[AI in Action] Headline Hacks: The AI Tool That Helps You Skyrocket Engagement & SEO

Episode #123: [AI in Action] Headline Hacks – The AI Tool That Helps You Skyrocket Engagement & SEO

WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE

If your content isn’t getting clicks, it’s not your content… it’s your headlines.

Did you know 80% of people read headlines, but only 20% actually click? That means your headlines have one job: grab attention and make people want more.

So, how do you write headlines that stop the scroll, boost engagement, and rank on Google?

In this episode of Tech Savvy 101, I’m breaking down Headline Studio by CoSchedule, my go-to AI tool for optimizing headlines. I’ll show you exactly how it works, why it’s a game-changer, and how you can start using it today to instantly improve your click-through rates and SEO rankings.

By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to write headlines that stand out, attract the right audience, and get real results.

IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:

➔ Why your headline is the most important part of your content strategy.
➔ The key elements that make a headline irresistible.
➔ How to use Headline Studio to optimize your headlines for engagement & SEO.
➔ Actionable tips for writing click-worthy headlines that drive traffic.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them—at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I personally use and love!

📌 Headline Studio by CoSchedule → https://coschedule.com/headline-studio?referralCode=hs_1081547

📌 Watch the YouTube demo of this episode for a hands-on tutorial → https://youtu.be/728Mvj8Zxjs

📌 Join the Waitlist for AI Evergreen Content Machine → https://thesarahbaker.com/ai-evergreen-content-machine-waitlist 

Other Episodes of Tech Savvy 101 About Keyword Research & SEO: 

🎙️ Episode #113: [AI in Action] Keyword Research Made Easy: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO with Keywords Everywhere → https://thesarahbaker.com/episode-113 

🎙️ Episode #122: SEO Made Simple: How to Get Found on Google Without Being an Expert → https://thesarahbaker.com/episode-122 

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

01:13 – Why Headlines Matter
 03:12 – Key Elements of a Strong Headline
 06:31 – Introducing Headline Studio by CoSchedule
 06:53 – Using Headline Studio: A Step-by-Step Guide
 16:18 – Tips for Writing Click-Worthy Headlines
 23:35 – Conclusion and Next Steps

LET'S CONNECT

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💡 LinkedIn
🖥️ Website
💻 Facebook Group

