What is Readability Score? — a Quick Guide

Your text should cater to all kinds of readers. When you’re writing an article that intends to reach various individuals, you should ensure that you effectively convey your message.

If your content targets a general audience, you should write a piece that is easy to read. The readability of your content is essential in increasing your website’s Google search ranking. The higher your readability score is, the better the chance it will appear on the first page of search results.

As you read this guide, you will find out the answer to your question: What is readability score?

person reading book on brown and beige pillow with textile design
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

What is Readability?

Readability measures an article’s comprehension level and how long it takes for an average person to read it. Readers can comprehend text effortlessly if it has an above-average readability score. Content presentation, vocabulary, and sentence structure impact this measure.

Your content will be easily understood when you write at an increased level of readability for your audience.

American readers are averaged to read like a 7th or 8th grader. You should target this level of readability if you do not have a specific audience.

You need to analyze the style, grammar, structure, and content of a text to ensure its readability. While this may seem daunting, using tools can quickly teach you how to write a readable copy. 

What is Readability Score?

A readability score can tell you how much education someone needs to read a piece of text easily. Grade level pertains to the number of years of education a person has.

The readability score tells you how easy it is for someone to read a piece of text. The average length of sentences and words in your document determines the readability of your content. This is called the Flesch reading ease test.

The higher the number, the easier it is for readers to read your document. It is common to score 60 or higher in most cases.

Average readers can read your article easily if it has at least a score of 60. 

In other words, it can cater to people with at least an eighth-grade education degree. 

Does a readability score of 70 mean you sound like an eighth-grader? No, it doesn’t measure your writing. In other words, it tells you how much energy your readers will have to expend to absorb what you’re saying.

You may improve your readability score by cutting down lengthy sentences and replacing complex words with simpler ones.

To Wrap Up

In summary, a readability score helps you to write easy-to-read content. Average Americans can read your text effortlessly if it has a comprehensibility score of 60.

As a writer, you should ensure that your content caters to all readers. The readability of your text tells you how comprehensible your blog is for a specific audience. You can improve your readability score by correcting grammar mistakes or cutting long sentences into readable parts. 

Pam is an expert grammarian with years of experience teaching English, writing and ESL Grammar courses at the university level. She is enamored with all things language and fascinated with how we use words to shape our world.

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