shashank · with ai as his sidekick7 min read · updated apr 29, 2026
paste any headline and get an instant score — word balance, emotional pull, power words, length. no signup required.
1enter your headline or title
2get a score with a word breakdown
3optimize using the suggestions
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overall score
word count
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characters
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has number
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word balance breakdown
common0%
uncommon0%
emotional0%
power words0%
suggestions
ai-generated
get started for free — install hyv, paste the command in your terminal, and run onboarding in seconds.
npm i -g @holdyourvoice/hyv
frequently asked questions
effective headlines balance common words (readability), uncommon words (interest), emotional words (engagement), and power words (action). they are specific, create curiosity, and promise clear value to the reader.
for blog posts and articles, 6–12 words (under 70 characters) performs best. for search engines, keep it under 60 characters so it does not get truncated. for social media, shorter headlines of 6–8 words tend to get more engagement.
yes. headlines with numbers consistently outperform those without. numbers add specificity and set expectations. odd numbers tend to perform slightly better than even numbers.
power words trigger a psychological or emotional response — words like 'proven', 'secret', 'instant', 'free', or 'ultimate'. they make headlines more compelling and drive higher click-through rates.
yes, completely free with no signup required. paste your headline and get an instant analysis with an overall score and actionable suggestions.
most headline tools score the headline in isolation. hold your voice also checks whether your headline matches your actual brand voice and tone — not just generic readability metrics.
founder of hold your voice. writes about brand voice, ai writing patterns, and the craft of sounding like yourself.
co-written with ai as sidekick. shashank drafts the voice; the ai pressure-tests the structure. anything that sounds wrong is shashank's fault — anything that sounds suspiciously generic is the ai's.
