Creating high-quality content for your website is not easy as it sounds. You need to write an easy-to-understand and concise article that meets your target audience’s expectations. If you are not an expert, however, identifying your writing’s readability score can be difficult.
You need to use the right tools to evaluate the effectiveness of your writing. There are tons of available tools and websites online that can check the readability of your content. Likewise, many SEO specialists and content writers recommend the Flesh Reading Ease Score and grade level to determine if your writing is comprehendible.
This article will help you understand how to get better at copywriting through Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test is and how it can help your SEO campaigns and website.
Table of Contents
What Is the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test?
Flesh-Kincaid readability test is a readability score designed to identify how difficult to understand a text in English is. It was first developed in 190s by Rudolf Flesh, a consultant with the Associated Press. He developed methods for improving the readability of newspapers. Now, this is used by writers, marketers, researchers, policy writers, and advertisers to help them assess which content will be easily understood and engaged with.
There are two kinds of tests, the Flesh Reading-Ease, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Below is the difference between the two Flesch readability scores:
1. Flesh Reading Ease Scores
Flesch’s reading ease test is rated by considering word counts and sentences. It is straightforward and calculated based on two factors: the sentence length as arbitrated by the average number of words in a sentence, and the term length as judged by the average number of syllables in a word
Below is the mathematical Flesch reading ease formula:
Unlike in classical English literature in the 18th and 19th centuries, where the average sentence is longer, most modern-day text should contain shorter sentences to easily be understood.
Flesch reading ease is rated between 1 and 100, with 100 being the highest score. Thus, if your text receives a low score, it indicates that your content is complicated. For most business writing, a good Flesch reading ease score between 60 and 80 generally means that it can be understood by 12 to 15 years old.
Otherwise, you need to simplify your text. It could be longer paragraphs, a string of clauses connected with semicolons, or a lengthy sentence. Likewise, words that contain a lot of syllables can be harder to read.
2. Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level
On the other hand, Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level tells you the American school grade can comprehend the material on your content. It is usually used in the field of education. This scoring system is primarily used by the U.S. by teachers, librarians, parents, and others to judge the readability level of books and other various reading material. It can also mean the needed years of education for a person to understand the material.
Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level can be calculated using the following formula:
Both Flesch-Kincaid reading ease and grade level use word length and sentence length. But unlike the Flesch Reading Ease score, the lower the grade level, the better and more understandable.
Does Flesch Reading Ease score affect Google rankings?
Having a good Flesch Reading Ease score is excellent for SEO and content. Google looks at the readability of content when ranking. It uses the Flesch Reading Ease Score to determine content readability. When crawling content, Google mimics how a human reads the content. It wants to read something straightforward and clear. Likewise, content writers should avoid bad practices like keyword stuffing or using hifalutin words.
In addition, searchers are likely to use common words and phrases when searching. For this reason, your content should contain not overly complicated keywords to try to meet a good readability score. Stick to the most common keywords related to your content.
Readability is not just crucial for ranking in SERPs. It also means a lot in voice search technology. Users using voice search are likely to get confused when listening to long articles and complex words and sentences. Difficult words won’t translate well in voice search. As such, your content will likely receive a lower rank.
Likewise, readability also affects your website’s retention rate. If your content is too complicated and hard to understand, people will likely leave your page and return to SERP to look at other sites. Likewise, suppose your text score is a very low grade. In that case, people will likely assume that your article is not valuable and useless. Both of these factors can affect your website’s bounce rate.
As such, it’s essential to optimize your content on your website and reflect excellent readability on your target audiences to maximize the benefits of content marketing.
How do I improve my Flesh Reading Ease Score?
Creating content with a high reading ease score can easily be acquired by producing a succinct, engaging, and straightforward piece. This can be done through:
- Using short paragraphs
- Breaking long pieces of text
- Inserting headings and subheadings
- Keeping sentences more concise and simple
- Choosing simpler words to convey a message
- Altering long talks in the content
- Using active voice instead of passive
However, content creators, digital marketers, and writers must remember to not only rely on Flesh Reading Ease Score when creating SEO-Friendly Web content. This formula does not accurately measure the readability of content. This formula is not capable of accurately gauging an audience’s level of understanding, especially in content marketing.
To help you quickly find out if your copywriting content is readable, there are tons of available tools available for content writers such as:
- Flesch reading ease score calculator
- Microsoft Office’ Flesch Reading Ease score calculator
- Yoast SEO plugin feature
- Websites such as, for example, Readability-Score and The Writer
However, you also need to think about your audience and how they search. For example, suppose your target users are middle school or high school students. In that case, you need to tailor your content to their age and comprehension. For business and professional publications, they probably would have higher reading comprehension. They can easily understand content with a score of 60 or lower.
Conclusion
Creating content that is more readable and enjoyable translates to a significant engagement with your customer. It can help you invite more traffic to your website and rank better in search engines search results.
Great content comes with a great audience. Suppose your content is high quality, boundless, and easily understood. In that case, your customers will most likely return to your website or recommend it to other people.
And that’s it! So, if you are looking for excellent copywriting services in Australia, Flexisource IT can help you. Contact us now!
Pamela is a full-time content writer and a lifelong Philomath. Her previous experience as a research analyst made her passionate about traveling the world and understanding how it works. During her day off, you can often find her indoors, writing stories or oil painting.