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Transcript

Sarah Baker 0:00

Did you know that right this second your dream client might be scrolling past the content that you spent hours creating? All because your headline didn't grab their attention in the first three seconds. Ouch, right? Welcome back to Tech Savvy 101: AI Automation Made Simple. I'm your host, Sarah Baker, your tech savvy bestie, who's here to help you simplify your business, embrace automation, and save hours every week. Today's AI in Action episode is going to be a total game changer for anyone who creates any kind of content. I'm talking blog posts, YouTube videos, podcast episodes, emails, social media posts. Literally everything you create needs a headline that wows. I will be sharing my screen in this episode to show you exactly how to use my favorite AI powered tool that's completely transformed my own content strategy and the SEO game. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to write headlines that not only stop the scroll, but also help you rank higher in organic search results. All without staring at your screen for hours while trying to come up with the perfect wording. Let's dive right in. So why is your headline the most important part of your content? Well, let's start out with a harsh truth that shocked me when I first heard it. According to Copyblogger, 80 percent of people will read your headline, But only 20 percent will actually click through to read or watch the rest of your content. That means if you have 100 people who see your content, 80 percent of them will make the decision about whether to continue on and read or engage with your content based solely on your headline. No pressure, right? Think about that for a second. You could spend days creating the most amazing blog post, filming the perfect YouTube tutorial, or recording your best podcast episode ever. But if your headline sucks and falls flat, 80 percent of your potential audience will never experience it. All your hard work for nothing! Your headline is literally your content's first impression. And just like meeting someone new, you only get one shot at making it count. So whether you're writing a blog title, or naming your YouTube video, or creating a subject line for your email newsletter, or crafting the perfect podcast episode title, that headline is what stops the scroll and gets people's attention. But here's the other critical piece that a lot of people miss: headlines are not just for humans anymore. They are also for search engines like Google and YouTube. These platforms use your headlines to figure out what the heck your content is about, which directly affects your rankings and how discoverable your content is. So a strong headline is actually doing double duty. It's grabbing attention from real people and it's signaling to search engines that your content deserves to be seen. So, what makes a strong headline? Now that we understand just how freaking important headlines are, let's break down what actually makes a headline effective. There are five key elements that every high performing headline should include. First, it needs to be really clear and specific. Vague headlines just aren't going to cut it anymore. Everyone's attention is being pulled in a hundred different directions. So, you need to be crystal clear about what your content is offering. Why is it going to help me? Why is it worth me stopping my scroll and not watching that really cute dog video that comes after your content? And why should I click through? For example, instead of a headline like"improve your business," which is super vague, and I'm not going to click through to that. You'd want something like"5 simple strategies to increase revenue in 30 days." Now you have my attention. See how much more specific that is? It tells the reader exactly what they're going to get and why they should want to read on. Second, your headline should be benefit driven. People are always thinking, what's in it for me? Your headline needs to answer that question immediately. Here's an example. Instead of"email writing tips," I mean, what kind of tips? Tell me more. Try"how to write emails that get 40% more opens without feeling spammy." I'd read that. The second one clearly communicates the benefit. More people opening your emails, which is way more compelling. It's a problem so many business people have, and I want 40 percent more opens, and I don't want to be spammy, so I'm willing to click through, and I bet a lot of other people are too. Third, your headline needs to be keyword optimized. If this scares you, it shouldn't, it's easier than you think it is. I have done multiple other episodes on keyword optimization and I'll link to them in the show notes. This is this SEO piece that helps the search engines understand what your content is about. If you want to rank for certain terms, they need to be in your headline. For instance,"Best SEO Tools for Beginners in 2025." This clearly tells both readers and search engines exactly what the content covers. Fourth, your headlines should be emotionally engaging. According to CoSchedule, headlines with emotional words increase clicks by 20-30%. That is huge. So instead of writing,"writing better headlines," boring, try"the secret to writing headlines that demand attention." That power word, demand, and also the secret. Those Words trigger curiosity, which is a powerful emotion that drives clicks. And finally, use numbers as well as power words. Conductor found that headlines with numbers get 36% more clicks than headlines without them. Numbers provide clarity and set expectations about what the reader will get. For example,"7 proven headline hacks to boost your clicks." That tells the reader exactly what they're going to get and is a much stronger headline than just"ways to improve your headlines." Now for the fun part, I want to introduce you to my absolute favorite tool for creating better headlines. Headline Studio by CoSchedule. This is an AI powered tool that analyzes your headlines and helps you optimize them for both engagement and SEO. So if you are listening to this episode, you can grab the link to see the YouTube video tutorial in the show notes. As you can see on my screen, I have navigated to HeadlineStudio.com. Let me show you how it works with a real life example. Let's say I'm writing a blog post about headline writing. I know this is super meta. But let's start with a basic headline like, how to write good blog titles. So we're gonna put this in, how to write good blog titles. I'll type that into Headline Studio and I'll hit analyze. You can see that it's given me a headline score of 63 and an SEO score of 48. These are okay, not great. We're looking for higher scores. You can also see that it has given me the headline scores in yellow. Headline Studio works on the stoplight system. Red, yellow, and green. These scores are yellow meaning that they're okay, red scores would be needs work, and green scores are what we're looking for. The scores range all the way up from 0 to 100, obviously the higher and closer to 100 you get are better scores, and it doesn't just tell you your headline score, but it also tells you where and how you can improve. So let's look at the feedback. Let's break it down. The other thing we can do is we can look at what type of headline we're writing. So in this drop down next to where I've entered the starting headline, we can tell it what type of headline we're working on so we can look at a blog headline, a YouTube