Readability and SEO: Writing for Humans First

Google's helpful content guidance is clear: write for people, not search engines. Readability is how you make that happen.

What is the Flesch Reading Ease score?

It's a formula based on average sentence length and syllables per word. Scores of 60–70 are comfortable for most web readers.

Practical ways to improve readability

• Keep most sentences under 20 words.
• Use one idea per paragraph.
• Prefer common words over jargon.
• Add descriptive subheadings every 200–300 words.

Keyword density in context

There's no magic density percentage. If a keyword appears so often that the text sounds robotic, you have gone too far. Use synonyms and related terms.

Wrap up

Paste your draft into a word counter with readability analysis before you publish and revise anything that scores below 50.