With audiences scrolling through content so quickly (on both search engines and social), an engaging headline is the first – and sometimes only – chance you have to capture their attention and get them to your webpage.
I’ll admit it: When it comes to consuming online content, I’m typically just scrolling and skimming rather than reading everything I see – and chances are that you are, too.
This habit has become commonplace, given the vast amount of information and content we encounter daily.
A strong headline can make the difference between a scroll-past and a click.
Luckily, there are an array of free tools designed to craft headlines that are not only succinct and engaging but also optimized for clicks and SEO.
In this guide, we’ll highlight the top free tools for generating effective titles and headlines, ensuring your content stands out and gets the attention it deserves.
Why Should You Use Free Headline Generator Tools?
You should never underestimate the power of a compelling headline.
The headlines you use for your blog posts and webpages are crucial in attracting clicks from search engine results pages (SERPs) and even social media platforms.
If your content marketing efforts are underperforming, weak headlines could be to blame.
Thankfully, title generator tools exist to help you craft engaging headlines – and many of them are free (like those listed in this article). These tools leverage algorithms to construct headlines that align with time-tested copywriting techniques and proven performance trends across various marketing channels.
While they’re not perfect, leveraging these tools to help you create stronger headlines can ensure your content stands out and drive more traffic to your owned properties.
But Are They Effective?
Absolutely, with some important caveats.
Generally, tools like these are great at generating compelling headlines, but they all have their constraints – some more than others.
Given that they’re free tools, they’re working with very limited information, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. You shouldn’t expect them to come up with headlines that satisfy the latest SEO trends, nor will they always nail your brand’s tone of voice and unique perspective.
Instead, you should use them as a jumping-off point while also maintaining a focus on your audience’s preferences and needs. Integrating your unique insights, along with your own keyword research and SEO findings, will help you get the most out of these tools.
16 Free Title Generator Tools To Help You Write Better Headlines
Without further ado, let’s explore the top free title generators for writing better headlines.
For consistency, I’ll be using the topics of “budget travel” and “budget travel tips and tricks” as my topic to generate examples across all of these tools.
Let’s dive in!
1. HubSpot: Blog Ideas Generator
Screenshot from HubSpot.com, March 2024The Blog Ideas Generator from HubSpot stands out as a top-tier resource for coming up with powerful blog post concepts and titles.
It can even generate a sample article based on your selected headline if you’re in the market for that – but for our purposes, we’ll focus on the title generation aspect.
All you need to do is tell the tool what your blog post is about, and it provides you with a list of five headline ideas to choose from.
HubSpot’s tool leverages Semrush search volume insights and the power of AI to create headlines that are attention-grabbing, strategic, and designed to garner traffic and engagement.
Under each headline, the tool will display the keywords it used to generate the title.
If you gravitate towards one specific keyword set, you can prompt the tool to generate an additional headline based on those keywords – up to 10 headlines with a free account.
Screenshot from HubSpot.com, March 2024Based on the prompt “budget travel tips and tricks,” this tool came up with the following headlines, showing that it’s capable of exploring different facets of a topic and associated keywords to come up with catchy headlines:
- Budget Travel Itinerary Planning: How To Explore More On A Tight Budget.
- Money-Saving Travel Hacks: Tips And Tricks To Make Your Budget Stretch Further.
- Cheap Flight Booking Tips: How To Score The Best Deals On Airfare.
- Affordable Travel Destinations 2023: Discover Budget-Friendly Places To Visit.
- Budget Travel Packing List: Essential Items For A Cost-Effective Journey.
As we touched on above, you can even select a headline you like and have the tool generate a sample blog post within the HubSpot CMS.
A notable con of HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator is that you must sign up for a HubSpot account to access it. However, the tool is 100% free and incredibly easy to use.
2. The HOTH: Title Generator
The HOTH’s free Title Generator is a great tool for crafting SEO-focused headlines aimed at maximizing click-through rates.
