Content Readability: Why It Matters and How to Improve It

I’ve written over 1,800 blog posts since 2008. The ones that performed best weren’t the longest, the most keyword-stuffed, or the ones with the fanciest graphics. They were the easiest to read. Content readability is the single biggest factor separating posts that get shared from posts that get abandoned mid-scroll. And most writers don’t measure it at all.

Readability isn’t about dumbing things down. It’s about removing friction between your ideas and your reader’s brain. A well-researched article with poor readability gets skipped. A clear, scannable piece with solid advice gets bookmarked.

I’m going to walk you through what readability actually means, how to measure it with proven scoring systems, and how to fix the most common mistakes I see writers make. This applies whether you’re writing blog posts, email newsletters, product pages, or documentation.

What Is Content Readability?

Content readability measures how easy your writing is to understand. It’s not about vocabulary or intelligence. It’s about how quickly a reader can absorb your message and act on it.

Think of readability as friction. Every long sentence, every jargon-heavy paragraph, every wall of unbroken text adds friction. Enough friction and your reader bounces. You’ve lost them, along with the traffic, the conversion, the share, or whatever else you were hoping for.

Readability depends on several factors working together: sentence length, word complexity, paragraph structure, formatting, typography, and white space. Fix one and you’ll see improvement. Fix all of them and your content becomes something people actually finish reading.

The average adult reads at an 8th-grade level. That’s not an insult. It’s a fact backed by decades of literacy research. The most successful publications in the world, from The New York Times to USA Today, write at a 6th to 10th-grade level. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for your blog.

Why Readability Matters More Than You Think

Most writers focus on what they say. Readability is about how you say it. And the “how” determines whether anyone sticks around long enough to hear the “what.”

Search Engine Rankings

Google doesn’t directly score readability. But it measures dwell time, bounce rate, and pogo-sticking (when users click your result, leave immediately, and click a different result). All three get worse when your content is hard to read. I’ve seen blog posts jump from page 3 to page 1 after nothing but a readability rewrite. Same information, just easier to consume.

Reader Engagement

The Nielsen Norman Group found that web users read only about 20-28% of the words on a page. That means 70-80% of your content gets skipped. Readable formatting, short paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points increase the chance that the 20% they do read includes your most important points.

Conversions

I’ve A/B tested landing pages where the only change was readability. Shorter sentences, more white space, clearer CTAs. Conversion rates went up 15-23% across three tests. No design changes. No new copy. Just cleaner delivery of the same message.

Accessibility

About 21% of adults in the US have low literacy skills. Another 130 million read below a 6th-grade level. If your content isn’t readable, you’re excluding a massive chunk of your potential audience. Readable content is accessible content.

Readability Scores: How to Measure Your Writing

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. There are several proven readability formulas, each with a different approach. I use two of them regularly and recommend you do the same.

Flesch Reading Ease

This is the gold standard. It scores content on a scale of 0 to 100. Higher scores mean easier reading. The formula considers average sentence length and average syllables per word.

Score Range	Reading Level	Example
90-100	5th grade	Very easy. Comics, children’s books.
80-89	6th grade	Easy. Conversational.
70-79	7th grade	Fairly easy. Consumer magazines.
60-69	8th-9th grade	Standard. Most web content.
50-59	10th-12th grade	Fairly difficult. News articles.
30-49	College level	Difficult. Academic papers.
0-29	Post-graduate	Very difficult. Legal documents.

For blog content, aim for 60-70. That puts you in the sweet spot where your writing is clear enough for most readers but doesn’t feel oversimplified. My own published articles average around 62-68.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

This uses the same inputs as Flesch Reading Ease but outputs a US school grade level. A score of 8.0 means an 8th grader could understand it. For web content, target grade 6-8. Lower is almost always better.

Gunning Fog Index

The Gunning Fog Index focuses on complex words (three or more syllables). It also outputs a grade level. A Fog Index of 12 means your content requires 12 years of formal education to understand. For blogs, keep it under 10. Under 8 is even better.

I’ve found the Gunning Fog Index catches problems that Flesch misses, especially in technical content where you might use short sentences but pack them with multi-syllable jargon.

Coleman-Liau Index

This one looks at characters per word rather than syllables. It’s useful as a secondary check. Some tools report it alongside Flesch, and it helps confirm your overall readability picture.

Don’t obsess over any single score. Use two or three together and look at the pattern. If they all say your content is hard to read… it’s hard to read.

Sentence Length: The #1 Readability Fix

If I could give you one readability tip, it would be this: shorten your sentences. Average sentence length is the single biggest factor in most readability formulas. Cut your average from 25 words to 15, and your readability score jumps dramatically.

Here’s what works for web content:

• Target average: 14-18 words per sentence. This is the sweet spot for online readers.
• Mix short and long. A 6-word sentence followed by a 22-word sentence feels natural. Ten 15-word sentences in a row feels robotic.
• One idea per sentence. If your sentence has two commas and an “and” in the middle, it’s probably two sentences.
• Use fragments for punch. “Every single time.” is a valid sentence in web writing. Use it sparingly, but use it.

