How to Improve Readability Score on WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to improve your readability score for better SEO rankings and user experience? 

The readability of your website content is probably not a direct ranking factor, but it’s pretty important for your website visitors and SEO. 

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to improve your readability score on WordPress. We’ll also cover what readability is and why a readability score is necessary.  

What Is Readability and How Is It Important?

Readability is the term that describes how easy it is to read and understand your website content. It can be measured with metrics like word choice, sentence length, and syllable count.

When you simplify your content, it will be easier for your target audience to understand what you’re trying to convey. This motivates the readers to continue reading on, which ultimately increases engagement on your website. 

Clear and readable content is also beneficial for your website’s ranking and SEO. It reduces bounce rates so you can persuade users to spend more time and do what you want them to do on your site, like buying a product, clicking on a link, or signing up for your list, and more.

How Readability Score Works

Everyone has their own style of writing and knowledge of vocabulary. So how do you track if your content is readable or not? This is where the readability score comes in handy. 

A readability score helps you keep track of the readability issues and errors in your writing. By analyzing the score, you will know how difficult or easy it is to read your content. 

There are a lot of different online tools that help you analyze the readability score of your content. If you install All in One SEO (AIOSEO), the original WordPress plugin for SEO, you can find the readability score of your content and improve it right within your WordPress post editor.

There are a few criteria that you need to meet for a good readability score such as shorter sentences, smaller paragraphs, use of headings, and more. 

Once you know your score, you can make changes and fix issues if needed. 

9 Ways to Improve Your Readability Score on WordPress

When writing for the web, there are many factors you need to consider to make your content readable. Some of the factors are:

1. Avoid Using Complex Words

Not all readers have the same vocabulary skills. If you use words that are difficult to understand, then readers are sure to abandon your content.

When writing, remember to use simple words that explain what you are trying to say. Dumb down your content to make your content easier to understand for all readers. 

2. Easy to Understand and Short Sentences

Online readers have shorter attention spans and they usually read the first few lines and move on. So making your sentences short and concise is the best way to improve your readability. 

Trying to get your point across can be difficult. So avoiding long sentences entirely is not possible. However, make sure you optimize your sentences and use lesser words wherever you can. 

3. Write Shorter Paragraphs

Long and heavy paragraphs are boring to read and scare away the readers. So keep your paragraphs short and easy to scan. 

4. Add Images and Videos

Pictures speak a thousand words, so add helpful images and videos to your website content. 

5. Divide Your Content with Headings

Ensure your subheadings are descriptive of what your subject matter is. Using subheading tags, such as H2 and H3 makes it easier for search engines to read and understand your content.

6. Check the Use of Passive Voice

A lot of writers tend to write in a passive voice. But, sentences written in active voice have more clarity and are easy to comprehend. 

7. Use Transitional Words

Transitional words are words and phrases that help your content flow smoothly from one idea to the next. Some of the transitional words are, ‘however’, ‘because’, ‘therefore’, ‘besides that’ and ‘on the other hand’.

8. Make Your Content Conversational

Along with grammar and other rules, you need to make sure that your content is interactive. To grab the attention of your audience, you can write in a conversational tone. 

9. Flesch Reading Test 

The Flesch reading ease test is a popular tool for writers to analyze their content for readability. It gives you a score between 0 to 100. If the score is closer to 100, then your content is easier to read. 

Don’t want to go through the hassle of checking each of the factors on your content? We’ve got just the right solution for you. 

Improve Your Readability Score with AIOSEO Plugin

AIOSEO is a complete WordPress SEO plugin that offers tons of tools and features to optimize your website content in a few clicks. It helps you boost your website SEO and rank well on Google. 

With AIOSEO’s TruSEO feature, you can edit your content, add a keyword, and see your readability score in real-time. It analyzes your content and rates the overall post where 100 is a full score.

As soon as you add your content, AIOSEO gives you a score based on the factors that we have mentioned above. So you won’t need to waste your time checking all your content features yourself. 

Plus, AIOSEO gives you pointers and ideas on how to improve your readability score on WordPress on the post editor.

Now, let’s get started with AIOSO and improve the readability score in 3 simple steps. 

Step 1: Install the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Plugin 

First things first. In order to use the readability test, you’ll need to install the AIOSEO plugin on your WordPress site. 

Once you sign up for an AIOSEO account, you can find your plugin file and license key on the Downloads tab. 

Next, all you need to do is upload the file on your WordPress dashboard and install the plugin. For more details, see the WPBeginner guide on properly installing and setting up a WordPress plugin.

In the Settings tab, you can enter your license key to activate the plugin.

Step 2: Add Your Content

After you install and activate AIOSEO on your site, you can start editing your content right away. 

AIOSEO checks content for all your WordPress pages and posts. So you can edit your existing content or add new content as you like. 

To add new content, go to the page or post tab on your WordPress panel and click on Add New. 

Then, simply add your content to the text editor and see your AIOSEO readability score immediately. 

Now, go to the AIOSEO section on the page editor and see if there are hints for improvements and issues. 

Step 3: Analyze Readability Score & Improve It

In the AIOSEO section, you can see several recommendations for correcting your content. If your content already matches a readability factor, you’ll see a green checkmark for that.

When there are readability issues on your content, you’ll see the pointers along with a red cross. As you try to fix these issues, the cross icon will change into a green checkmark. 

Here are the main factors that determine your readability score in AIOSEO.

• Images/Videos in content
• Paragraphs length
• Sentences length
• Passive voice 
• Transition words
• Consecutive sentences 
• Subheading distribution
• Flesch reading ease

AIOSEO analyzes all these factors in your content and gives you a score. This helps you keep track of your content readability as you write and edit your post. 

In the SEO section, you can also add your focus keyword and optimize your content for better rankings. 

This also shows you suggestions for improving your SEO strategy on your content. It includes optimizing title, headings, meta description, URL, and more.

After editing your content for both SEO and readability, you get an overall score on the top of your page or post editor. 

If you utilize the suggestions in the AIOSEO readability list, you can increase your readability score on WordPress in no time.

That’s all for today! We hope this post helped you learn how to improve your readability score in WordPress with ease.

With AIOSEO, you can easily check your readability and SEO on the same page you edit your content. It offers helpful suggestions for improving and optimizing your writing so you can rank better. 

If you want to learn more about SEO, you can check out our ultimate WordPress SEO guide.

What are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress AIOSEO plugin today.

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Manvi Agarwal Content Marketing Manager

Manvi, the Content Marketing Manager at AIOSEO, is a true visionary in content marketing. Her product-led approach, infused with interactive user-oriented strategy and SEO tactics, delivers maximum ROI. Besides winning the content game, Manvi loves playing Squash and trying out new cuisines.

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