Why Is Content Readability Important, And How Is It Measured?

Content that is not readable is useless. So how do you create content that is readable for your audience? The answer is simple, as it is all about content readability, which determines who engages with your content, how much value they derive from it, and whether they will return to read more.

What is content readability?

Content readability measures how easily your content is readable by the audience.

• Readable content is clear, easy to understand, and easy to skim.
• On the other hand, there is content that is hard to read and understand.

The value your audience can take from your content determines whether it is readable or not.. Readable content displays information so that your reader makes a discovery or solves a problem. Does readability affect SEO? Yes, that would be the answer, as the content has to be readable and the words and sentences need to make sense.

Measuring content readability

The readability of text can be evaluated objectively and subjectively. To check content readability, It all depends on the person’s IQ and reading comprehension, but this is measured on objective things like

• The words, phrases, and vocabulary that you use in your content
• How often do you end up using common and uncommon words?
• The length and structure of your sentences and paragraphs

When you check content readability, the above factors are taken into consideration and give you a score on how readable your content is.

The way by which you can make your content read faster

So, by now, you are aware that readable content is high-quality content. For example, you have checked your content against a few parameters and understood does readability affects SEO. It is hard to read, and now is the right time to make the content more readable. Below are a few tips that would be of help.

Shorten sentences

Shorter sentences are easier to read and understand. Longer sentences contain more than a single idea or thought. When you stuff your sentences full of information, the readers will have a difficult time untangling it all.

For this reason, it is better to shorten the sentences. If you are writing longer sentences, it is better to naturally curb this tendency and break the sentence into smaller chunks.

Break up and shorten the paragraphs

When you are shortening your sentences, go ahead and shorten the paragraphs too  A paragraph at the most should have 1 to 3 sentences. A condensed paragraph with lengthy sentences is daunting for a reader.

A golden rule to follow is to break the paragraph into small sentences. A paragraph should convey a thought or an idea. Once you move over to a new thought, start off with a new paragraph.

Use an active voice

A readability tip is to use active voice, which refers to how you word a sentence. For example, “The dog ran after the ball” is the subject, and the verb is clearly stated. Does readability affect SEO when you are using active voice?

“The dog ran after the ball”. This is an example of a passive voice, as the subject and verb are not clear. In most cases, active voice is clearer and easier to read than passive voice. Emphasize that when you are editing the content.

Mixing up the word choices

Repeating the same words in the content over and over again makes it a boring proposition. It looks like keyword stuffing, which is boring to read, would replicate a hard-to-read scenario.

When people are bored with your content, they will not stick to reading all of it and will bounce. Thus, varying your vocabulary can help your writing. The phrases become livelier and more interesting as a result.

Use lists

Lists are a skimming reader’s best friend. If the content is easy to skim, then it is easy to read. When you are tempted to write a long sentence separated by commas, it is better to convert it into bulleted or numbered form. The same step is applicable.

• Steps in a sequence
• Points in a long paragraph
• Any other form of information that you want to highlight aside from the main text

Give signposts to your reader

Content that is easy to read gives judicious signposts to the reader, showing the reader the lay of the land. An example is descriptive headings, which will help you understand how organised your content is and the information it will cover.

Another superior signpost for long-form content is the humble table of contents. This enables the readers to jump around in the article to find the information they want to read.

The pages need to be formatted with plenty of white space

The responsibility for it lies with the web designer, though it is important. Make sure that you have plenty of white space around the content and text.

This is simply the empty space between the elements on a page. The room to breathe makes the pages easier to read, as the page elements would not be cramped together.

Checking the content by reading it out loud

The best way to find out does readability affects SEO is to read it aloud. It may sound silly, but you will soon discover how different your content sounds out loud and in your head. When you are reading it out loud, you may stumble upon complex sentences and paragraphs or notice when the words get tangled.

The moment you come across such sentences, try to simply rewrite them. Smooth them out for ease of reading. You may try it, as this could change how you edit content.

To conclude, content readability is a major deal. When your content is readable, your audience will have an easier time obtaining value from it. Conversely, if the content is unreadable, it will prevent them from doing any of the above. It will frustrate or bore them. They are not going to stick around, and this is the essence of content marketing. Work on the readability and better results will follow.

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