2023 Test of Coschedule Headline Analyzer Studio

This formula is true 100% of the time: better headlines = better results. But is there a formula for better headlines? The team at CoSchedule claim to have it. They've created a highly optimized program called Headline Analyzer Studio that is focused on one thing: helping content creators craft the best headlines possible.  

I've been a user of the free version of the tool since I first heard about it about 3 years ago. This was before there was a paid option.

I used it more as a tool for breaking through creative ruts rather than something I followed like the gospel truth for ranking my content.

However, when CoSchedule created a premium version, I jumped onboard. I have a premium plan account that gives me 10 premium headlines per month. It isn't relatively cheap (emphasis on the word relatively, if you're blogging at scale it seems quite affordable) so I wanted to really put it through some thorough testing before I gave it my stamp of approval.

This article will give you an overview of CoSchedule's Headline Analyzer Studio and will show you if the "data driven" suggestions are actually helpful in creating content that gets more traffic and improves our rankings in search engines.

You can then decide if the tool is worth the cost or if it's just another flaky over-hyped SEO tool.

Let's get into it!

Oh, and if you're more of a YouTube type person, I cover most of this article in the video below

What Is Coschedule Headline Studio?

CoSchedule Headline Studio is a web-based program that claims to use an "all new algorithm" to provide marketers and content creators with actionable suggestions that can help them finally feel confident that when they write content, it will drive maximum traffic.

It does this primarily through a score based system that rates users' headlines from a scale of 0 to 100 and then provides actionable insights into how to improve them. 

If you haven't used it yet, you'll be shocked at how many variables they consider when generating their scores. 

They provide two main score types: Headline score and SEO score.

The SEO score is aimed at helping rank the content in search engine results pages, while the headline score is focused on driving clicks when people read the terms. 

Essentially, one is more focused on trying to make Google happy (SEO score) while the other is trying to get real human beings to actually click on the content (headline score).

The most obvious thing that separates the CoSchedule Headline Studio from other free headline rating tools is how much detail they put into the SEO review part.

This tool is not made for simply writing clickbait headlines. It gives you insights that are intelligent and based on keyword search intent, competition, trends, and more.

Although the accuracy of the data and insights they provide can be debated (I have seen nothing egregiously inaccurate yet) , they do far more in this area than any other alternative.

We can see things like estimated monthly search volume, SERP competitors (and their headline scores) and much more.

Although this is far from a replacement to keyword research tools like AHREFs, SEMRush or KWFinder, it provides very nice insights that did actually lead me down some new rabbit trails for things to add to my content and new topics and alternative headlines to consider covering.

So, if you're dying to get CoSchedule Headline Studio, you might cut one of your lesser used keyword research tools if you need to justify the expense.

But how does the tool actually work?

First, you type your headline into the search bar. If you're analyzing existing headlines (which I'll be doing for this test) you can just copy and paste them here.

Next, it will give you your headline and SEO scores and suggestions.

You'll receive insights on the following ...

• Word Balance
• Word Count
• Character Count
• Headline Type
• Reading Grade Level
• Sentiment
• Clarity
• Skimmability

You can dive deeper into each of these with a click.

Headline studio does a great job here of "showing their work." They made me feel confident that they were using proven data vs. some overly simplified, one size fits all excel generated formula.

This is something that you can't say for other free headline analyzers that simply spit out a score with little to no explanation.

The tool saves all of your past headlines so you can see how your headline is changing over time as you make edits.

Of course, not every change will lead to an increase in score, so you want to backtrack if you get stuck and decide an earlier headline is actually the best one you can create.

As a pro user, you'll have a lifetime past headlines access so you don't have to worry about leaving the browser and coming back to find your data is gone.

Keep in mind, you can edit the same headline up to 25 times. After that, it will charge you for another headline. I highly recommend that you really put in the work on this part and try to get your headline score to be, at the very least, higher rated than all the page 1 competitors for your major search terms. 

What Is the CoSchedule Headline Studio Browser Extension for Google Chrome?