The tool asks you to enter details on five different components that go into creating an effective title:
- Relevant content keywords.
- Desired outcome your audience might be searching for.
- Common problems for your target audience or industry.
- Your industry.
- Your target audience.
It then uses the details you provide to come up with a list of 10 headline concepts. Here is what it provided me based on my inputs:
Screenshot from TheHOTH.com, March 2024
Screenshot from TheHoth.com, March 2024As you can see, some headlines are stronger than others, but it’s a great starting point for jogging your brain and getting creative juices flowing.
It seems to tend toward listicle ideas and more formulaic headlines, which could be a pro or a con depending on your audience and goals.
If you don’t like any of your headline suggestions, you can prompt it to generate more ideas – it’s always completely free.
3. SEOPressor: Blog Title Generator
Screenshot from SEOPressor.com, March 2024The Blog Title Generator by SEOPressor takes a more specific approach to headline creation by having you outline what type of keyword you’re using.
So, you enter your target keyword and then use the provided dropdown to confirm whether it’s:
- A generic term.
- A brand/product.
- An event.
- An industry.
- A location.
- A person’s name.
- A skill.
Then, SEOPressor will suggest a list of related headlines for you.
Screenshot from SEOPressor.com, March 2024While the tool is easy to use and takes SEO into consideration, the headlines can be a bit generic and straightforward. Some examples I received for the terms “budget travel” and “budget travel tips and tricks” included:
- 5 Secrets About Budget Travel That Has Never Been Revealed For The Past 50 Years.
- 7 Common Misconceptions About Budget Travel Tips And Tricks.
- 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Budget Travel Tips And Tricks.
- Master The Skills Of Budget Travel And Be Successful.
It’s clear that the tool just inputs the term into tried-and-true headline formulas for that particular keyword type rather than customizing them – so, depending on your topic, it might take a bit of extra time and legwork to perfect them.
While the tool is free, it will ask for your email address after three regenerations. Also, be aware that the site is heavier on the ads than many other tools here.
4. Portent: Content Idea Generator
Screenshot from Portent.com, March 2024Portent’s Content Idea Generator stands out as another popular choice for those seeking inspiration when it comes to headlines and ideas.
It provides a range of topics for use across various content formats, giving you multiple headline options to choose from.
You simply enter your subject and prompt the tool to generate a headline. It provides one title at a time, and for each, you have the option to save the idea, tweet it, see a new title, or change your subject altogether.
The interesting thing about Portent’s tool is that it allows you to click on different words or phrases from the suggested headline to learn more about why it was included and how it can help your content perform.
In that regard, it’s helpful to learn what makes a headline engaging and clickable.
However, its tone is particularly quirky, and the suggestions might not always align with those looking for more professional or serious content. Some of the headlines it suggested to me:
- When Budget Travel Tips And Tricks Send You Running For Cover.
- Why Budget Travel Is The Key To Winning The Presidential Election.
- How To Build An Empire With Budget Travel.
- How Budget Travel Could Help You Win The Game of Thrones.
Nobody can say they’re not entertaining!
Screenshot from Portent.com, March 20245. Easy-Peasy.AI: Headline Generator
Screenshot from Easy-Peasy.AI, March 2024Easy-Peasy.AI (formerly Content Row) features an AI-powered Headline Generator that excels in producing a wide array of headline ideas across content types.
To use it, you just input your topic and your tone (optional) and click “Generate.”
The tool spits out 20 headlines in four different categories: guides & how-tos, questions, listicles, and others. That’s five headlines for each category.
Screenshot from Easy-Peasy.AI, March 2024I liked the variety the tool provided, which made the headlines more specific. The suggestions I received felt more thoughtful and valuable than some of the other tools. Some examples of headlines it generated for my topic:
- How To Travel The World On A Shoestring Budget.
- How Can I Travel On A Budget Without Sacrificing Comfort?
- 7 Must-Have Apps For Traveling On A Budget.
