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How to Use Headline Analyzer in WordPress to Improve SEO Titles

After pouring hours into writing a fantastic blog post, the last thing you want is for it to go unread. Your title is the ultimate deciding factor in whether your hard work gets noticed and draws readers in from search results or social media.

Luckily, you likely already have access to a powerful tool to help you craft amazing headlines: the built-in headline analyzer feature found in popular WordPress plugins like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and MonsterInsights.

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to use these integrated headline analyzers within your WordPress editor. We’ll walk you through the steps to craft compelling, SEO-friendly titles that attract more visitors to your website and boost your rankings.

How to Use Headline Analyzer in WordPress to Improve SEO Titles

TL;DR: This tutorial shows you how to use the built-in headline analyzer found in popular WordPress plugins like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and MonsterInsights. We’ll walk you through crafting compelling, SEO-friendly titles directly in your post editor to attract more visitors to your website. You can also use the free WPBeginner Headline Analyzer tool for quick analysis without installing a plugin.

What Is a Headline Analyzer Tool & Why Do You Need It?

Choosing the best titles for your blog posts and landing pages is extremely important for search engine optimization (SEO). Powerful titles can get people to click on your links in Google search results and visit your WordPress website.

Of course, the more people click on your titles, the more traffic you will get. But a higher click-through rate (CTR) can also improve your search engine rankings, getting you even more visitors. Put simply, CTR is just the percentage of people who actually click on your link after seeing it in the search results.

Beginners often find it hard to create headlines that grab attention and drive clicks. This is where a headline analyzer tool can help.

A headline analyzer is a tool that helps you evaluate and improve your headlines. It provides data-driven insights and suggestions for creating titles that are engaging and click-worthy.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can use a headline analyzer tool to improve your SEO titles in WordPress. Here are the topics we will cover in this article:

Adding the Headline Analyzer Tool in WordPress

There are a few ways to add the Headline Analyzer tool in WordPress. When you install either the free All in One SEO or MonsterInsights plugin, it will be automatically added to WordPress. You only need to install one of these plugins to get the feature.

You can also access the Headline Analyzer for free on the WPBeginner website. Read on to learn how.

Installing All in One SEO

The easiest way to analyze your headlines in WordPress is by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress on the market and is used by over 3 million websites.

AIOSEO helps you optimize your website for search engines without any technical knowledge or the need to hire an SEO expert. The plugin offers a headline analyzer inside your WordPress editor so that you can create powerful titles.

Note: This tutorial will use the AIOSEO Lite version since it includes the headline analyzer tool. There is also a Pro version that we use on the WPBeginner site because it offers powerful features like smart schema, Video and News XML sitemaps, and more.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the free version of AIOSEO on your website. If you need help, then you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the Headline Analyzer will be immediately available in your WordPress post editor.

The plugin will automatically launch its setup wizard. You can go ahead and click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to set up the other features of the AIOSEO plugin on your website.

Click let's get started AIOSEO setup wizard

For more details, you can read our guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress.

Installing MonsterInsights

The Headline Analyzer is also a feature of the MonsterInsights plugin. As with AIOSEO, once the plugin is installed, the Headline Analyzer will automatically become available in the post editor.

MonsterInsights is the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, used by over 3 million websites. It will help you discover the types of visitors you get on your website and what they do once they are there. This can help you make your content more relevant.

You can use the MonsterInsights free version to analyze your headlines, but there is also a MonsterInsights Pro version. It includes additional features like advanced analytics, A/B testing, user journeys, and more.

You can get started by installing and activating the free version of MonsterInsights on your website. If you need help, then you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Launch setup wizard

You can learn how to set up MonsterInsights’ other features by reading our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for beginners.

Finding the Headline Analyzer on the WPBeginner Website

If you prefer not to install a plugin, then you can access the Headline Analyzer for free on the WPBeginner website.

Simply navigate to our Headline Analyzer page. Once there, you can type in your headline and click the ‘Analyze’ button.

WPBeginner Free Headline Analyzer Tool

You can then use the tool to improve your heading right there on the page rather than in the WordPress editor.

In the image below, you can see an example with an overall score and an analysis of the different parts of the headline:

headline analysis report

If you scroll down the page, you will also see some recommendations for how to improve your headline.

For example, the Headline Analyzer tool might recommend adding more uncommon or emotional words to your headline to get more clicks.

word balance headline analyzer

You can use these tips to try different headline options. Then, simply enter the new headline into the Headline Analyzer tool until you are happy with the results.

Finally, you just need to copy the headline and add it to your WordPress post.

Expert Tip: Choose the free WPBeginner Headline Analyzer if you need a quick, standalone title analysis without installing extra plugins. However, for integrated, real-time feedback directly within your post editor while you write, the AIOSEO or MonsterInsights plugin is your best bet.

Adding an SEO Title to Your Post

If you are using the All in One SEO or MonsterInsights plugin, then you will need to access the Headline Analyzer tool within the WordPress post editor.

Go ahead and edit or add a new post. Once you are in the WordPress editor, you can add your blog post title at the top.

