Readability analysis - Yoast SEO Features • Yoast (2024)

Why do I need a readability analysis?

Content still rules the web. Ranking a site is hard if it doesn’t come with excellent content. That said, the level of quality needed to get your content noticed is rising. There’s so much content on any given topic. To stand out, your content needs to cover your topic in an all-encompassing, unique way. Plus, your text must be a joy to read! Readers shouldn’t have to use a dictionary to get what you are trying to say.

The readability analysis in Yoast SEO is like having your own editor: it gently nudges you to increase your articles’ readability to make them easy to understand for both humans and machines! It has not been developed to dumb down your content but merely make it accessible to a much larger audience.

Passive voice check helps you write in the active voice

Passive voice makes your sentences wordier and complex. It makes your writing seem more distant and cold. The passive voice uses a sentence structure that requires more cognitive effort. Your reader will spend valuable working memory on making sense of the sentence. This decreases the likelihood of you getting your message across. That’s why we advise writers to try and write in the active voice. This makes your writing more direct and effective!

Checks sentence and paragraph length

In written texts, long sentences such as this can make it hard to keep track of everything that’s going on and, therefore, should not be something you should keep using at all times. Short sentences can be powerful. They are easy to grasp. Of course, it’s best to mix both longer and shorter sentences to create a text rhythm. The readability analysis in Yoast SEO checks your content for long sentences and points them out for you to fix. Also, Yoast SEO checks for overlong paragraphs. Long paragraphs form a wall of text that might be hard for users to conquer.

Enhance readability by adding transition words

Transition words can really tie a text together. For instance, these words, like, however, therefore, and besides, can connect different parts of the sentence naturally. This makes for a much more natural piece of text. Using transition words, you can better structure your text, making it easier to understand for humans and machines. A well-structured text helps to attract readers to your blog and contributes to SEO!

How does the readability analysis work?

The readability analysis checks your content, making sure it is easy to read — increasing the chance readers can understand it in a jiffy. Also, search engines love well-structured and well-written content, so you are killing two birds with one stone! Watch the video below, and we’ll tell you all about it!

Also available in Yoast SEO for Shopify

This feature is also available in Yoast SEO for Shopify. Read more on this feature and how it is adapted for use in online stores.

Overview of all features for Yoast SEO for Shopify.