Readability Score Checker : Why It Is Important For SEO In 2022?

Are you writing content that can be readable only by Ph.D. scholars? Or by a person with a readability level of 5th grade? You will definitely choose the second option to make your content available for a wider range of audiences. To increase your content reach, you should make it understandable to people of different age groups. We use Readability Score as a metric for measuring the readability level. In WordPress, we have seen almost all SEO plugins focus on readability score or level. For example, Yoast SEO Plugin, etc. But when we talk about blogger, there is no option to check the readability score or level while writing content. So, in this article, we will discuss various types of readability scores and how to calculate these metrics using this readability score checker tool for free.

What Is Readability Score?

The term readability refers to the ease with which a user can understand a written text. A readability score is between 1 to 100 used to identify how easy or difficult it is to read or understand a written text.

How To Calculate Readability Score?

The calculation of the readability score is based on the Flesch-Kincaid test of readability. There are two tests available for calculating the readability. One is Flesch Reading-Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Although they use the same core measures i.e., word length, sentence length, and total syllables they have different weight factors.

The results of the two tests correlate approximately inversely. A text with a comparatively high score on the Reading Ease test should have a lower score on the Grade-Level test.

Flesch Reading-Ease (Target Score: >60)

In the Flesch Reading-Ease test, a higher score indicates that the content is easier to read and understand. While a lower score indicates that it is difficult to read. The formula to calculate the Flesch Reading-Ease is as follows-

Score	School Level	Notes
100.00–90.00	5th grade	Very easy to read. Easily understood by an average 11-year-old student.
90.0–80.0	6th grade	Easy to read. Conversational English for consumers.
80.0–70.0	7th grade	Fairly easy to read.
70.0–60.0	8th & 9th grade	Plain English. Easily understood by 13- to 15-year-old students.
60.0–50.0	10th to 12th grade	Fairly difficult to read.
50.0–30.0	College	Difficult to read.
30.0–10.0	College graduate	Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates.
10.0–0.0	Professional	Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (Target Score: <8-10)

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test is also using the same parameters as the Flesch Reading-Ease test to calculate the readability score but with different weight factors. The formula to calculate the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is as follows-

How To Calculate Readability Score Using Readability Score Checker Tool?

To calculate the readability score or readability level, open free Readability Score Checker Tool.

1. Visit the above mentioned link
2. Write or copy-paste your content in the given text area
3. Click on “Calculate” button and analyze the result

Why Readability Score Is Important In SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

The readability number is important as it shows the content is easier and clearer to understand for the larger audience segment.

According to an article published here, “Readability is both a direct factor and an indirect factor for SEO. Good readability helps your target audience digest your content, thus influencing their behavior signals, which Google measures. Google prefers content with high readability that provides a satisfactory experience to the end-user.“

Here are some benefits of having a good readability score for your website content.

1. Increases the dwell time
2. Decreases the exit rate
3. Decreases the bounce rate
4. Increases the social shares
5. Increases the conversion rate

Definition Of Other Calculated Metrics In Free Readability Score Checker Tool

Words

Total count of the words present in the given sentence or paragraph. The minimum number of required words for an article or post is 300 words.

Sentences

A sentence is a set of words that are put together to mean something. A basic unit of language that expresses a complete thought. For a good readability score, make sure to form shorter sentences (less than 20 words).

SMOG Grade (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) Or SMOG Index

The SMOG grade is a measure of readability that estimates the years of education needed to understand a piece of writing. SMOG is very useful for medical (health) writing and is considered the ‘gold standard’ formula in healthcare. It should be less than 8-10.

Complex Words

A complex word is a word made up of two or more morphemes. For example, blackbird (two root words). It is also defined as a word made up of more than three syllables. To improve the readability score, replace complex words with simpler ones.

Coleman Liau Index

The Coleman-Liau Index was created by Meri Coleman and T L Liau. The index doesn’t involve syllable counting but instead counted word length in letters. We use this index in the medical, translation sector, and legal sectors. It should be less than 8-10.

Here, L is the average number of letters per 100 words and S is the average number of sentences per 100 words.

ARI (Automated Readability Index)

The automated readability index (ARI) is a readability test for English texts, designed to gauge the understandability of a text. It relies on a factor of characters per word, instead of the usual syllables per word. It should be less than 8-10.

Score	Age	Grade Level
1	5-6	Kindergarten
2	6-7	First Grade
3	7-8	Second Grade
4	8-9	Third Grade
5	9-10	Fourth Grade
6	10-11	Fifth Grade
7	11-12	Sixth Grade
8	12-13	Seventh Grade
9	13-14	Eighth Grade
10	14-15	Ninth Grade
11	15-16	Tenth Grade
12	16-17	Eleventh Grade
13	17-18	Twelfth Grade
14	18-22	College student

Syllables

A syllable is a part of a word that contains a single vowel sound. It is pronounced as a unit. For example, blue, huge, right, etc.

Characters

Total count of characters including spaces.

Gunning Fog Index

The Gunning Fog Index was created by Robert Gunning, an American businessman. The index estimates the years of formal education a person needs to understand the text on the first reading. It should be less than 12.

Fog Index	Reading Level By Grade
17	College graduate
16	College senior
15	College junior
14	College sophomore
13	College freshman
12	High school senior
11	High school junior
10	High school sophomore
9	High school freshman
8	Eighth grade
7	Seventh grade
6	Sixth grade

Summary

We discussed the importance of the readability score for improving the website’s on-page SEO. We have also discussed various scores used to measure readability and also seen how to calculate this readability score using free readability score checker tool. Most of the plugins and application uses Flesch Reading-Ease to calculate the readability score.

If you have any queries, you can Contact Us.

Are you writing you content which can be readable only by PhD scholars? Or by a person with readability level of 5th grade? You will definitely chose the second option to make your content available for a wider range of audience. To increase your content reach, you should make it understandable by people with different age groups. We use Readability Score as a metric for measuring the readability level. In WordPress, we have seen almost all SEO plugins focus on readability score or level. For example, Yoast SEO Plugin, etc. But when we talk about blogger, there is no option to check the readability score or level while writing content. So, in this article, we will discussed various types of readability score and how to calculate these metrics using this readability score checker tool for free.

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