Content Readability: Know How Good Is Your Blog Post
Is your blog post easy to read? Does the length and complexity of your sentences make your readers give up before they finish a single paragraph? Well, there is one simple way to avoid being boring, confusing and ineffective: Readability. In this blog, we will tell you all you need to know about content readability by a leading SEO Company in Mumbai. So, let’s get started. What is readability? Readability is a measure of how easily a reader can understand a text. It is usually measured by the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word in the text. The higher the readability, the easier it is to understand the content. Readability depends on several factors like: The length of sentences (longer sentences are harder) The level of vocabulary used (technical words are hard) The presence of passive voice (passive voice creates confusion) Readability is not legibility. Readability is often confused with legibility, which refers to how easily individual letters or characters can be discerned. As best SEO company will tell you that legibility deals with the physical appearance of letters, words, or other elements in the text. Legibility can be improved by using larger typefaces, for example, but this does not necessarily improve readability unless it makes it easier to understand what the text says. For example, if you use a condensed font (which reduces letter spacing), your text will look denser but may actually take longer to read because there are fewer spaces between words — so your eye has less time to rest between words! What is a Readability Score? The readability score is a metric that measures the readability of a piece of content. It uses a combination of several metrics to generate an overall score. The idea behind Readability Score is that the easier it is to read, the more likely people will stay on your site, consume your content and take action. For example, if you have a blog post on your website and someone visits it but doesn’t read it because it’s too difficult to understand, then they probably won’t ever come back to your site again. Why Is it Important? Readability is an important factor when it comes to writing blogs. It makes your content more interesting and engaging, which attracts more readership. When you write, you want people to read your blog post without any difficulty and also share it with others on social media sites or through email marketing campaigns. If you have written an article that looks good, but people can’t read it properly, then what’s the use? You will lose your visitors who are looking for good content. Well-written content can help improve your reader engagement rate and increase your page views — which in turn will improve your rankings in search engines. This is because Google considers these factors when ranking websites within its search engine results pages (SERPs). A high number of page views (i.e., many people visiting your site) means that people like what they see on your site — they’re not just bouncing off because they can’t understand what you’re trying to say! Factors Which Affect Readability The writing style. Some styles are more readable than others, such as active voice over passive voice or simple sentence structure over complex sentence structure. The vocabulary level. Using words that are familiar to your readers makes your content easier to understand. This means avoiding long words or uncommon words unless you have a good reason for using them (e.g., if they’re necessary). The complexity of ideas being expressed in the text. Complexity affects both the technical and interpersonal aspects of communication. Technical complexity refers primarily to the amount of information being communicated; interpersonal complexity refers primarily to the relationship between communicator(s) and receiver(s). What is your reading level? This will help determine if your writing is appropriate for your audience or not. Your reading level refers to how difficult it is for someone with a certain level of education to understand what you’re saying. If they have a high school diploma, they may have trouble understanding some words and phrases you use in your posts. If they’re college-educated, they’ll probably have no problem with these words and phrases at all. How much effort it takes for someone to read a piece of content — something called the scanability of the text. Scalability refers to how easy it is for readers to find specific information within a piece of text by skimming through it quickly or scanning through it quickly while looking for specific information (e.g., “Where can I find stats on X?”). Types of Content Readability Test The eight most prevalent readability tests for the English language are described below, along with recommended writing levels. Cloze Test The Cloze test is an exercise that can be used to assess the readability of your writing (and other people’s). It’s a simple but effective way to estimate the reading level of any piece of text. A cloze test consists of a passage where some words have been removed. The reader has to fill in the missing words based on context clues provided by the rest of the sentence or paragraph. Score the responses by dividing the total number of words removed by the number of correct answers. You should aim for a 60% or higher score. Scores in the 40-60% range indicate that your readers may have trouble reading the text. If the score is below 40%, then you should consider rewriting. You can create your own cloze tests using our free online tool: TextCompare Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease. One of the most commonly used readability formulas is the Flesch reading ease formula. This is a formula that measures the average number of syllables in each word and then calculates the average sentence length. It also takes into account words with more than one syllable and sentences that are too long or too