Add a post title in WordPress

It’s important to remember that there are differences between the post title and the SEO title.

The first difference is that, behind the scenes, these titles use completely different HTML tags. Your post title is enclosed in <h1> tags, while the SEO title uses <title> tags.

The second difference is where the titles appear. The post title will normally be displayed at the top of the page, depending on your WordPress theme. On the other hand, the SEO title doesn’t appear in the post at all.

Instead, the SEO title suggests to search engines like Google how you would like your title displayed in search results. It also displays in the browser’s title bar when viewing the post.

SEO title example

Why have two different titles? Imagine your blog post (H1) title is ‘Our 10 Favorite Ways to Bake a Cake.’ For SEO, you might want a more specific SEO title like ‘How to Bake a Perfect Cake: 10 Easy Recipes (2026 Guide).’

This lets you target search terms directly in Google while keeping a slightly different, catchy title for visitors already on your site.

By default, WordPress doesn’t let you enter an SEO title. But WordPress SEO plugins like AIOSEO allow you to easily add an SEO title to your articles.

If AIOSEO is installed on your website, then you can simply scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ meta box in your WordPress editor and then enter a headline under ‘Post Title.’

AIOSEO post title meta box

The plugin also has smart tags, letting you automatically add information to your titles, like the post title, current year, author name, categories, site tagline, and more.

For more information, see our complete AIOSEO review.

Using Headline Analyzer to Improve Your SEO Title

After adding a headline for your article, you can analyze it using AIOSEO or MonsterInsights. All you have to do is click the green ‘SEO Headline Analyzer’ button in the top right.

Click the SEO headline analyzer button

AIOSEO or MonsterInsights will show you a score ranging from 1 to 100 for your headline. A score of 70 or more shows that you have written a powerful headline.

If your score is below 70, then don’t worry. The headline analyzer will show suggestions for improving the score and making your title more engaging to get more clicks and traffic.

Now, you can scroll down and check the balance of words in your headline. The plugin will look for common, uncommon, emotional, and power words. It will also check for numbers, which are proven to grab attention.

These are words that help trigger a psychological or emotional response from your target audience. When creating headlines, you can use these words to improve your headline score and boost the click-through rate (CTR).

Use the headline analyzer tool to check word balance and improve your headline score

A good mix of these words makes your title feel both relatable (common words) and intriguing (emotional/power words), encouraging more people to click to find out what’s inside!

Next, you can check the sentiment of your headline. Titles with a positive feeling tend to get better engagement and more clicks than neutral or negative ones.

Besides that, the plugin will also show you the headline type. For example, you can see whether your headline type is a how-to post, list post, resource post, or more.

These types of titles tend to get more clicks than generic titles.

Analyze the sentiment of your headline

After that, you can scroll down and check the character count and word count for your title in the headline analyzer tool.

The headline analyzer will show you if your title is a good length. While a common guideline is to stay under 60 characters, what really matters to Google is the title’s pixel width. Some letters, like ‘W’, just take up more space than others, like ‘i’!

If your title is much longer than 60 characters, search engines might cut off the text at the end. This can make the meaning of your title unclear and lower your click-through rate.

If your titles are more than 55 characters, then search engines might cut off the text at the end. This can make the meaning of your title unclear and lower your click-through rate.

Expert Tip: Don’t just count characters for your SEO title! While 60 characters is a good target, Google displays titles based on pixel width. A title with many ‘W’s and ‘M’s will get cut off faster than one with ‘i’s and ‘l’s, even if they have the same character count. Always check the preview in your headline analyzer.

Check the character count and word count

Next, you can analyze the first 3 and last 3 words of your headline. Most readers usually glance at the first 3 and last 3 words in a post title before deciding to click.

Using this information, you can place your target keyword and most important information in the beginning to capture the reader’s attention.

The Headline Analyzer also shows a preview of how your headline will appear in the search engine page results.

Check the beginning and ending words with preview

If your headline doesn’t get a good score, then you can easily try new headlines and analyze them before deciding on the best SEO title.

All you have to do is switch to the ‘Try New Headline’ tab in the tool, enter your new headline, and click the ‘Analyze Headline’ button.

Use AIOSEO's headline analyzer as a blog title generator to test new SEO titles

AIOSEO or MonsterInsights will show you a score of your new headline and compare it with the current SEO title.

You can try multiple headlines for your WordPress blog post and analyze their scores to see which one works the best.

Before you hit publish, check out our blog post optimization checklist to make sure the post is fully optimized to get the most traffic possible.

Expert Tip: Struggling to come up with ideas? If you want a quick blog title generator, AIOSEO Pro includes an AI-powered title generator. It uses artificial intelligence to instantly brainstorm highly optimized, high-scoring headline suggestions based on your post’s content.

Remember, while a headline analyzer is a fantastic guide, you’ll also develop a natural instinct for great headlines over time. Keep practicing, and you’ll soon be writing compelling, click-worthy titles with ease.

Pro Tips: Search Console + Headline Analyzer

You can take your headline optimization to the next level by combining the headline analyzer with insights from Google Search Console.