- The Hidden Benefits Of Budget Travel – More Than Just Saving Money!
With five free rounds of generations a day and 40+ languages supported, this tool is a wonderful starting point for your headline ideation.
6. Tweak Your Biz: Title Generator
Screenshot from TweakYourBiz.com, March 2024The Title Generator by Tweak Your Biz is yet another impressive free tool for generating headlines.
Input your topic, identify whether it’s a noun or a verb, and let the tool know whether you want the results in title or sentence case.
Click submit, and the tool will serve you a long list of headline concepts, separated by categories that include lists, best, how-to, questions, business, snark, motivation, and more.
The upside here is that you get a ton of different content title suggestions – and that also feels like the downside. While the array of choices is great, the sheer volume of titles can be time-consuming to sort through.
Screenshot from TweakYourBiz.com, March 2024Also, the formulaic approach can lead to a lot of headlines that aren’t useful for your purposes. For example, I didn’t need a section on “celebrities” (believe it or not, I’m not in a rush to write “Genghis Khan’s Guide To Budget Travel Excellence”).
Other headlines it suggested for me included:
- Master The Art Of Budget Travel With These 10 Tips.
- Best 20 Tips For Budget Travel.
- How To Earn $1,000,000 Using Budget Travel.
- Shhhh… Listen! Do You Hear The Sound Of Budget Travel?
- 10 Ways Budget Travel Can Drive You Bankrupt – Fast!
If you’re starting with a blank slate and looking to come up with as many ideas as possible – or just get some inspiration – this is a great resource.
7. CoSchedule: Headline Analyzer
Screenshot from CoSchedule.com, March 2024The Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule offers actionable insights about what makes a successful headline by analyzing your headlines and telling you what works (and what doesn’t).
The tool evaluates your headline based on factors like word balance, headline type, sentiment, clarity, skimmability, word count, character count, and more.
It gives your headline an overall score out of 100, as well as an SEO score based on details like keyword quality and density, search competition, average monthly searches, and more.
The two screenshots below show my headline score and SEO score, respectively, when using a headline suggested to me by HubSpot’s tool (earlier in this article):
Screenshot from CoSchedule.com, March 2024
Screenshot from CoSchedule.com, March 2024While not a typical headline generator, CoSchedule’s tool provides valuable insights into headline effectiveness to help you ensure you’re optimizing your content for engagement and search rankings.
The only downsides are that you need to provide your own headline, and you’ll need to upgrade to a paid account for features like more monthly credits (you get 10 credits/searches each month with a free account) and to unlock additional features.
Overall, a powerful tool for testing your headlines.
8. SumoMe: Kickass Headline Generator
SumoMe’s Kickass Headline Generator helps you create headlines by having you input specific information based on the type of content you’re creating.
SumoMe has users choose from a list of predefined content categories to guide the headline creation process. It provides a few specific types of content to choose from:
- Numbered Lists.
- How To.
- Explanatory/Why.
- Strong/Controversial.
- Fun/Playful.
- DIY Headline Formulas.
Screenshot from SumoMe.com, March 2024You simply select the content type you want, and the tool will prompt you to enter specific details based on that selection.
For example, the Numbered Lists section asks for your topic, a desirable and undesirable outcome for your audience, and how many list items you want in the article.
The How To section, on the other hand, asks for things like a time frame, a descriptive power word, and a biggest frustration to devise headlines.
The tool then uses pre-existing headline templates to suggest a list of possible titles for your content based on your information.
Screenshot from SumoMe.com, March 2024
Screenshot from SumoMe.com, March 2024While this tool requires a little more work on the user’s end, it’s useful for understanding how different types of headlines come together. You can easily see how your inputs impact the suggestions and make tweaks, edits, and customizations as you see fit to reach your goals.
The reliance on templates means the tool is limited, but it’s straightforward and practical and a good option for those who know what they’d like to achieve.
