Moonrank

Headline Writing skill

The playbook Moonrank's Writer Agent uses to write headlines that earn the click — a stated promise, ten variants, and clear beating clever every time.

Download the methodology, see how the agent picks a winner, or run it live inside the Writer Agent.

Get the skill fileTry the Moonrank Writer Agent
Category
Writer
Agent
Writer Agent
Format
headline-writing.md
Price
Free to download

The skill file

headline-writing.md
---
name: headline-writing
description: Craft headlines, titles, and subject lines that earn the click without overpromising — clear beats clever, every time.
owner: Moonrank Writer Agent
---

# Headline Writing
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About this skill

What is the Headline Writing skill?

The Headline Writing skill is how Moonrank's Writer Agent fronts every piece it produces: stating the promise in one sentence, drafting variants across four modes, cutting anything clever that isn't clear, and verifying the body delivers what the title claims.

It's written as a SKILL.md, a plain-language instruction format that people and AI agents can both follow. Read it to fix your own titles and subject lines, hand it to your team as a standard, or let the Writer Agent apply it to everything it drafts.

Downloading the playbook is free with a Moonrank account. Writing and testing headlines against your live click data, day after day, is what the Writer Agent does.

Example

See it in action

You ask

“We rank in the top 5 for a dozen queries but our click-through rate is terrible. The content is good — why won't people click?”

Agent does

Nine of your twelve titles are the keyword plus your brand name — a label, not a promise. Your best performer, at a 6.1% CTR, is the only one with a number in it; the other eleven average 1.8%. Rewrite the eleven around one specific each: a count, a timeframe, or a named outcome the page actually delivers. Same rankings, roughly triple the clicks on past evidence.

How it works

From input to fix list

  1. 1

    You provide the piece and the reader

    What the headline fronts, who it's for, and the channel it appears in.

  2. 2

    Moonrank states the promise

    The Writer Agent reduces the piece to one plain sentence of value — the headline's raw material.

  3. 3

    It drafts and culls variants

    Ten drafts across four modes, then everything clever-but-unclear gets cut.

  4. 4

    It verifies and fits the channel

    The promise is checked against the body, and the winner is sized to the character limit.

What's included

Everything it checks

One-sentence promise

What the reader gets, stated plainly before any wordplay is attempted.

Four drafting modes

Direct benefit, specific number, reader's question, and named outcome.

Clever cut

Every variant that needs the body to make sense is deleted, with the reason logged.

Specificity pass

A number, timeframe, or named audience added — adjectives swapped for claims.

Overpromise check

The headline is verified against the body so the click is never a bait-and-switch.

Channel fit

Character counts against SERP, inbox, and feed limits, with truncation checked.

Use cases

When to reach for it

  • Lift click-through on pages that rank but don't get clicked.
  • Turn a pun-heavy brainstorm into headlines that state a promise.
  • Write subject lines at volume without going generic.
  • Standardize how a team titles everything it publishes.
  • Pressure-test a headline before the piece ships.
Questions

Frequently asked questions

It's the Writer methodology Moonrank's Writer Agent follows — written out step by step, so you can read exactly how the work gets done rather than trusting a black box.

A plain-language instruction file that both people and AI agents can follow. Open it in any editor, paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, or drop it into an agent framework that reads skill files.

Yes. Every skill file is free with a Moonrank account — we ask for an email, not a credit card. Running the skill continuously against your site is what the paid product does.

Absolutely. The file is yours to adapt. Hand it to your team as a standard, run it manually, or point your own agent at it. Nothing in it depends on our platform.

The Writer Agent runs this methodology against your site on a schedule, prioritizes what it finds, and ships copy-ready fixes — no manual runs, no downloads to manage.

Related skills

Pair it with these skills

Writer

Copywriting

Write persuasive, benefit-led copy in the customer's own language, with proof next to every claim.

Writer

Article Brief

Turn a target query into a brief a writer or agent can draft from without follow-up questions.

Find out what AI says about your brand.