Although I'm not a big user of this part of the tool, it's worth mentioning the Headline Studio chrome browser.

First, it's free, so whether or not you decide to buy a premium account, go grab it here.

The extension allows you to quickly see the headline score of any page online without leaving the browser window.

Simply click the extensions icon when you're on a page you'd like and you can copy and paste the headline into the analyzer.

I wish it could grab it automatically, but hey, it's literally the most minor of inconveniences.

If you have an account, you can start crafting your own headlines right there in the browser and they'll transfer over to the actual app for you to access later.

It's a cool tool, but it's definitely most valuable when you have a Headline Studio pro account.

My CoSchedule Headline Studio Test

The scores are fun and everything, but if they don't get meaningful results in terms of traffic and real world results, they are a waste of time. The only way to prove if the tool was worthwhile was to run it through a test.

The search engine result metrics I wanted to track were:

• CTR (click through rate) - Were people clicking on my posts when they saw them?
• Impressions - Were Google and YouTube showing my content more or less often?
• Average Position in SERPs - Was Google showing my content higher or lower on the results pages?
• Total clicks - Was the combined impact of CTR and Impressions leading to more clicks or fewer clicks?

To make this test as reliable as possible, I did the following...

• Ensured the content I was testing was already getting enough impressions to show statistically significant or nearly significant results.
• Provided 21 days between when I updated the headlines and when I reviewed the results.
• Used Google Search Console to ensure that the data was reliable.
• Used TubeBuddy for split testing a popular YouTube video (I prefer this over GSC for YouTube).
• Ensured that I improved at least the score for headlines or SEO.
• Neither score would be decreased. In one instance, the SEO score didn't change, but all others did.
• I made no other changes to the content besides updating the headline.

Some limitations to this test include...

• Potential negative impact on SERPs because of the update - Although updating content is a huge win in the long run, I've experienced frequently an initial drop in both impressions and rank positioning when I updated old content. I believe Google lowers the search rankings of large search volume topics immediately after content edits to ensure that we aren't pulling a "bait and switch" where we rank for a page and then send the visitors to something completely unrelated like pornography, gambling, etc. It's a reasonable thing to expect.
• Seasonal changes affecting visits - I tried to find content that wouldn't be affected by the time of the year, but there is some randomness we can never fully avoid. For this reason, we need to pay attention to the larger changes and take the smaller ones with a grain of salt.
• Difficulty measuring copywriting value of headlines if the pages drop in search position. In a perfect world, my articles would all rank #1 and stay ranked #1 for almost every keyword they rank for. However, they don't and the positions fluctuate a lot over a 3-week period. This is especially meaningful for keywords ranking in and out of the top 6 spots. For example, let's say an article drops from position 1 (which gets about 31% of all clicks on average) to position 3 (which gets about 18% of all clicks on average) in search engines for a very important keyword. The CTR will almost assuredly drop regardless of how much better the new headline is compared to the old one and compared to the 2 above it. People just prefer the top result and we can't "out copywrite" that part once they're already on the SERP page.

Even with these limitations, I feel confident that we can get meaningful data from this test and we can really see if the CoSchedule Headline Studio does or doesn't do anything useful for our websites.

My Coschedule Headline Studio Test Results

Here are the 6 articles and 1 video I tested.

Here are the results from the Sunday before the test started (11.7.21) compared to the most recent Sunday at the time of writing (11.28.21).

Test #1

Original: 5 Ninja Level Tricks To View A Private Instagram Account

Optimized: 5 Quick and Easy Ways To View A Private Instagram Account 

Test #2

Original: How To Know If You’re Shadowbanned On Tiktok | Here Is The Secret Formula To Find Out

Optimized: TikTok Account Shadowban: Here's How to Find Out If It Happened to You

Test #3 

Original: 15 YouTube Channel Ideas That Anyone Can Do Without Ever Showing Their Face

Optimized: 15 Awesome YouTube Channel Ideas That Don't Require You to Show Your Face