9. Impact: Blog About
Screenshot from impactplus.com, March 2024The BlogAbout tool by Impact is a sleek blog title generator that enables you to create headlines easily with a simple, user-friendly interface.
With its fill-in-the-blank approach, this tool is useful for generating blog-specific titles that can help spark creativity and refine your content direction.
You start by entering your keyword and then using a dropdown to identify whether the keyword is a product or service, a brand/business name, an industry, or something else.
From there, the tool will generate five headlines, one for each of these categories: cost, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best-in-class. You can see in the screenshot below how this looks for the “industry” keyword type.
Screenshot from impactplus.com, March 2024If you don’t like the headlines you receive, you can continue prompting the tool to generate more. You also have the option to save the titles you like and download them – though you’ll have to fill out a form to do the latter.
The great thing about the BlogAbout tool is the customization options, but the templated approach means it might not always work perfectly for you, depending on your keywords and topics.
10. Advanced Marketing Institute: Headline Analyzer
Screenshot from aminstitute.com, March 2024The Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer might sound complex, but it’s actually a straightforward and accessible tool that evaluates the emotional pull of your headlines.
This is another one where you need to come prepared with your own headline options for analysis rather than having the tool generate new content for you.
Once entered, the tool calculates the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) of the headline, reflecting its potential to resonate with readers emotionally.
According to the Advanced Marketing Institute, the headline is “analyzed and scored based on the total number of EMV words it has in relation to the total number of words it contains.”
On top of that, you’ll also find out which of these three emotions the headline impacts most: intellectual, empathetic, or spiritual.
For my headline here, I used one of the options that Easy-Peasy.AI’s tool suggested to me, and here is what I received:
Screenshot from aminstitute.com, March 2024The tool also conveyed to me that the predominant emotion classification was Spiritual:
Screenshot from aminstitute.com, March 2024This is certainly a unique tool in that it helps you understand the emotional impact of your headlines and can thus give you tips on creating headlines with a psychological edge.
It’s always free and lets you input as many headlines as you’d like!
11. FATJOE: Blog Post Title Headline Generator
Screenshot from FatJoe.com, March 2024Looking to generate a ton of titles fast? Facing a creative block when titling your latest article or post? The Blog Post Title Headline Generator by FATJOE could be a good option for you.
Start by inputting a topic or keyword, and you’ll immediately receive 10 headline suggestions. If that’s not enough, you can sign up for free with your email address to download 100 more.
Screenshot from FatJoe.com, March 2024The suggestions are largely numbers/list-based titles that leverage a formulaic approach across different tones and styles. However, the quality can vary pretty drastically, so some of the results will likely be far less relevant to you than others.
It’s great for a quick and easy dose of creative inspiration, but will take manual filtering to find the gems.
As the company itself specifies, these are intended to be clickbait titles, so you should be aware of that going into it.
12. Copywriting Course: Title Generator
Screenshot from copywritingcourse.com, March 2024The Copywriting Course’s Title Generator tool provides more than 100 headline suggestions for a variety of content types.
All you need to do is enter your topic into the tool, and you instantly get a long list of potential titles based on proven copywriting formulas. They’re designed to increase clicks and conversions for you.
The major drawback is that the list itself doesn’t change, so you’re getting the same ideas every time, just with a different keyword or topic switched in.
In that regard, the tool doesn’t have much personalization, so it is best as a creative inspiration tool rather than something that you’ll want to revisit over and over.
But if you do want to, it’s totally free forever with no restrictions.
13. Sharethrough: Headline Analyzer
Screenshot from sharethrough.com, March 2024Already have a headline, but want to know how engaging it is? It’s time you paid a visit to Sharethrough’s Headline Analyzer.
Simply input your headline, and the tool will analyze its effectiveness, providing insights into metrics like quality, engagement potential, and overall impression.
It will give you an overall Headline Quality Score, which “is based on a multivariate linguistic algorithm built on the principles of Behavior Model theory and Sharethrough’s neuroscience and advertising research.”
