Flesch Reading Ease Test and SEO: What You Need to Know

One of the standard methods of measuring the readability of any text is the Flesch reading ease test. You will find it as a score between 0 and 100 in the Yoast SEO plugin of your WordPress chiropractic website. But how important is the Flesch reading ease test for SEO and how can you adapt your writing style to get a good score for every article?

A Little History Lesson: The Origins of the Flesch Reading Ease Test

The full name of this test is actually the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test and it is a mix of two different tests. Its authors, Rudolf Flesch and J. Peter Kincaid, first developed it for the US Navy. The high ranking officials wanted to know if the technical manuals issued to staff were easy to read and understand – a crucial aspect in the maintenance and repair of large ships and submarines.

Over the years, the Flesch reading ease test became more widespread. It was used to assess the level of difficulty of various texts in English, such as:
•    Legal documents
•    Texts in school books
•    Novels and stories recommended for children.

At the present, the Flesch reading ease test is the system used by Google to determine the readability of texts on web pages.

How Is the Flesch Reading Ease Score Calculated?

The test uses a mathematical formula to determine the readability of a text. It takes into account tow aspects:
•    The number of syllables in a word
•    The number of words in a sentence.

The formula itself looks rather complex (and there is no need to learn how to use it, because the Yoast plugin does it for you): 206.835 – 1.015 x (words/sentences) – 84.6 x syllables/words).

The score results fall into eight categories:
•    100 – 90: very easy to read, even an 11-year old can understand it
•    90-80: conversational English, easy to read
•    80-70: fairly easy to read
•    70-60: plain English, easy to understand by 13-15-year olds
•    60-50: fairly difficult to read
•    50-30: difficult to read
•    30-10: very difficult to read, it takes a college graduate to understand it
•    10-0: extremely difficult to read, understandable by professionals.

How Important Is the Flesch Reading Ease Test for SEO?

One of the key factors in the Google ranking algorithm is readability. And, as we explained above Google uses the Flesch reading ease test to determine the readability scores of website content.

For this reason, you should strive to maintain the Flesch readability score of your content somewhere between 90 and 60. You are not writing for your peers, other chiropractors who understand the technical and medical jargon. You are writing for potential patients, and many of them have not gone to college. Or, English is the second language for them.

The Pitfalls of the Flesch Readability Score

You may be doing everything by the book:
•    You keep your sentences short
•    You avoid medical and technical terms
•    You use plain English in your content.

However, your Flesch readability score is surprisingly high. Why does this happen? The problem is in the Flesch reading ease test formula itself. For example, the word “population” has 4 syllables and falls into the category of difficult words. However, everyone understands it.

On the other hand, the word “crux” is fairly difficult to understand, yet it has only 1 syllable. Thus, the Flesch readability score is far from accurate. However, it is the best tool available to evaluate the difficulty of a text in English.

Conclusion

You should strive to keep your content simple and easy to read. Always look for a plain word instead of a specialized one. Keep your sentences simple by avoiding unnecessary words, such as:
•    Adverbs
•    Adjectives
•    Passive voice of verbs.

However, do not become discouraged if you cannot get the ideal Flesch readability score. Look over the analytical data of your website and see how many people read your articles, comment on them and share them. This gives you the true measure of how easy to read your texts are.

If you need help with content writing or other aspects connected with SEO, do not hesitate to contact our specialists and ask for their assistance!