Flesch Reading Easy Score in Yoast Seo • Yoast

If you have ever led your letter about a readability tester like Yoast SEO, you have probably come across the reader’s reader. This metric was developed more than 70 years ago and is still one of the most common ways to measure how easy your text is to read. But what does it actually mean and how does it affect your letter for the web?

In this guide, we will explain how the Flesch reading direction works, why it was published and SEO so prominent and how you can use it effectively today. We will also show you where it fits the Yoast SEO plugin and why we also presented new readability tests.

What is the Flesch reading?

The Flesch -Reading score, also called the Flesch reader -Eeasy test, was created in the 1940s by Rudolf Flesch. His goal was simple: writers a quick way to check whether their text was easy to understand. The formula combines three basic elements: set length, word length and syllable. If these numbers are combined in the formula that I will explain at a moment, create a score between 0 and 100.

The highest results are reserved for the simplest text. A score in the 1990s indicates, for example, that a typical 11-year-old child can read it without difficulty. A score of around 60 is closer to simple English, which is expected by a high school student. The values ​​under 30 are considered very difficult and are only really found in academic or legal writing.

Here is a brief overview of the areas and what they mean:

Score range	Readability level	Who can understand it
90–100	Very simple	An average 11-year-old student
80–89	Simply	Middle school student
70–79	Fairly simple	Teenager aged 13 to 15 years
60–69	standard	Pupils
50–59	Quite difficult	Student
30–49	Difficult	University graduates
0–29	Very confusing	Specialists, academics or experts

Just for fun: this article itself rates around 63 On the Flesch reading, which is transferred to the “Standard” price.

How the Flesch reading value is calculated

The formula behind the score looks intimidating, but don’t worry, it is surprisingly easy. In fact, it is only based on two things. The total number of words is shared by the total number of sentences that give us the asl or average sentence length and the total number of the syllables divided by the total number of words in order to maintain the ASW or average syllables per word. As soon as we have these figures, we enter them in this formula:

206.835 – (1.015 × ASL) – (84.6 × ASW)

This gives us a score between 0 and 100. The longer your sentences and the more complex your words are, the lower your score.

Let’s take a short example by watching this short text below:

“The cat was sitting on the mat. The dog barked.”

This has very short words and sentences, so it would score in the 90s, which means that it is very easy to read.

Compare it with:

“The domesticated cats leaned back on the woven ground cover, while the dog generated resonance vocalization.”

This is essentially the same meaning, but longer words and clauses fall dramatically, probably in the 1930s.

This example shows why the Flesch reading formation works well as a proxy for readability. It rewards the writing that is concise and simple, with a high score and wags with a finger that is dense and complex and ultimately offers a low score.

Why the Flesch reading was important

The Flesch reading spread beyond classrooms in business and publication because it answered a universal question: Is my letter easy to understand?

In the 1970s, the US Marine used it to ensure that the training manuals were clear to recruits. Later, several US states made the official requirements for insurance documents and consumer contracts. Health organizations also began to ensure that the patient information was accessible.

When PC computer became common, Microsoft Word added the Flesch reader -Eeasy test to his spelling and grammar tools. Suddenly anyone who writes a school essay or annual report could receive immediate feedback on readability. This stopped the score and kept it relevant far into the digital age.

Readability became even more critical in the world of the web letter. Online readers scan more than a studio text. Studies show that you decide within seconds whether a page is worth your time or not. This makes clarity a competitive advantage. Tools that included the Flesch Reading Score gave web authors the opportunity to evaluate themselves and improve the user experience.

The Flesch -Reading points in Yoast SEO

When Yoast introduced readability tests, the Flesch reading was one of the first tools we installed. We have made the use of tools popular to keep a goal. There were authors who gave WordPress an immediate path to measurement whether their content was accessible to a wide audience. You can still find the Flesch reading points in the plugin on the “Insights” tab today.

This has helped thousands of users to discover that shorter sentences and simpler words often improve the way people deal with their content. While the score does not guarantee better ranking lists, it contributes to a positive reading experience, which in turn can influence the behavior of the user and SEO results.

