{"id":56359,"date":"2021-06-17T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eigene-homepage-erstellen.net\/?p=56359"},"modified":"2021-06-18T11:00:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T18:00:37","slug":"study-how-content-readability-affects-seo-and-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eigene-homepage-erstellen.net\/blog\/content\/study-how-content-readability-affects-seo-and-rankings.htm","title":{"rendered":"Study: How Content Readability Affects SEO and Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Google claims that content readability is not a ranking factor<\/a>. However, multiple digital marketing brands theorize that the opposite is true, and content readability does — or soon will — affect rankings. However, nobody provides definitive evidence to support their arguments.<\/p>\n

The marketing brands point toward Google’s short-lived “reading level” search filter<\/a> and machine learning tools, like BERT <\/a>and MUM<\/a>. They make the dubious claim that because content quality affects rankings and readability affects content quality, then it must affect rankings, too.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to trust that narrative when the brands touting readability make their livelihood selling content improvement tools. But, how are we to know for sure? Google doesn’t have a squeaky-clean track record of transparency about its ranking algorithms.<\/p>\n

So, Portent’s SEO Specialist Harmony Huskinson<\/a> and I got curious: who is telling the truth? To our disappointment, there were no evidence-based studies on this topic—until now.<\/p>\n

We coordinated with Portent’s SEO Architect Matthew Henry<\/a> to crawl and calculate readability scores for 756,297 pieces of ranking content.<\/p>\n

Keep reading to nerd out about the study background, our analysis method, and our findings<\/a>. If you want to delve into our actionable takeaways, skip to the “How to Write Readable Content”<\/a> section.<\/p>\n

Study Background<\/h2>\n
Let’s ease into our analysis with a review of readability and the scoring system we used.<\/p>\n
What is Readability?<\/h3>\n
Readability measures how easy or hard it is to understand text. Your text should be “readable” so users can easily understand your thoughts and ideas. Highly readable content also increases user engagement and decreases misinterpretation.<\/p>\n
Multiple writing elements contribute to readability. The most common are:<\/p>\n
\n
Word choice<\/li>\n
Average syllable length per word<\/li>\n
Sentence length<\/li>\n
Number of sentences<\/li>\n
Sentence structure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For example, if you describe the year 2020 and use the word “calamity” instead of “bad,” the reader must put forth more mental effort to read and understand the sentence, which makes the sentence more difficult to read for some audiences.<\/p>\n
How is Readability Measured?<\/h3>\n
The well-recognized readability measurement systems for English are the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), which evolved into the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level<\/a> (FKGL), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading Scale<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The formulas for each readability system calculate readability differently, but they all represent roughly the same concept. Let’s break down the procedures for calculating readability with the FRE and FKGL, courtesy of Wikipedia.<\/p>\n
Flesch Reading Ease Score Formula<\/strong><\/p>\n