If you look at our ultimate Google Search Console guide to grow traffic, you will see there is a section about finding low-hanging keywords where you can easily rank.

Use filter by position

You can then try adding one of these low-hanging keywords to your SEO title and throughout your post. As your click-through rate increases, your SEO rankings will go up as well.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Using a Headline Analyzer

We often get questions about how to best use headline analyzers to improve SEO titles. Below are the answers to some of the most common ones we receive.

1. What is a good score on a headline analyzer?

A score of 70 or higher is generally considered good. This indicates your headline has a strong balance of word types (common, emotional, power words) and is structured well to get clicks. While aiming high is great, any score above 70 is a solid target.

2. Are headline analyzer tools free?

Yes, many are. The headline analyzer is a free feature included in both the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and MonsterInsights plugins. You can also use the tool for free directly on the WPBeginner website without installing anything.

3. Why is an SEO title different from a post title (H1)?

Your post title (H1) is for visitors already on your page. Your SEO title is what appears in Google search results. Keeping them separate allows you to craft a compelling title for your readers and a keyword-focused, click-friendly title for search engines, which can boost your rankings.

4. Can I use the headline analyzer for WordPress pages, too?

Yes. If you are using a plugin like AIOSEO, the headline analyzer is available on the editor screen for both WordPress posts and pages. This allows you to optimize the titles for all important content on your site, not just your blog articles.

5. What kind of words should I focus on in my headlines?

Headline analyzers often highlight common, uncommon, emotional, and power words. A good mix helps create engaging titles. Aim for common words to make it relatable, uncommon words to spark curiosity, and emotional/power words to trigger a strong response and encourage clicks.

6. How do I increase my headline score in WordPress?

To increase your headline score, make sure you include your target keyword. Then, focus on adding numbers (like ’10 Ways’ or ‘7 Tips’), power words, and emotional words to your title. Aiming for a positive sentiment and keeping the character count under 60 will also give your score a quick boost.

Additional Resources on WordPress Titles & Headings

We hope this guide helped you learn how to use a headline analyzer in WordPress to craft better SEO titles and get more clicks. You might also want to check out these other resources on WordPress titles and headings:

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30 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. I have always used h1 for the main heading and title and knew that this is the best thing for seo and never new that there exists a difference between seo title and post title.
    if seo title is wrapped within the title tag, it is semantic and good for seo.
    but h1 does represent that it is the most important title in the article.
    Glad to know that we can use headline analyser inside the WordPress editor.
    I will definitely try it for making good and seo friendly headlines.

    • It’s important to note that an H1 heading should appear only once on a page because, as you mentioned, it is a very important part of the text and has its own rules. For example, I never had this information and thus placed H1 headings multiple times in an article where there should have been H2 headings. Consequently, I had to go back and redo many texts when I learned this information here on WPBeginner. A heading analyzer is a great tool and can help write truly compelling texts (from an SEO perspective). I only regret that it doesn’t support multiple languages. Otherwise, I generally agree with everything you wrote.

  2. My best post with over 150k visitors per year is only 45/100 meanwhile posts with 5k visits per year are 85-90/100. It is interesting as all of them have very similar competition.
    I have a system for headlines and most of them are just simple “how to do X in Y way”. Keyword reasearch suggests this is good but I will check more of them with that headline analyzer. There is always something that we can improve.

  3. Thank you for the headline analyzer. I have a bilingual website, and I’ve gotten used to using your analyzer for English headlines every time. It’s just a pity that it’s not as effective for other languages, like Czech, for example. Nevertheless, for English, which is the second language on my website, it’s excellent.

    • Glad the tool has been helpful and other languages may be a possibility in the future but we will see :)

      Admin

      • I have one more question about headings. I have a blog on WordPress where the homepage lists new articles. A regular article has an H1 heading, but how do I handle the homepage, which doesn’t have an H1 heading? I can’t put it in the header because it would show up on the articles, resulting in two H1 headings in the article, which is not ideal. How do I address the lack of an H1 heading on the homepage with the list of articles? Alternatively, is it necessary when it’s just one page missing an H2, while everywhere else has it?

        • Using an SEO plugin you can ignore needing an H1 on your homepage as they can add markup letting search engines know that it is your homepage and what the title should be. Having one page missing a heading shouldn’t be a major issue.

        • OK, thank you for your answer. I will try to solve this problem via AIO SEO plugin and we will see, if this option help me with this problem. Thanks.

  4. This looks like an amazing thing to have in the toolbox for any website type. I was not fond of Monster due to the high volume of pitches on my dashboard daily, but I have been looking at AIOSEO, so thanks for the AWESOME walkthrough, I think you’ve made up my mind.

  5. I have used the free version of this plugin, and that is awesome. after reading your article, i am ready to buy the full version.

  6. I only write post title. Iam using aio seo. Most of time i get 80+ scores. Still should i use headline analyzer?

    • It is a helpful tool we would recommend trying but it is not required if you have a system you prefer using that is working well for you.

      Admin

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