Readability analysis
Write easy-to-read content that your readers will love
Available in Yoast SEO for Shopify
Readable content is understandable content
Readable content is essential — both visitors and search engines love it! Using complex language makes articles hard to grasp. The Yoast SEO readability analysis helps you create easy-to-read content.
The readability analysis in Yoast SEO helps you
- Scans your text and gives helpful feedback to improve it
- Check for the use of passive voice, transition words, and more
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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 an 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 for 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!
Yoast SEO helps rank your online store
Unlock powerful features and much more for your Shopify site with the Yoast SEO app!