Is Reading Level A Google Ranking Factor?

Each SEO professional says content is important and all not content is not created equal. But does your content’s readability affect how Google ranks in search results? If you did any content creation, there is a better chance you came across readability tools such as the popular Yoast SEO WordPress plugin. All valuable tools determine your copy and create statistics like passive voice, paragraph length, and transitions… So please follow this article to know clearly about reading level – a Google ranking factor.

The Claim: Reading Level As A Ranking Factor

In 2010, Google added a short-existed “reading level” filter to its advanced search function. However, some experts said that readability affected search engine rankings a lot longer than that. And the increase of Google’s machine learning models such as BERT and MUM, which are aimed to clearly understand language and content quality, seems to say that it is important.

But have you been obsessed with turning all those red or orange circles on your reading analysis green? Will releasing passive sentences or editing your vocabulary to a sixth-grade level help your page rocket to the top of search engine results?

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The Evidence Against Readability As A Ranking Factor

In spite of claims to the contrary, reading level doesn’t factor into the search ranking. Google’s Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller confirmed in a 2018 Google Webmaster Hangout: 

“From an SEO point of view, it’s probably not something that you need to focus on, in the sense that, as far as I know, we don’t have kind of these basic algorithms that just count words and try to figure out what the reading level is based on these existing algorithms. But it is something that you should figure out for your audience.”

FRE is a basic opinion with two variables. To verify this, Portent rolled out a study analyzing the reading level of more than 750.000 pieces of content for 30.000 desktop search queries. This research found no connection between Google search ranking and a page’s reading level. So SEO professionals can’t disregard FRE.

Readability affects user experiences which can play an important role in SEO. If visitors who see your website struggle to read or understand your content, it is possible for them to leave the website.

Complex readability parts are much less likely to have incoming links to them, which is a necessary ranking factor.

To quote John Mueller’s hangout again:

So, it would seem that while the content’s reading level has some effects on the ranking, it is not a ranking factor. 

How SEO and content marketing work together

Reading Level Is Confirmed Not A Google Ranking Factor 

While considered as a ranking factor, the reading level is fundamental to content strategy. Each audience has some different preferences regarding the complicated and reading level of content.

Write For Your Audience

The main key to gain successful web content is efficiency and usefulness. To reach high rank, you should demonstrate that your webpage should answer a search query better than others.

To launch this, you should understand your audience. For example, you are trying to promote a company that can sell software apps. In this case, you should use sophisticated vocabulary instead of normal sentences. 

Writing good content is considered a skill that each SEO professional would improve. Adapting your writing to a specific reading level is not a ranking factor, but applying words that don’t meet your audience’s will be a problem.

To sum up, reading level isn’t considered as a ranking factor, but it does directly affect Google Ranking. If you still wonder or want to know more topics, please follow EverRanks to approach the next section soon. 

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