Why Yoast moved beyond Flesch

Although the Flesch reading formation remains useful, it is not perfect. It only looks at the sentence and word lengths without context, sound or audience. A blog post that is aimed at medical specialists is difficult to score, but is still right for its readers.

For this reason, we have developed additional checks, including the word complexity that evaluates how the challenge of your vocabulary could be. This enables the authors to reconcile clarity with precision instead of pursuing a single number of points. In practice, this means that you can still use the Flesch reading points as a quick reference, but you should combine you with other knowledge to get the full image.

Should you still take care of the Flesch reading report?

The Flesch -Reading score remains a valuable guide for writers who want to make their content more accessible. If your text is very low, it can be worthwhile to shorten sentences or replace long words with easier alternatives. But they don’t have to be obsessed with a perfect score.

Readability is about more than numbers. Think of your audience, your expectations and the purpose of your content. Combine the Flesch reading formation with other readability signals to create a clear, committed and optimized text that is optimized for both humans and for search engines.

How to use the Flesch Reading Easy Score to improve your letter

We came to the essential question. How can you use the Flesch score to improve your letter? Well, you write for an audience and know your audience best. Before writing or edit, think about the type of texts that fit your readers. Do you sell clothes or organize photography workshops? Or do you write for a mom blog or do you gradually do DIYs? In all of these cases, their content should be relatively easy to read because they aim at a broad target group.

However, remember that you don’t have to chase a high Flesch reading value at all costs. For example, you can write about complex, specialized topics for a certain, more expert audience. Or are you perhaps an academic blog about your research? It makes sense whether the Flesch test creates a lower score in these cases.

Regardless of your situation, your text always benefits from a concise language. So if you want to benefit from the feedback that the Flesch Reading Easy score gives you, focus on two things:

1. shorten your sentences

Too many long sentences make your text more difficult, while short sentences keep the topic clear. If the sentences in your text are short, allow your readers to record the information in your text. As a result, you do not have to use all your attention to decrypt what you want to say. Therefore, we advise you to open long sentences. Your text will be much easier to read.

And please do not think that you will simplify your text by using short sentences. Let’s compare two short texts to show you what we mean. First, we have this sentence:

My favorite place at the weekend is my grandparents’ house near the lake, where we like to fish and swim, and we often take the boat to the lake.

Did you find this sentence easy to read? Wasn’t it too lengthy, confusing and difficult to process? It can make it much clearer:

My favorite place on weekends is my grandparents’ house. It is near the lake where we like to fish and swim. We also often take the boat to the lake.

These few short sentences are much easier to read. However, they indicate the same information as in the long sentence, so that there was no one to simplify. By using short sentences, the topic becomes clear and its readers absorb the information they presented.

2. Limit your use of difficult words

Four or more syllables are considered difficult to read. Therefore, try to avoid you if possible. Or try not to use it too much. For example, try words like small instead of winter herbPresent around instead of approximatelyAnd use instead of to use. We have the evaluation of the word complexity in Yoast SEO Premium to help them.

If you want to reach a wide audience, you should also try to avoid jargon. If you are a medical expert, you are probably familiar with terms how to analgesicPresent intravenous, And Oophorectomy. However, remember that most people don’t. If you don’t find a better alternative, explain it for users who may not know the word.

Diploma

The Flesch reading has been around for decades and it doesn’t go anywhere. It still offers a quick way to test whether your letter is easy to follow and it still plays a role in Yoast SEO. At the same time the web moved on, and we too. By combining the score with modern checks such as word complexity, you can create content that is not only readable, but also effective to achieve your goals.

So if you write a blog post the next time, take a look at your Flesch read. Use it as a guide, not as a rule. The result will be satisfied for which your readers and search engines will thank you.

TLDR

• You should take care of your score, but not follow perfection. Equalize the same readability with the needs of your audience
• The Flesch reading book assessment measures how easy a text with a set length and word length can be read
• The ratings range from 0 to 100: higher is easier. For example, 90–100 is very simple, 60–69 is standard and 0–29 is very confusing
• It became popular in education, government and publication before it was integrated into tools such as Microsoft Word and SEO platforms
• In Yoast SEO, the Flesch reading value still exists in the insights tab, but we are now also using the word complexity to give more detailed feedback