The company’s algorithm considers 300+ unique variables, including natural language processing, to help you create effective headlines.
Sharethrough’s tool will tell you your headline’s strengths, as well as provide a list of suggestions for how to improve upon its weaknesses.
Here’s what it told me when I entered a headline from Tweak Your Biz’s generator:
Screenshot from Sharethrough.com, March 2024
Screenshot from Sharethrough.com, March 202414. Title-Generator.com
Title-Generator.com is a free service for generating a multitude of headlines.
By simply inputting a primary keyword and hitting “Create Titles,” you’ll get a list of 700 – yes, you read that correctly – headline ideas.
They’re delivered in a simple text format. And while it’s impressive how many options the tool provides, the quality really runs the gamut. You will almost certainly need to do some manual trawling and editing to find what you’re looking for – but it’s a great starting point for content inspo.
The screenshot below shows examples of just some of the headlines it gave me based on my prompt:
Screenshot from Title-Generator.com, March 2024The tool is free and easy to use, but beware that the site contains a fair amount of ads, which can detract from the user experience.
15. AnswerThePublic: Search Listening Tool
Screenshot from AnswerThePublic.com, March 2024Another tool that’s slightly different from other options here, AnswerThePublic uses “search listening” to provide users with valuable insights for their content marketing strategies.
Unlike traditional headline generators, this tool delves into the queries and phrases people search for related to your keyword, offering a wealth of ideas that can then be transformed into compelling headlines.
To get started, enter your keyword, select your target country and language, and then hit the search button. You can choose to search Google, Bing, YouTube, or Amazon to find out what users are searching for.
Once you’ve hit search, AnswerThePublic will generate a bunch of data for you, including related questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical searches, and related searches for your topic. You can view this in several ways, including wheels, lists, and tables, and results are color-coded based on performance.
Beyond this, the tool also provides the search volume and cost per click (CPC) for the topic you’ve inputted.
Here’s a small snapshot of what I saw for “budget travel”:
Screenshot from AnswerThePublic.com, March 2024
Screenshot from AnswerThePublic.com, March 2024It’s a powerful tool for discerning user intent and finding content gaps in the market, but it may be more helpful for general concepts rather than polished headlines or titles specifically. That said, I would recommend it as a tool to pressure test your ideas.
You get one free search with a public version, and then you need to register for an account for three free searches per day. To get more insights and searches, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
16. Ahrefs: Free AI Blog Title Generator
Screenshot from Ahrefs.com, March 2024If you’re looking for SEO-friendly headline ideas, consider trying out Ahref’s Free AI Blog Title Generator.
According to Ahrefs, the tool “uses a language model that learns patterns, grammar, and vocabulary from large amounts of text data – then uses that knowledge to generate human-like text based on a given prompt or input.”
Start by entering what your article is about, then choose a writing tone from a list of many, including formal, friendly, casual, professional, persuasive, bold, academic, empathetic, and many more.
Then, click “Generate Titles” to get a list of up to 10 headline ideas. Below is a screenshot of my results when I entered “budget travel tips and tricks” and selected Persuasive for the tone.
Screenshot from Ahrefs.com, March 2024I found this tool’s suggestions to be among some of the strongest I received from these tools, and would suggest trying the tool out if you’re looking for headline ideas.
If you want to save the ideas it generates, you can export the results in a text file with the click of a button. You can also have the tool serve you additional ideas – free of charge.
Leverage These Tools To Supercharge Your Headlines
Given the sheer amount of content that’s produced online every single day, effective headlines are more crucial than ever before.
And thanks to free title generator tools like those in this article, crafting powerful headlines is only getting easier.
While their output isn’t always perfect, they offer a foundation upon which you can build more nuanced and targeted content strategies.
By combining the capabilities of headline generators with your own strategic SEO and audience insights and analysis, as well as your content marketing expertise, you can ensure that your content is seen by – and resonates with – your target audience.
More resources:
Featured Image: Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock