Are you creating easy-to-digest content that entices your target audience to read until the end?
Or are your blog posts simply boring, tough to understand, and jam-packed with complex terms and incredibly lengthy paragraphs?
Low content readability is a major factor that can negatively affect your website traffic and impact the interest of potential customers.
What’s more, it also contributes to your ranking in the search engine results pages.
If you want your readers to stay longer and explore what your site has to offer, you need to focus on excellent content readability.
Yes, low readability is bad. To learn howto improve your readability check your score, keep sentences concise, shorten paragraphs, write clearly, use simple words, transition smoothly, don’t use fillers, and use variety! Now your readability should really improve, and you won’t have to worry if it’s bad anymore.
1. Check Your Readability Score
To determine how simple it is for readers to consume your content, it helps to use online readability measuring tools.
You’ll find numerous readability test tools online to assess your blog posts and pages.
What you want to aim for is a high score, which indicates great readability and thus easy comprehension.
Some services even offer real-time results, letting you view your score as you create your web content.
2. Keep Your Sentences Engaging But Concise
Marketing experts recommend writing sentences no longer than 20 words but no shorter than 13 words.
Of course not every sentence should meet this goal.
However, make it a habit to break long sentences while still connecting the main ideas.
Avoid cramming information into unnecessarily wordy sentences and creating cluttered chunks of text.
Instead of using passive voice, use active voice to spur interest and make your post compelling.
3. Shorten Your Paragraphs
Long paragraphs will inevitably lower your readability score, as they look unappealing and hard to understand.
Many people tend to click away and move on to other sites when they feel too lazy to read through a whole lot of text.
Thus, make it a habit to write shorter paragraphs as much as possible.
You can even engage your audience by asking interesting, relevant questions along the way.
4. Write in a Clear Manner
Don’t leave your readers confused and disinterested.
Your first sentence should draw attention and focus on an important idea, helping readers comprehend the concept of your post.
Your next paragraphs should further expand the concept and provide clear explanations.
Keep in mind that your main goal is to offer valuable, informative content that’s effortless to understand.
5. Use Simple Words
You don’t want your readers to furrow their brows and look up difficult words in a dictionary.
Try to explain in layman’s terms as much as you can.
Knowing that much of your audience reads on compact mobile screens, it’s best to make posts simple and easy on the eye.
Avoid long, complex words, especially those with four or more syllables.
If you do have to explain such words, try to keep your sentences and paragraphs to the point.
6. Always Transition Smoothly
Using the right transition words can help you move smoothly from one sentence to the next.
For example, you may use “first,” “second,” and “third” to list a few core ideas.
You can also insert conjunctions such as “although,” “because,” “unless,” “however,” and “therefore” to improve your text readability.
7. Steer Clear of Fillers
As mentioned earlier, it’s best to keep your sentences and paragraphs simple and succinct.
Avoid lavishly using adjectives to boost your content.
Focus on using short words to explain your ideas and attract interest to your brand.
If you’re running out of words, simply search online to find the best synonyms and alternatives to convey your thoughts.
8. Create Variety and Use Subheadings
Switch to different lengths of sentences once in a while and inject transition words to spice up your blog post.
It helps a lot to add eye-catching subheadings to your article to draw interest right away.
Some readers simply prefer to skim through texts for important ideas, and they’ll likely stick around if your post has engaging subheadings.
Keeping these tips in mind, you’ll be able to create awesome content that skyrockets your traffic and outshines competitors.
Don’t forget to optimize your content properly to meet your SEO goals.
Reread and edit your posts however many times needed to perfect your content and give your audience content they can’t resist.