Test #4

Original: How To Download Facebook Messenger Conversations The Easy Way

Optimized: How To Download Facebook Messenger Conversations The Quick and Easy Way

Test #5

Original: 15 Best Quotes About Haters | Share-Worthy Quotes For Dealing With Negative And Jealous People

Optimized: 15 Amazing Quotes About Handling Haters, Negativity And Jealous People

Test #6

Original: Is The Navy Seal 40% Rule Bull Shit? Here's What Science Shows

Optimized: The Navy Seal 40% Rule Is Bullshit? Here's What Scientific Research Says

Test #7 (YouTube Video)

Original: How to Create Professional Looking Excel Spreadsheets

Optimized: How to Create Beautiful and Professional Looking Excel Spreadsheets Fast

Total End Result of Tests

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer Studio Pricing

If you're sold on CoSchedule Headline Studio, here's how the pricing breaks down. 

First, here's a couple of things to know...

• Annual licenses are 50% off. It's very hard to get anything except for an annual license when you get such a huge discount for it.
• You get 25 revisions per headline. Technically, you're able to enter other headlines without that 25 revisions, but I am sure they frown upon that. I've never asked. 
• Your credits to NOT roll over. Use it or lose it. I would like to see them change this part, though. 

Free Plan -  Includes headline score and thesaurus. It doesn't include smart suggestions, SEO Score, Full Version History, Full Headline History or Word Banks. All premium plans include these features and the only difference in each of those tiers is the number of headlines and the price. . 

5 Premium Headlines Per Month = $19/Month or $9/Month if paid yearly

20 Premium Headlines Per Month = $59/Month or $29/Month if paid annually. 

60 Premium Headlines Per Month = $99/Month or $49/Month if paid annually. 

Running Your Own Headline Tests

If you want to see if the headline changes are making improvements to your content, you can repeat my test just with your headlines. 

You can access the Google Sheet file I created for my test. Just make a copy to edit and you can plug in your own data. 

Be sure to let your tests run long enough to get some real statistical significance!

Also, check out tools like Clickflow.com if you want to automate the testing part. 

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer Studio Pro Alternatives

There are several alternatives to Headline Analyzer Studio.

For software, you can check out tools like...

• Share Through Headline Analyzer
• Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer
• Blog About Title Generator

These are nice since they're free, but they only scratch the surface of what you get with CoSchedule Headline Studio. If you're on a budget, though, they're a nice place to start. 

You can also hire someone to work on your headlines. Fiverr offers several premium gigs across many price ranges from people who claim to write eye-catching headlines for blog posts, videos, etc. 

Personally, I'm sticking with Headline Studio.

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer Studio FAQ

These are the questions that I've seen asked and things I wondered about myself before writing this review.

Is this just for blogging? It works best with blogging, but it also works for YouTube titles. It currently isn't fit for things like email subject lines or paid ad headlines. 

Do credits roll over? Sadly, no. They reset at the end of each month. 

Does an improved headline guarantee better results? No, there are many variables at play for each type of article and the headline may or may boost results. However, at scale, I 100% believe that optimizing all existing and new content with the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer will lead to better results. There will be outliers that don't respond well to optimization, but at scale, it will work.

What is a "good score" with Headline Studio? Good is relative. Although I find I can almost always get a headline up into the mid-70s on any topic, not every article is a good fit for an extremely high score. For example, dry "how to" type posts might not benefit from emotional words like an opinion piece might. Always make sure that your headline score beats the competitors for those search terms and that can be your baseline target. Remember, you can view your competitors' headline scores inside of Headline Studio.

Final Word

Although the expense was already easily justified for me just as a tool for inspiration to break through creative barriers when writing, the tests I ran confirmed it was also something that has genuine, objective valuable to anyone who either makes money with their content or just wants more visits to the content they create and care about.

Although there is no perfect AI solution for writing headlines (yet) and not every single headline suggestion is guaranteed to perform, this tool is absolutely one that I give my stamp of approval and makes a nice additional to the toolset of any serious blogger or YouTuber.