How to Write Better Using A Readability Score?

This post was most recently updated on June 13th, 2025

So you’ve written the perfect article. Everything’s there – great title, eye-catching photo, and all the information that people want. Except when people read it, they don’t really understand most of it. They end up leaving your site with a headache. Perhaps it’s time to use a Readability Score.

What is a Readability Score?

A readability score is a numerical measure that helps assess how easy or difficult a piece of writing is to read and understand. It takes into account factors like sentence length, word complexity, and overall structure. If you’re working on an essay or any written content, using a readability score can guide you toward clearer and more concise writing. For those who need extra support in refining their work, seeking assignment help from Edubirdie can offer expert assistance in improving readability and ensuring your writing is both engaging and accessible. These services provide personalized feedback to help you master the art of clear, effective communication.

There are several algorithms for these, which calculate sentence length, syllable count, word length, and other metrics to determine their measurements.
One of the most common algorithms is the Flesch-Kincaid, which is the one we also use, and its two core measures are word length and sentence length.

What is a good Readability score?

Of course, you’ll have to take into account who you’re writing for before we can answer this. Writing for university graduates and kindergarten students would be quite different.

But to put it simply, the shorter and simpler the words, the higher the score, and the shorter the sentence, the better. The better the writing, the better the user experience, and hopefully it ends up in conversion.

Flesch reading ease – Wikipedia

And according to Readable.io –

For grade levels, the result of most of the scoring algorithms, the score corresponds roughly to the number of years of education a person has had (based on the USA education system).
A grade level of around 10-12 is roughly the reading level on completion of high school. Text to be read by the general public should aim for a grade level of around 8.

How can I use a Readability score?

If you are using WordPress, then Yoast SEO is a great tool to start with. That’s what we use, and it’s been a pleasure to use. It’ll score your articles not just by the Flesch reading test but also by other measures like the example below:

It’s fairly easy to follow, so we suggest you be aware of following the guidelines before writing the article. If you want a more robust option, then check out Readable.io.

Aleesha Jacob

With over ten years at the forefront of programmatic advertising, Aleesha Jacob is a renowned Ad-Tech expert, blending innovative strategies with cutting-edge technology. Her insights have reshaped programmatic advertising, leading to groundbreaking campaigns and 10X ROI increases for publishers and global brands. She believes in setting new standards in dynamic ad targeting and optimization.