Having good website readability can make or break a website. Since this is so important, it is also a search engine ranking factor. Search engines use the Kinkaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease tests to determine how easy a website is to read. Having good website readability goes beyond font styling and layout, that is more of a design issue. Here, we are talking about actual reading difficulty level. Search engine algorithms are always based on delivering website visitors the best experience possible – this is how they figure out what things to designate as ranking factors. Here is a list of some of the things that search engines pay attention to, in respect to website content:
- Short sentences
- Original, quality content
- Good grammar and spelling
- The subject of a page is mentioned right away and stays on topic
- Headings
- Synonyms and related words are used instead of repeating the same words
- Bulleted lists (unordered lists for you HTML geeks) 🙂 and numerical lists (ordered lists).
- Varied text formatting and use:
- Bold Text
- Text in Italics
- Hyperlinks
- Increase the font size
- Quotations for quotes or testimonials
Once Your Website Content is Written, Check Your Readability Score
It may be difficult for you to figure out how easy your website is to read. You can use the Kinkaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease tool to check this. If you are having trouble interpreting the test results let us know, we are happy to review your website content and optimize it for reading ease. This may seem like an unnecessary step, so put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. How likely would you be to request more info or buy something from a website if you couldn’t understand the content?
Contact Us for More Information About Website Readability Optimization
It is our aim to flatter your website visitors, display information they want to see, entertain them, engage them and give them a good experience. If you think that your website readability is affecting your website’s performance and sales, we can help get your website back on track. You can contact us by email, by phone at 604-779-8438, or chat with us online right now.