If you write a blog post that is easy to read, it will rank higher in Google. And now, thanks to our recent study on readability and SEO, we can prove it!

We recently compared the readability scores and Google rankings of hundreds of articles (all written by SCRIBE Studio) over a 6-month period. We discovered that, on average, if you can make a blog post just 20% easier to read, it can boost your position in Google's search results by 25 places or more.

In this article, we'll explain how readability can affect the success of your content campaign, regardless of the industry you’re in. We'll show you how readability can be measured and improved, and explain how to use your readability scores to quickly and effectively improve your chances of ranking highly in Google.

What is Readability (and why should we care)?

Readability is a way of measuring how easy it is to read a written message.

There are lots of different readability scoring systems, but most of them use a combination of word count, sentence length and character length to calculate reading difficulty. Some also count syllables or check for the frequency of 'easy-to-read' words.

Readability scores can almost always be converted into an approximate reading age. So for instance, if your blog post has a Coleman-Liau Index of 5, it should be easy to read for an American 5th grader (around 10 years old). Generally speaking, it’s better to create content with a low reading age, as not all of your customers will have a reading age that matches their biological age.

There are some great readability scores for non-native English speakers, too. Here at SCRIBE, if we're working with a client who sells goods overseas, we run an IELTS Readability check on their campaign. Their message needs to be understood by potential customers who don’t have a fluent grasp of English, and the IELTS score gives us an objective, reliable way of testing this.

Readability scores are great for writers who need a way to measure the quality of a piece of writing. It's great for readers, too, because text with a good readability score will be easy to understand. But readability scoring systems don’t just help writers and readers. Readability helps search engines, too.

How does readability affect SEO?

Late last year, we ran a study to look for a correlation between readability and SEO. First, we took the Flesch Reading Ease scores of hundreds of blog posts (all written by us) over the past 3 years. Then we took a look at the Google Search Console data for those posts over a six-month period in 2021. We discovered that, on average, easy-to-read blog posts rank much higher in Google.

*Average search positions are an average of all the search terms that an article ranks for, and not just the target keywords.*

Our study data was drawn from hundreds of blog posts and articles, written for mainly UK clients in a broad range of B2B and B2C industries. We scored the readability of our articles using Flesch Reading Ease, a simple 1 - 100 scoring system.

On the Flesch Reading Ease scale, a score of 50-55 is considered 'fairly difficult' (approx. 18-year-old's reading level), while a score of 75-80 is 'fairly easy' (approx. 12-year-old reading level). When we compared average scores against average Google rankings, we discovered that…

Articles with a score of 50-55 typically appeared in position 50.1 in Google.
Articles scoring 75-80 typically appeared in position 24.

In other words, blogs that are easy for a 12 year old to read can do twice as well in Google. That’s why — since late 2021 — we’ve tried to only publish web content with really good readability scores.

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What Google has to say about readability

Our own research proves that a good readability score will help you up the Google rankings. Google's own advice seems to back this up. For instance, Google's own SEO starter guide for small businesses says that you should strive to "write easy-to-read text" (source).

The fairest, fastest way to measure how easy it is to read something is with a readability test. It stands to reason that an algorithm-based business like Google would rely on readability scores to figure this out.

How to get a readability score

If you've got the time, you can probably readability-score your text yourself. For instance, to get your text’s Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, you just need to count up the total number of words, sentences and syllables in your text. You then just do some very simple multiplication and division to arrive at an accurate reading age.

For most of us, the fastest way to figure out your readability score is to use specialist software. Here at SCRIBE, we use a service called Readable.com, a fantastic business based in Sussex. Before we click publish, every blog post, sales letter, video script and brochure we write gets a full readability analysis. Text is scored in minutes, and we can then see exactly where improvements can be made.

How to improve readability

The simplest, fastest way to improve your readability scores is to edit what you've written. Go line by line, and try to say the same thing in simpler, shorter language. Quick ways to boost readability include:

Break up long sentences. Shorter, simpler sentences are easier to read. Most readability scores will look at the number of sentences per 100 words. Every time you find a long sentence, try to break it into 2 or 3 shorter ones.
Take out complex words. Say 'use' instead of 'utilise'. Swap words like 'facilitate' for words like 'help'. Short, simple words are always best, even if you're in a jargon-heavy industry.
Focus your paragraphs. Every paragraph in your text should explain one concept or make a single point. If a paragraph is more than 4 or 5 lines long, take a close look at what that paragraph is telling your reader. See if you can split it into two or more separate statements.

There are lots of other tricks out there that make text easier to read (subheadings, lists, infographics, font choices, text spacing etc), but the 3 points above will help you improve your readability scores dramatically.

What if you need to use big words?

We work with a lot of businesses in highly technical industries. Sometimes, we can't get away from using long words. We might need to write a long sentence to explain a complex concept. So how does readability fit in this situation?

You don’t need to ‘dumb down’ your arguments or skip over complex concepts. You just need to write clean, clear, short sentences wherever you can. Keep words as simple as possible. Every little helps!

And if all else fails, just hire a professional!

Readability and SEO: our recent study