Easy Reading: Using Readability Scores in WordPress

Do you care if people read what you write? That’s one of those questions that defies the “no stupid question” maxim, isn’t it? You wouldn’t be writing on the web if you didn’t want to share what you have to say with others.

With that in mind, crafting articles that are accessible by a broad audience should be a priority. You’re writing for folks at a variety of different reading levels. Finding a meaningful balance that works for everyone can be tough.

Readability scores are one tool you have to help you find that balance. We’ll unpack that thought below and take a look at what readability scores are, how you can use them, and how to improve them!

What is a Readability Score?

Specific tests have been formulated that calculate how difficult a particular passage is to read. Readability Scores are just the output of those tests. The most commonly used are the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and the FOG Index.^[1][2][3]

Just as a quick example, let’s look at the most widely used test, the Flesch Reading Ease:

• A score is generated between 0-100
• If your text scores 90-100, the average 10 year old should be able to easily understand it.
• 60-70 ought to be pretty easily understandable by younger teenagers.
• 0-30 scoring texts are best understood by someone with a college degree.

Several WordPress plugins will run one or more of these tests for you. Some will interpret them for you and others won’t. Let’s look at a few and you can choose which you like best.

How Can I See Readability Scores for my WordPress Posts?

Yoast SEO

Yoast is far more than just a readability analyzer, but it serves that purpose very conveniently. If you’re not familiar with it already, Yoast places a Content Analysis box under the text editor in the post editing screen. In that section you’ll see a note on the Readability Score.

Yoast uses the Flesch Reading Ease test, and displays both your score and an interpretation of that score. This is really nice because you don’t have to be familiar with how to interpret the score. Yoast does all the work for you!

FD Word Statistics

The upside to FD Word Statistics over Yoast is variety. It also adds a box below your text editor that displays the scores. Here you’ll be able to see not just Flesch Reading Ease results, but the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and FOG as well.

The downside to FD Word Statistics is that it doesn’t include an interpretation of the results. You have to be familiar with the tests or look up the scores to get any value from the plugin. Here’s what it looks like in action:

Word Stats

Word Stats takes a different direction, using a trio of slightly more modern and international tests. At the bottom of your text editor you’ll find scores for the Automated Readability Index (ARI), Coleman–Liau Index (CLI), and the Lycée International Xavier (LIX) tests. Along with the scores is other useful information like word count, average characters per word, average words per sentence, and more. You can also configure it extensively under Settings in the Dashboard.

Word Stats’ shortcoming is the same as FD Word Statistics, unfortunately. There is no interpretation of the score within the plugin, so you’re left to your own devices figuring out what the scores mean. Curiously the scores themselves appear to be hyperlinked, but clicking on them takes you exactly nowhere.

A Few Tips to Improve Readability

Improving your readability score is really just a matter of keeping two things in mind while you write:

1. You’re writing for people with a broad range of reading ability.
2. Most people are initially skimming your articles for information, not reading from start to finish.

Elaborating on the first point:

• Keep your sentences short and concise. Don’t avoid longer sentence structure entirely, but don’t go overboard either. If you can say the same thing in fewer words, do so.
• Use understandable vocabulary. Don’t pepper your writing with complex words just for the sake of trying to sound intelligent. Don’t dumb down on purpose either, but do find a reasonable balance.

And the second:

• Keeping paragraphs short makes your content easier to scan, and highlights your thoughts for the reader.
• Use bullet points and short lists when you can.
• Structure your article so that your main ideas and overall flow of the article is clear and easy to scan. Along with the last two points, make use of headers and section breaks, images, etc that keep your article from having that “wall of text” feel.

So there you go! Improving the readability score of your articles won’t have the world beating a path to your website overnight, but it is one step of many that you can take in that direction. Being conscious of your writing while you write is hard. Just writing this has me overly conscious of that long sentence I just wrote!! The important thing is to be yourself, and write content you find fun, interesting, and relevant. Don’t ever move away from that, just pay a bit of extra mind to the details!

1. http://www.readabilityformulas.com/flesch-reading-ease-readability-formula.php
2. http://www.readabilityformulas.com/flesch-grade-level-readability-formula.php
3. http://www.readabilityformulas.com/gunning-fog-readability-formula.php