headline, email, podcast, Tiktok, Instagram, an ad headline, LinkedIn, or just standard headline. This is really helpful because each different platform might rank differently, especially if you're on social media versus YouTube versus a blog, or a podcast or an email headline. They also all have different recommendations for character length. One of my favorite things also is that it will show us the recommended headline length in terms of characters as well as word length. It will also show us what it will look like when it pops up in Google, so we'll know if our headline is too long and likely to be truncated or cut off. This is important because obviously we want our entire headline to show up. So for our sample headline of how to write good blog titles, it's telling us that our headline is a little bit short because six words is a little bit light and character length, the recommended character length, is about 50 to 60 characters, which is 10 to 12 words. Our current headline is only six words and 29 characters. So it's telling us it's recommending that we We increase the length of our title to improve its SEO readability. As we scroll further down, it's also telling us to increase our emotional words, our uncommon words, and decrease our common words. And the beauty here is that it's also giving us a word bank. So we don't have to come up with these words on our own because it's giving us examples of emotional words or uncommon words. It's also telling us what our headline type is, we have a how to headline, and it's telling us what our reading grade level is. As crazy as it sounds the goal is to have your reading grade level at a seventh grade reading level or below because that is the average reading grade level. So if your reading grade level is too high it will actually flag that and say you need to have your reading grade level for your headline a little easier so that it is easy for everyone to read. It will let you know if the clarity of your headline is good. It will let you know the sentiment of your headline. Is it positive? Is it negative or is it neutral? And actually the goal of your headline is to be positive or negative. Negative isn't necessarily a bad thing because that can be an emotionally charged headline. And it will let you know the skimmability of your headline. What I have learned from using this tool actually is that the majority of people read the first three words and the last three words of your headline. So you want those to be powerful words in the first three and the last three. And what I really like is that when it gives you each of these sections, you can see it says skimmability. Your keyword or topic is buried in your headline, making it difficult for readers to skim. Improve your score by moving your keyword or topic to the first or last three words. So again, by using this tool consistently, I have actually learned a lot about writing strong headlines and how to break down a powerful headline, but it doesn't just teach you about headlines. It actually helps you to improve your headlines using AI. And here's how, so there are three tabs at the top headline score, SEO score, and headline AI, and here's where the AI really stands out. So obviously my headline score right now. is a 63, which is good, not great. Like I said, I like to be in the green, which is 70s or above. So let's pop over to headline AI. Here we have a few different questions that we can ask the headline AI. What are ways to improve my headlines? What are some techniques I can use to make my headlines more impactful? What are alternative ways to write my headline? What are ways to make my headlines more compelling? What are other keywords I can use in my headline? And how can I write my headline with a different headline type? Now, let's click on one of these. How can I write my headline with a different headline type? And it's going to tell me, here are the different headline types. There's lists, how to, step by step, why, question, cliffhanger, and time. All of these are going to give me examples of the types of headlines that are Instantly more compelling. The ultimate step by step guide to creating catchy blog titles. Why compelling blog titles are essential for successful content marketing. Struggling with blog titles? How can you craft titles that grab attention? That's a question. The secret to captivating blog titles revealed A cliffhanger. Or master blog title writing in just 30 minutes per day. All of those are instantly so much more compelling. So if you pick one of those, or a list, 10 tips for crafting engaging blog titles that drive traffic. So let's analyze the 10 tips. Instantly the headline score went up to 70. Great. And it's telling us the character count is better. It's at 60. The word count is better. It's at 60. Now you can continue to tweak and massage these and get the score up even higher. I've had scores up to 90 for the headline score, but for now, let's say we're happy with 70. It's in the green, but the SEO is still at 64. So let's see if we want to improve the SEO score. So I clicked over to the SEO tab and let's analyze the SEO. So it's saying we should be using a keyword that has more average monthly searches. and using a keyword topic that has an increasing trend line. So we can scroll down. It'll give us an analysis on the keyword density, the average monthly searches and the search competition. I am happy with the fact that it is a low search competition with 1.8 thousand average monthly searches. It'll also show us what the search preview looks like and it's saying that our headline has a perfect fit. That it will appear fully in search results and be totally visible to our audience, which is a good thing. It'll also show us our headline competition. This is really helpful because it says our headline score is better than 90 percent of our competition. Meaning, of those 1.8 thousand searches per month for this topic, Our headline Is better than 90 percent of the competition and it will even show us our top headline competition in the search results, right below that. So this is all incredibly helpful information. It will show us keyword variation. Browse a list of keywords similar to the ones in your headline. Consider working in one or two of them into your headline to rank higher in search results. This is incredibly impactful information. Even if you don't use it in your headline, you can incorporate These keyword variations into your content as secondary keywords to help your piece of content rank for these keywords as well. And then here are additional related questions, related topics your audience also searches for. Try including one of them in your headline to reach a wider audience and improve your SEO ranking. So again, even if you don't include it in your headline, Consider creating additional pieces of content that answer these types of questions or including it in your piece of content. The amount of information that you can get out of just this one page with the SEO score is incredible. So now that you've seen Headline Studio in action, let me share some actionable tips for writing headlines that get more clicks. First, always write 5-10 different variations before choosing one. Testing multiple options dramatically increases your chance of picking a winner. Headline Studio makes this easy because you can save multiple versions and compare them. Second, use free tools like Headline Studio and Google Trends. Even if you don't want to pay for the premium version, the free version