer:

coschedule headline analyzer - word balance report
coschedule headline analyzer detailed report
coschedule headline analyzer tool report

In a free report you can access or view:

  • Headline overall score 
  • Word balance report
  • Word count
  • Character count
  • Headline Type 
  • Reading Grade level
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Clarity check
  • Skimmability analysis

But in a premium version, the only extra metrics you will find are suggestions and a separate SEO score report. Compared to other headline analyzer tools, Suggestions should be included in the free version as well. This is a disadvantage here. But SEO report is something valuable and for this, you can go for the Coshedule premium headline analyzer version. 

The SEO report gives you a lot of information you can use to optimized or make your headline SEO-friendly. Under SEO report you can find optimization suggestions, keyword quality, keyword density, average monthly searches, search competition level, keyword trend, search preview, headline competition, keyword variations, and related queries.

Suggestions shown in a coschedule premium headline analyzer
coschedule headline analyzer premium version

#5 Sharethrough Headline Analyzer

sharethrough headline analyzer

Sharethrough headline analyzer is another popular tool that mainly analyzes your headline with 2 factors: Impressions and Engagement. Based on the score of these two metrics, it gives you an overall quality score for the headline. 

This tool is built and analyzes a headline based on the principles of behavior model theory and neuroscience advertising research. Basic features like word count, characters count, and headline history is there. Further lot of good suggestions are available to learn how you can create great headlines.

headline analysis report generated through sharethrough headline analyzer

#6 Capitalize My Title Headline Analyzer: Best SEO headline analyzer

Capitalize My Title Headline Analyzer

Capitalize My Title Headline Analyzer tool is the perfect option when you want to know the SEO score of the headline as well but without paying any bucks. Compared to the Coschedule headline analyzer, here you don’t need to spend money. All reports are accessible without any cost. 

The noticeable thing is that this SEO headline checker added a brief description under each report from which you can quickly understand the meaning of that particular report.

Apart from the SEO score, a lot of headlines reports can be generated including:

  • Overall Headline Score
  • Readability Point
  • SEO Analysis
  • Sentiment Score
  • Common Words, Power Words Count
  • Word Count
  • Characters Count compared with different platforms
  • Headline Pixel width compared to minimum pixel width required in a SERP

#7 Hubspot Blog Title Generator : Blog or YouTube Title analyzer

Hubspot Blog Title Generator

Hubspot Blog Title Generator is a different one, and only for those people who don’t want to create attractive headlines manually. From this point onwards we are going to share automatic title generator tools. This type of tool is amazing, you just only need to input a topic name, and then it will sync your topic name with predefined headline templates and generate a list of headlines. 

Yes, sometimes these generated titles are weird, but you have to tweak them a little bit to turn them into the perfect ones. Let’s understand with an example:

Suppose I want to create an attractive headline related to my niche: “washing machine”. So I entered my niche name and tap on the add button.

After few seconds, the Hubspot title generator syncs my input text with these headlines:

  • Washing Machine: Expectation vs Reality
  • Will Washing Machine Ever Rule the World?
  • The Next Big Thing in Washing Machine
  • Washing Machine Explained in Fewer than 140 Characters
  • This Week’s Top Stories About Washing Machine

You can see that except for the 2nd one, the other 4 headlines are great and highly engaging. You not just get good headlines but also get amazing content ideas. 

Remember, Hubspot Blog Title Generator only able to generate 5 different headlines variants for a single topic at a time.

#8 Tweak Your Biz Title Generator: Best Free Title generator

Tweak Your Biz Title Generator

Tweak Your Biz Title Generator is a thousand times better than a previous tool. Similar to the above tool, here you just need to enter a topic name, define between noun and verb and you are good to go. This tool then comes up with tons of engaging headlines divided into multiple categories including list headlines, headlines with “best” word, How-to based headlines, Questions oriented, Business, Motivation, Problem-oriented, etc.

tweak your biz title generator - list based headlines
tweak your biz title generator - headlines started with best
tweak your biz title generator - how to based headlines
tweak your biz title generator - question based headlines
tweak your biz title generator - business and motivation based headlines
tweak your biz title generator - problem based headlines

However, we noticed that headlines are a bit longer and mainly useful for social media posts. So if you are a social media marketer, then this tool will be a savior for you. After adding headlines generated by this tool and on social media posts, your social media engagement will gonna rise for sure.

#9 Portent’s Title Maker

Portent's Title Maker

Portent’s Title Maker is another automatic headline generator tool. In this you just need to enter a seed keyword, then by tapping the “see another title” button each time you will see a new headline that syncs with your given keyword. Unlike Hubspot, there is no restriction on the number of headlines to be generated.

We have compared the headlines generated by this Portent’s Title Maker with the above tool and found out that Portent’s Title Maker headlines are more suitable for blogs because of their short length. However, you can use them for social media content as well. 

Conclusion: Which is the Best Free Headline Analyzer Tool

Well, after reviewing the multiple headline analyzer tools, we have found that these tools are just good for analysis. Ultimately, you have to manually tweak your headlines by following the suggestions. Our favorite is the MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer tool because it has all parameters required in a headline analyzer tool.

Before signing off, I would like to share some tips you should keep in mind while improving your headlines:

  • Add numbers in a headline
  • Add quotation marks
  • Use negative words, sloth words, curiosity words
  • Mention a benefit or try to explain how user life will change after reading your post.
  • Add CTA words
  • Put the current year in Headlines
  • Avoid passive voice
  • Aim for 6 words
  • Use odd numbers instead of even
  • Add parenthesis or brackets
  • Add emotional sentiments
  • Next Read: How to Find Content Ideas for Your Blog – 22 New Strategies
  • 6 best cross-browser testing tools

I hope you like our list of best free headline analyzer tools. When you find any new headline analyzer tool, let us know through the comment section. Want more blogging tips, follow BlogVwant on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

FAQ: Best Free Headline Analyzer Tools

Can I use Headline analyzer tools to create headlines for YouTube Videos?

Yes. The tools we mentioned in the above list can be used to generate any type of headline. You can use it for social media posts, YouTube videos, website articles, etc.

What is the Best Headline Analyzer tool?

MonsterInsights Headline Analyzer

What is CTR?

CTR or click-through rate is the metric that shows the percentage of people who clicked on your post as compared to the total impressions. You can easily get detail of this metric in a google search console.

Should I create “How-to” or List-based headlines?

Both types of headlines are willing to perform well in search results. The final decision still depends on the topic and the type of content you are looking to create.

How to measure CTR rate?

To measure the CTR of your own website page you can take the help of a Google search console. Inside the Google search console navigate to the Performance tab. Here tap on the new button and enter the URL of the web page you want to track. Then make sure to check on total impressions and total click boxes. This will show you the total number of clicks and impressions a web page received over a particular period of time. After that use this formula to calculate CTR rate: Clicks/Impressions *100. You can also see the graph to analyze the growth of CTR rate over time.

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