Look at this before and after:

Before (32 words): “Content readability is an important factor in determining how well your blog performs because search engines evaluate user behavior metrics like dwell time and bounce rate when ranking your pages.”

After (split into 3 sentences, average 11 words): “Readability affects your blog’s search performance. Google tracks how long people stay on your page. If they leave fast, your rankings drop.”

Same message. Half the effort to read.

Paragraph Structure for Scanners

People don’t read web content top to bottom. They scan. They look at headings, bold text, the first sentence of each paragraph, and bullet points. Your paragraph structure needs to support this behavior, not fight it.

The Right Length

Keep paragraphs to 1-4 sentences for web content. I know your English teacher said 5 sentences minimum. She was right for essays. She was wrong for the internet.

Single-sentence paragraphs work for emphasis. Two to three sentences work for most points. Four sentences is the max before a reader’s eye starts looking for the next section break.

I’ve checked my own analytics. Posts with an average paragraph length of 2-3 sentences have 34% higher time-on-page than posts where paragraphs average 5+ sentences. The content quality was similar. The formatting made the difference.

Front-Load the Important Stuff

Put your key point in the first sentence of every paragraph. Journalists call this the “inverted pyramid.” Scanners read first sentences. If yours says “There are many things to consider…” you’ve wasted prime real estate. Start with the point. Add detail after.

One Idea Per Paragraph

This is the rule most writers break. A paragraph should cover one thought. When you shift to a new point, hit enter. It’s free. White space costs nothing and buys you clarity.

Formatting for Readability

Good writing with bad formatting still fails. Formatting is the delivery system for your words. Get it wrong and nobody reads your otherwise excellent content.

Subheadings Every 200-350 Words

Subheadings serve two purposes. They break up walls of text and they let scanners jump to the section they care about. I use H2s for main sections and H3s for sub-points. Every 200-350 words should have a subheading. If you’re going 500+ words without one, you’ve lost the scanners.

Bullet Points and Numbered Lists

Lists are readability shortcuts. Whenever you have three or more related items, use a list instead of cramming them into a sentence. Lists are faster to scan, easier to remember, and they create visual breathing room.

But don’t overdo it. An article that’s 80% bullet points reads like a PowerPoint deck, not an article. Use lists for quick reference items, steps, or comparisons. Use paragraphs for explanations and context.

Bold Key Phrases

Bold text acts as a scanning aid. When a reader scrolls through your post, bold phrases catch their eye and give them a quick summary without reading every word. I bold the key takeaway in most sections, usually in the first or second sentence.

Don’t bold entire paragraphs or entire sentences. Bold 2-5 words that capture the core idea. If everything is bold, nothing stands out.

Lists vs. Paragraphs: When to Use Each

This is a judgment call that gets easier with practice. A quick rule of thumb:

• Use lists for items that can stand alone (features, steps, tools, tips)
• Use paragraphs when context connects the ideas (explanations, stories, arguments)
• Use tables for comparisons with 3+ data points per item

If you can remove an item from a list and the remaining items still make sense on their own, a list was the right choice. If removing one point makes the others confusing, a paragraph ties them together better.

Typography and White Space

Typography isn’t just design. It’s readability infrastructure. The wrong font, size, or spacing can tank your content’s effectiveness even if the writing itself is perfect.

Font Size

Body text should be at least 16px on desktop and 18px on mobile. I use 18px as my base across all devices. Anything below 16px forces squinting, especially on phones. Your over-40 readers (a growing chunk of the internet) will thank you.

Line Height

Line height (the vertical space between lines) should be 1.5 to 1.7 times your font size. A 16px font needs at least 24px line height. Tight line spacing makes text feel cramped. Your eyes lose their place between lines.

Line Length

Keep lines to 50-75 characters. That’s roughly 10-15 words per line. Lines that are too long make it hard to track from the end of one line to the start of the next. Lines that are too short create a choppy reading experience. Most well-designed blogs use a content width of 680-750px, which hits this sweet spot naturally.

White Space

White space isn’t wasted space. It’s processing space. Your brain needs room between elements to organize what it just read before moving to the next chunk. Add generous margins between paragraphs, padding around images, and spacing between sections.

I’ve seen websites cram everything together to “fit more above the fold.” That’s backwards thinking. Cramped content drives people away faster than extra scrolling ever will.

Font Choice

Sans-serif fonts (like Inter, Open Sans, or system fonts) tend to work better on screens. Serif fonts work fine too if they’re large enough. The key is contrast: your body text should be clearly different from your headings, and both should be easy on the eyes against your background color.

Don’t use more than two fonts on a page. One for headings, one for body. Anything beyond that creates visual noise.

Mobile Readability

Over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices in 2026. If your content isn’t readable on a phone, you’re failing the majority of your audience.

