As commercial writers, our target audiences mostly comprise of business users or customers. A typical sales funnel dwells on organic leads searching for certain services or products – Ranging from casino reviews and Bitcoin blogs to Chiropractic clinics and natural nutrition tips. Hence, our writing predominantly should be appealing enough to grab the right attention and mobilize customer onboarding. The writing, therefore, needs to be simple yet impactful. A conventional customer planning to buy a DIY product or browsing for protein supplement reviews might not be well-versed in aristocrat English vocabulary. The use of obscure and complex words or phrases might actually confuse them. Therefore, our writing needs to create the perfect impact that blends well.
Comics are Usually at 90 Reading Ease Score, While a Biology Research Paper at 10
The reading level for an average American is Grade 8. So anything above a reading capability of Grade 10 is considered difficult to understand. Alternatively, higher the reading ease score, the better. Comics are usually at 90 reading ease score, while a University level Biology research paper might be at an awful 10.
A strong vocabulary featuring complex multi-syllable words and cryptic sentences might make very little sense to an average reader. The sheer difficulty of mentally decrypting complicated sentences and grasping the simplistic meaning would be an added burden that very few customers would care for. I mean, technically they might be able to read the article, but they probably wouldn’t understand or connect with it.
In all likelihood, the visitor would choose to ignore the content and move on with the next website on the search engine result. Which means you lose a potential customer.
Multi-Syllable Words, Passive and Complex Sentences, Monotonous Paragraphs
Your website content, therefore play a very crucial role in impacting customer acquisition and retention. Here are a few tips to increase the reading ease score.
- Avoid using too many long multi-syllable words. The “Hemingway Editor” is an online free tool that has been helping me a lot.
- Avoid using too many passive sentences.
- Avoid using too many complex sentences.
- Avoid very long monotonous paragraphs. Typically a paragraph shouldn’t be more than 200-250 words.
- Avoid fluffy content which doesn’t add value and details to the content.
Example: “Fruits are good for health.”
This sentence is vague and lacks critical information. It would fail to supply relevant details that the reader would definitely look for. “Which fruits?”, “What health benefits?”, “Why are they good?”.
A good sentence would be: “Fruits such as Avocados, Apples, and Watermelon are particularly good for health. Watermelon, for example, helps in lowering blood pressure and contains a wide variety of nutrients, including vitamin C, potassium, copper, vitamin A, and vitamin B5.”
- It’s a good idea to evaluate the Flesch reading score for your content. Texts with high Flesch reading ease score are easier to read. A reading score of at least 70 is considered acceptable for web content. The Yoast SEO Content Analysis plugin for WordPress evaluates the Flesch scores to improve your writing.
- Needless to mention, your content should be grammatically correct with proper punctuations and syntactic consistency. Grammarly is a great choice of online tool. The Grammarly plugin can also be integrated/ installed for leading browsers and MS-Office applications.
Your content should be categorically tailored for the intended demography. Native/ Non-native readers, young or matured readers, general readers or specific groups – researchers, scientists, business owners, etc.
Important Links:
- Hemingway Editor: http://www.hemingwayapp.com
- Parts of Speech: https://parts-of-speech.info (Articles, nouns, pronouns, etc. A Stanford University research initiative)
- Grammarly: https://app.grammarly.com
- Yoast Online Tool: https://yoast.com/research/real-time-content-analysis/
- Free plagiarism checker: https://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/
Categories: Freelancing Randoms
Nice tips.
Couldn’t agree more. But ain’t nobody can stop a Bong-Train frothing at the mouth. 😛
Yes. That’s the point. If you need a pocket dictionary to win a debate, the prson needs to find better factual points. Bombarding someone with jargon-laced English, is like an empty vessel that sure makes a lot of noise, but has nothing in it. Those complex words are a camoufaluge that hides the lack of definitive arguments. Glad you liked the article.
“Your content should be categorically tailored for the intended demography.”- This line reminded me that most of the Bengalis I know in my social media circle (offline too), tend to write/speak jargons-laced English, while in the state of deep agitation/debate/mud-slinging etc. One of my friends used to keep a pocket dictionary beside his laptop, while arguing on FB forums. 😀
However, this is a pretty informative article. The reading level of average Americans is pretty astonishing. Thanks for providing the links below.