11 Ways to Improve Readability Score
Discover 11 effective ways to increase your content's readability score. Learn how to engage readers and convey your message clearly and efficiently.
Have you ever picked up a book and found it so boring that you could not finish it? Or maybe you have tried to read an article online and got lost after a few paragraphs? That is probably because the writing was hard to understand.
When we write, we want our readers to understand what we are saying. We want them to enjoy reading our words and learn something from us. One way to make our writing easier to read is by improving its readability score.
A readability score tells how difficult or easy it is to read your text. It is mostly told in numbers, the time needed to read content, or the ideal grade of the target audience.
Why is readability important?
Readability is important to convey a message effectively and to keep your reader engaged with your writing. Nobody wants the reader to leave their content in between.
As per a survey, the average American reads at the level of a 7th or 8th-grade student.
It means if your writing is complex, a major portion of your audience might struggle to read it. The goal of writing is to communicate and if the reader cannot understand you, the goal is not fulfilled.
11 ways to improve content readability
Improving readability should not be difficult for anybody. It is something everyone can achieve with a little practice and some useful tips.
1. Keep in mind your target audience
While writing something, keep questioning yourself, can my reader understand my message? If you are confident about the clearness of your lines then go ahead and keep writing.
Otherwise, improve it accordingly to match the level of your audience. You should:
- Proofread your work for complex sentence structure and words.
- Ask somebody from your target audience to read it for feedback.
- Look for any grammatical mistakes and remove them.
2. Go for a reader-friendly font
You may not have seen more than a few fonts in English, but let me tell you that there are more than half a million fonts in the world – DesignModo.
Most of the writing is done with a handful of popular fonts because of their readability. You have to do the same. Use fonts that are highly readable like Arial, Times New Roman, and Georgia.
Fonts like Pacifico and Lobster have low readability and are mostly used for design purposes.
A research by Sheppard et al. found that a simple text format can increase reading fluency by 20%.
3. Write short but meaningful sentences
Writing in short sentences helps improve the readability of your writing. Short meaningful sentences are helpful to readers. Try to finish reading your sentence in a single breath, if you cannot, the reader will never be able to do that.
American Press Institute considers less than 14-word sentence ideal. It allows readers to understand 90% of the meaning.
4. Do not use jargon and acronyms
You are not going to impress anybody with your vocabulary, so do not even try that. Jargon is annoying to readers who cannot understand what they are reading.
Use words that your audience is familiar with. They should feel like the lines are specially written for them.
The father of advertising, David Ogilvy once said,
“I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you are trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.”
5. Write in active voice
Active voice sentences enhance the clarity and directness of the content. It helps you make sentences more engaging and easier to read.
Whenever you write using an active voice, it helps you keep the reader's attention focused.
Let’s say, “The ball was thrown by John”, it could just be, “John threw the ball”. This small change can make a big difference for your readers to understand your sentences.
6. Bold the keywords and entities
Using keywords and entities in bold letters highlights them and makes them easier to read and understand. It enhances visual appeal and allows readers to draw a connection between ideas.
By using this strategy, you can establish a clear visual hierarchy within your content that guides the reader’s eye through the text.
Even a bird’s eye view can deliver a message when there are bold letters in the writing.
7. Avoid complex words
Using complex or long words will make your readability worse. It will make the reader’s attention drift away from your text.
Try to read the following sentence!
“He had Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia when he got married to her”, was that easy to read.
It can be simplified as, “He had a phobia of long words when he got married to her”.
Readers find complex words intimidating, especially younger readers. Make it as simple as possible.
8. Add visuals to the content
Writing in large blocks can overwhelm your audience. Add visuals like images, charts, or infographics to break up the text. It will make your text more inviting and easier to navigate.
You can also elaborate your thoughts or ideas on these visuals. Text can only make a reader imagine your concepts, but an image or a diagram will make them see it. Like the famous line, “One picture is worth a thousand words.”
9. Use bullet points when appropriate
When you have multiple points to add to your text, put them in bullet points. They will become easier to read and visually appealing to your readers.
Bullet points create a gap between text and put less strain on the eye. This strategy will also help you emphasize certain points by making them look more important.
10. Apply white space carefully
Giving space after every two to three lines significantly improves the readability of your writing. Every good writer follows this strategy.
Even a research found that dividing text into chunks can improve the readability of text.
The length of your sentences should be different and try to make them as short and meaningful as possible. Apply space after every two to three lines and start a new paragraph.
11. Employ tools to check content’s readability
Apply all the tips I have mentioned above to write. Before publishing that work, double-check the readability using modern readability-checking tools. Additionally, you can use a free AI rewording tool to simplify complex sentences and replace difficult words, making your content even more accessible.
Tools like the Hemingway app, check the complexity of sentences, difficult words, and the level of clarity.
These latest AI-powered applications will tell what grade-level audience can read your text, how much time will it take and what can you do to improve your text.
Summing up
A good readability score is crucial for a text to engage its readers. Less readable writings put a strain on the eye and are not interesting to read.
Complex structures and words can only impress academically inclined people who are very low in number. Write in a simple and easy way to make your thoughts accessible to a wider audience.
The tips I have mentioned above are followed by many professional writers. Adopt them while writing and you will witness a significant improvement in the readability score of your work.
Other Interesting Guides
- 4 Main Types of Paraphrasing You Must Know
- How to Improve Sentence Structure and Grammar
- What Is Writing Style And What Writers Say About It?
FAQ’s
1. How can I find out the readability score of my article?
It is a very simple process. There are many readability checking tools present online, just copy your article and paste it into any of them. They will provide you with a readability score.
2. Can I use a stylish font in my article?
You can, but you should not. Stylish fonts though look good but will make your article less readable. Use common fonts like Times New Roman, Georgio, or Arial, etc.
3. Does a high readability score help in SEO?
Yes, of course, it helps in SEO. If the text is highly readable, people will care to read it to the end. They will spend more time on your site which makes the search engine rank you higher.