Mobile readability has specific challenges that desktop doesn’t:

• Smaller screens mean shorter visible lines. A paragraph that looks reasonable on desktop becomes a wall of text on mobile. Keep paragraphs even shorter when you know your audience is mobile-heavy.
• Thumb scrolling changes how people scan. Mobile readers scroll fast. They need clear visual anchors (subheadings, bold text, images) to stop and read.
• Tables can break on small screens. If your table has more than 3 columns, it probably won’t display properly on mobile without horizontal scrolling. Consider converting complex tables into lists for mobile.
• Pop-ups and sticky elements eat screen space. That cookie banner, email popup, and sticky header might leave your reader with 40% of the screen for actual content. Check your site on a phone and count how much reading space is left.

Word Choice: Simple Always Wins

Every complex word you use costs your reader mental energy. That energy is limited. Spend it on your ideas, not your vocabulary.

Here’s a quick swap list I keep next to my writing desk:

Instead of This	Write This
Utilize	Use
Implement	Set up, Add
Approximately	About
Numerous	Many
Facilitate	Help
Prior to	Before
In order to	To
Due to the fact that	Because
Demonstrate	Show
Commence	Start
Terminate	End
Endeavor	Try

The biggest offenders aren’t individual words, though. They’re phrases. “In terms of” can almost always be deleted. “With regard to” is just “about.” “At this point in time” is just “now.”

I’m not saying never use a big word. Sometimes “infrastructure” is the right word and “stuff that holds everything up” isn’t. But if a simpler word works, use the simpler word. Every time.

Active Voice vs. Passive Voice

Active voice is when the subject does the action. Passive voice is when the action happens to the subject. Active is almost always more readable.

Passive: “The article was written by the marketing team.”

Active: “The marketing team wrote the article.”

Active voice is shorter, more direct, and easier to process. Most readability tools flag passive voice for a reason. Aim for 90%+ active voice in your content. The occasional passive sentence is fine when the “doer” isn’t important (“The site was launched in 2019”), but don’t default to it.

Here’s a quick test: if you can add “by zombies” after the verb and the sentence still makes grammatical sense, it’s passive. “The report was written… by zombies.” Passive. “The team wrote the report… by zombies.” Doesn’t work. Active.

Tools That Help You Write Readable Content

You don’t need to calculate readability scores by hand. These tools do it for you and flag specific problem areas.

Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is free and runs in your browser. Paste your text and it highlights hard-to-read sentences in yellow, very hard-to-read sentences in red, passive voice in green, and simpler word alternatives in purple. It also shows your readability grade level. I run every article through Hemingway before publishing. It catches things I miss after staring at my own words for hours.

Grammarly

Grammarly goes beyond basic grammar checking. The premium version includes a readability score, sentence length analysis, tone detection, and suggestions for clarity. It works as a browser extension, a desktop app, and inside Google Docs. I’ve used it for years and it catches readability problems that spell checkers completely miss. If you’re writing content regularly, the premium plan pays for itself in time saved on editing.

Readable.com

Readable gives you every readability score at once: Flesch, Gunning Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG, and more. It also scores your content by sentence, so you can find the specific sentences dragging your score down. The free version handles quick checks. The paid version is useful if you’re managing a team of writers and need consistent readability standards.

Yoast SEO (WordPress)

If you’re on WordPress, Yoast SEO includes a readability analysis right in your editor. It checks Flesch Reading Ease, sentence length, paragraph length, passive voice, and transition words. It’s not as detailed as dedicated tools, but it’s convenient for catching obvious issues before you hit publish.

The Readability Editing Process

Don’t try to write readable first drafts. First drafts are supposed to be messy. The readability magic happens in editing. Here’s the process I follow for every piece I publish:

1. Write the full draft without worrying about readability. Get your ideas down. Don’t self-edit while writing. That’s how you end up staring at a blank screen for an hour.
2. Run it through Hemingway Editor. Fix every red-highlighted sentence. Fix most yellow ones. This pass alone drops your readability grade by 2-3 levels.
3. Break up long paragraphs. Any paragraph over 4 sentences gets split. Look for natural break points where you shift from one idea to the next.
4. Add subheadings. Scan through and make sure no section goes more than 350 words without a heading. Add them where a scanner would want an anchor point.
5. Convert dense paragraphs to lists. If a paragraph contains 3+ items, steps, or examples, a list usually works better.
6. Run through Grammarly. Catch remaining grammar issues, passive voice, and wordy phrases.
7. Read it on your phone. This is the final test. If anything feels cramped, hard to scan, or tedious on mobile, fix it.

This process adds 20-30 minutes to my editing time. The payoff in reader engagement and search performance makes it worth every minute.

Frequently Asked Questions

Readability isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between content that gets read and content that gets abandoned. Every post you publish is competing for attention against everything else on the internet. Clear, scannable, well-formatted writing is how you win that competition.

Start with your next article. Run it through Hemingway Editor. Check your sentence length and readability scores. Fix the hard-to-read sentences. Break up the long paragraphs. Add subheadings. Then check it on your phone.

You’ll see the difference in your analytics within a month. I’ve watched it happen on my own site and on client sites hundreds of times. Readable content performs better. That’s not an opinion. It’s a pattern I’ve seen play out over 16 years of writing for the web.

Disclaimer: This site is reader‑supported. If you buy through some links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I trust and would use myself. Your support helps keep gauravtiwari.org free and focused on real-world advice. Thanks. — Gaurav Tiwari