of Headline Studio gives you valuable insights. And Google Trends can help you identify what topics are currently popular in your niche. Third, use curiosity driven words. Phrases like, the secret to, or what no one tells you about, X, or whatever number, of mistakes you're probably making, trigger curiosity, which is one of the most powerful motivators for clicking. Fourth, A B test your headlines whenever possible. For emails, most email platforms allow you to test different subject lines. For social media, try posting the same content with different headlines and see which one performs better. Remember, making data driven decisions is the best thing you can do. But you gotta get that data in order to be able to test it. And fifth, study headlines that work. Look at the top ranking blog posts and YouTube videos in your niche. What patterns do you notice? Which headlines are really grabbing your attention? Learn from what's already working. No need to reinvent the wheel. Let me share one of my favorite subject line pro tips that I use all the time. I keep a folder in my email called great subject lines. And anytime a really juicy subject line catches my eye in my inbox, I sort that email into this folder. Now, let me say, this is not a swipe file for stealing. It is an inspiration file. When I'm looking for headline inspiration, I head into that folder and I asked myself, what about those subject lines made me click and open those emails? How can I replicate that same vibe for my own business? You could even take this a step further. Drop 5 to 10 of your favorites from your inspiration folder into chatGPT and ask it to analyze the similarities of those subject lines and headlines. Then have it come up with similar headlines specifically tailored for your business and your brand voice. This approach lets you learn from real world examples that actually worked on you. And if they caught your attention, chances are that they'll work on your audience too. All right, I have one more really cool feature inside Headline Studio that I want to show you for when You are just totally stuck when Writer's Block hits. Instead of being on the Analyze screen, head over to Generate on the top left. This is a really cool feature because Let's be real. Sometimes you just sit there staring at the cursor, blink on your totally blank screen, and you are just stuck. And you have no idea what to write. And this is where the AI inside of Headline Studio really shines. Instead of spending hours brainstorming or heading over into chatGPT, Let the AI inside Headline Studio jumpstart your creativity. So what you're going to do is you're going to enter just your overall keyword or topic. So let's type stress management tips for moms. And let's say instead of a blog that we're doing a YouTube video. Now, the other thing is that you can also type in your target audience and your tone. So let's type in mom entrepreneurs and our tone is going to be friendly, fun, and casual. And then it's going to give us a whole bunch of results after we hit generate. Chill out, mompreneur fun stress busters you need now," or"Mom Life Madness, five easy stress hacks for busy entrepreneurs.""Juggling business and babies? Stress relief tips just for you.""Sassy stress solutions because moms deserve a break, too." Laughing through stress: fun ways to stay sane as a mompreneur." So it's just giving you kind of that jumping off point. And we can, and it's giving us related topics, work life balance, mompreneur tips, self care for moms, business strategies, and then we can use this as a jumping off point. Let's analyze this one. From chaos to calm, stress management secrets for mom bosses." and it's giving our YouTube video a score of a 66. So then we would go through the same process that we went through with our prior example of seeing how we can get the SEO score from a 66 up, which is a yellow score, up into the green. So it's saying our reading grade level is a nine, our headline is generic. Let's head over to the headline AI and say, how can I make my headline, how can I write my headline with a different headline type? Now, in this case, we chose a how to topic. So, it went up to a 74 by making it a how to headline."How to transform chaos into calm: stress management tips for mom bosses." So now, let's work on the SEO. The SEO on this one is a 68. So it's saying to use a keyword topic that has an increasing trend line. So let's take a look at the related keywords. In this case, the stress management keyword is Neutral, low competition, and has 110,000 monthly searches. So, I think that's a solid keyword. Our headline competition is higher than 70 percent or more of our competition. And it's saying our title is a little bit too long."How to transform chaos into calm, stress management tips for moms." So we might need to adjust that a little bit. And are saying our keyword trend is so last year, your topic has fallen out of popularity recently. This trend could mean fewer people will find your headline in the months to come. So that's primarily what is dragging down our SEO, is because the keyword topic is trending down. But with 110,000 monthly searches, I would still be okay with it. So it's pretty much just not liking our topic of stress management tips for mom bosses. But, since this is an example, I'm gonna leave it. So overall, that is how you use the generate feature. And you can see that that took just a few moments. And we went from having no headline to generating a headline. And then using the analyze tool and the AI feature to tweak it until we got to a green score. According to McKinsey and Company, using AI driven content tools can increase your writing efficiency by up to 50%. That means you're not just saving time, you're working smarter. The best part is that once you find a headline you like, you can click analyze to fine tune it even further. Optimizing it for both engagement and SEO. And there you have it, a complete walkthrough of how to use Headline Studio to create headlines that grab attention, get clicks, and rank higher in search results. This tool is a game changer for saving time, improving your content's performance, and reaching a wider audience with everything you create. If you want to get more mileage out of all the content you're already creating, I highly recommend starting with your headlines. They are truly the gateway to everything else you do, and even small improvements can lead to big results. I've been using these exact strategies in my AI Evergreen Content Machine course, where I teach entrepreneurs like you how to create content that continues to drive traffic, leads and sales for months or even years after you publish it. SEO optimized headlines are a critical part of that strategy because they help your content get found over and over again, bringing you new leads while you're out living your life. I'm opening up the wait list for my AI Evergreen Content Machine course. And if you'd like to learn my complete strategy for creating content that works for your business around the clock, including in depth training on headline creation and SEO optimization, head to the show notes to get on the wait list and be the first to know when the doors open. When you sign up, you'll also get instant access to my headline swipe file with 50 proven headline templates that you can use right away. Thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe and check out the YouTube version of this episode for the full hands on demo. I'll see you really soon.