A common failure pattern: you wrote 2,500 words on a topic, the topic is correct, and your article doesn't rank. You check the on-page SEO. Title matches the target query. H1 matches the target query. Meta description matches. Then you look at the H2s and realize none of them actually answer the question the target query is asking.
The query was "how to fix 301 redirect chains." Your H2s are "What Is a Redirect," "History of URL Redirection," "Why Redirects Matter," "Types of Redirects." All about the general topic. None about the specific "how to fix" action.
Heading-to-Query Alignment checks each heading against your actual target query.
How it scores
Takes your target query, tokenizes it (stopwords filtered), and optionally a list of related-query expansions (pulled from Query Fan-Out Generator or your own notes). Builds a semantic pool from the combined tokens.
For each H2/H3 on the page:
- Query overlap. Fraction of heading tokens present in the query. 60% weight.
- Semantic overlap. Fraction of heading tokens present in the semantic pool. 40% weight.
- Jaccard similarity. Set overlap measure for reference.
Composite score 0-100. Aligned = 50+. Drift = under 20.
What drift reveals
Drift under 20% — the heading is tangentially related at best. Either rewrite to include query-relevant terms, or cut if the content is off-topic.
Drift 20-50% — the heading is in-topic but not answering the query directly. Often the case for generic subtopic headings ("Why This Matters") that should be replaced with action-oriented ones ("How To Detect The Chain").
Aligned 50+% — the heading directly engages the query.
The outline-diff prompt
Once you have the per-heading scores, the AI prompt asks: what's the right outline for this target query? It produces a diff — keep these headings, rewrite these, cut these, add these missing subtopics. The missing-subtopics analysis matters most: if your article has no H2 on "emitting the 301 config" but the target query implies the reader wants to fix the chains, that's a content gap you should fill before expecting to rank.
The relationship to the other two heading tools
- Headings Outline — structural: H1 exists, hierarchy is clean, no skipped levels.
- Heading Gap Audit — competitive: what H2s do your competitors cover that you don't.
- This tool — intent-aligned: do your H2s answer the specific query you're targeting.
All three are worth running before publishing. They catch different problems.
Related reading
- Query Fan-Out Generator — expand a seed query into related variations
- Headings Outline — structural headings validation
- AIO Trigger Predictor — whether the query triggers AI Overview
Fact-check notes and sources
- Google on title and headings: developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link
- Jaccard similarity: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaccard_index
The $100 Network covers content planning at scale. Alignment scoring is the last check before "content planned for query X actually answers query X."
