Awhile back, I tested wordbot.io as a headline rewriter by rewriting six headlines randomly pulled from the internet. I posted the process in a blog post titled Headline Rewriter | WordBot Headline Rewrites. Wordbot’s AI did an overall good job rewriting the headlines, but got me thinking how good it could be if we implemented a specific feature for rewriting headlines.
To consider designing such a feature, I first have to understand what exactly makes a great headline? This blog post covers some of my research into what makes great headlines. These are some the items I would need to work into Wordbot to create a world class headline rewriter. I figured I would share my research with you in case you too are wondering – How do I rewrite a headline to make it great?
From my initial research, great headlines are easily readable, properly structured for SEO, and have a strong emotional connection to the reader. Let’s discuss each of these in more detail.
Readability is all about how easy or difficult it is to read something. It’s a measurement often depicted in years old, or age. For example, based on my findings its best to write headlines with a readability score between ages 9 and 15. For Wordbot, this would mean designing our headline rewriter to rewrite your headline into this age group.
To do this, we would likely design the headline rewriter to use the Flesch reading ease test. This test uses two variables to rank a headline between 0 and 100, with 0 being the most difficult to read and 100 being the easiest. The two variables that calculate the Flesch score are:
The score ranges are below.
If we were to put a headline rewriting feature into wordbot, we would need to include logic that allows you to quickly see your readability score on your existing headline. We would also have to include insights and suggested improvements that allow you to improve your headline’s readability score. Below are some items I think we could program wordbot to do automatically.
Considering SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is important when you rewrite headlines. Excluding offline media such as newspapers, you’re likely creating a headline to be found online. To be found, you need a headline that optimizes well for SEO. If designing a headline rewriter for Wordbot, we’ll need to make the tool produce highly optimized headlines.
Here’s some of the items we’ll need to consider.
When rewriting headlines, you want to make sure you appeal to people’s emotions. Salespeople have long known this – it’s much harder to sell based on objective facts and concrete features then it is to sell on your emotions. As buyers, we want to know how a product or service will make our lives easier. As readers consuming content, we’re no different. We want to know how reading your article will make our lives easier. This is why our headlines need to relate to emotions. Let’s take a look at some tips to achieve this.
Using the three pillars of a great headline – Readability, SEO, and Sentiment, I now feel well equipped to design a headline rewriter feature in wordbot. You can already put your headline in wordbot and rewrite it using word class AI. You cannot however have it automatically rewritten and scored using the three pillars.
This is what I need to change. I want to combine readability, SEO, and sentiment with our existing rewriting and AI capabilities to give you a truly unique headline rewriting feature. Doing this research and writing this post has made me realize this is a feature we need in wordbot.