Headline Rewriter

The headline rewriter composes five published headline angles from a subject and an action, then checks any headline you bring for headline length, clickbait phrasing, shouted words and repeats.

What is Headline Rewriter?

The headline rewriter works from two fields because English headlines need two kinds of phrase. An action — write a better headline — feeds the how-to and list angles. A subject — headline writing — feeds the guide, mistakes and question angles. Splitting the input that way is what keeps the five outputs grammatical; a single free-text field would produce promises the patterns cannot keep. An optional audience is appended where the pattern takes it, and an optional number sets the count in the list and mistakes angles.

The five headline angles are deliberately different in kind rather than five wordings of one idea. How to is the plainest promise in the form. A numbered list sets a visible length, which is why it is easy to click and easy to write badly. A colon-and-noun guide signals a reference rather than a promise, which suits evergreen pages. A mistakes headline leans on fear of error, so it should be used only when the article names the mistakes plainly. A question works when the reader genuinely does not know, and fails when the answer is obvious.

The checker is the second half and the part most writers keep using. Paste a headline and it flags a character count that search results will truncate, a word count that has started explaining, a trailing period, any phrase from a published clickbait list, words in full capitals, and a word that appears twice. Each flag carries a sentence explaining the cost rather than merely naming the habit, because a rule you can argue with is a rule you can apply.

Headline length deserves its own note. Search results and social cards truncate, and the truncation point is a character count rather than a word count, which is why the check reports characters first. A headline can be short in words and still be cut, and the fix is usually to move the distinctive noun earlier rather than to delete an adjective. The check says how long the line is; only the writer can decide which words earn the front.

Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored beyond the tab, so an unpublished title stays private. The rewriter composes from your words, the checker applies published rules, and neither knows whether the article delivers what the headline promises. That last judgement stays where it belongs.

It is worth rewriting a headline at the end of a draft rather than the start. Only then do you know which of the five angles the article actually supports, and a headline chosen after the fact tends to promise less and deliver more, which is the direction a headline should err.

Keep a file of the headlines you did not use. The five angles are generated from the same article, so the ones you rejected describe the piece you were writing when you started, and rereading them later is a quick way to see what the draft turned into. The checker is worth running over published work too: a title that still passes the length, clickbait and repeat checks months later is usually the one that earned its traffic honestly.

For subject lines in email the same discipline applies with different constraints; the {{email-subject-line-tester|Email Subject Line Tester}} scores those against their own rules.

How to use Headline Rewriter

1. Write the action as a verb phrase, e.g. write a better headline.
2. Write the subject as a noun phrase, e.g. headline writing.
3. Add an audience and a number if the angles you want use them.
4. Read the five candidate headlines and copy the one that fits the article.
5. Paste your chosen headline into the checker field and clear the flags.

When to use Headline Rewriter vs related tools

Use the headline rewriter when a draft is finished and the title is still the working one. Five angles from the same article is the fastest way to notice which promise the piece can actually keep, and the checks catch the habits that creep into a rushed title.

For email subject lines the constraints are different enough to deserve their own tool, and the Email Subject Line Tester scores length, trigger phrases and shouting for inboxes. When the page behind the headline is still being positioned, the Value Proposition Builder is the better place to start.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.

Frequently asked questions about Headline Rewriter