How to optimize readability

Good readability does not only mean a good experience for the readers. It must also be interesting for search engines. Google pays more and more attention to the quality and evaluates the readability of each page on the Internet. And with its data, it reconfigures the ranking on its SERP. Here are some pointers on how to optimize readability.

Keep it simple

Remember that English is not the native language of most people in this world. Therefore, your fluency doesn’t matter in the article, what matters is whether people can easily understand without looking up in the dictionary the meaning of the words you used. Make sure you use simple and common words.

Visual aid goes a long way

Visuals attract attention, especially if the image is unique or particularly interesting. Using a good image or video clip can also help set the tone of your content. For this, don’t forget to consider the quality (the image should be of good quality and related to the content), size (the image should not be too big to let the user scroll, nor too small to let the user zoom), or weight  (the image must be fast to load and must not block the loading of your page).

Get Yoast help

If you are aiming for the first place in search engines, install the Yoast SEO plugin, which, when installed, gives you a checklist. All the elements to improve are in orange and red. An overview allows you to go back to the sentence or paragraph that poses a problem, and it has the advantage of varying the focus flexibly, from the precise sentence that is a bit heavy or repetitive and that causes problems, to a more panoramic view of all your articles already written.

Add subheadings

Subheadings are like indicators that guide users while reading your articles. Any web content can be divided into sub-sections. And each sub-section should have a clear and if possible attractive subheading. These subheadings help your readers to quickly browse through the content, and are also very useful for people who read your entire article. Subheadings prevent them from feeling lost while reading.

When optimizing readability, remember: Having a blog and publishing content is not enough to have visibility. For a text to appear among the first results presented by Google, the quality of its content is essential.