Reasons Content Readability Is Good for SEO

There are a lot of contradictory opinions about what really works when it comes to SEO. If you are one for learning from the Internet, you will find the amount of contradictory information extremely confusing.

While some will tell you about the tried-and-tested rules that work well for the professionals, others will let you in on something completely out of the way, leaving you wondering who to listen to.

Still, others will try to convince you that there is a mindset to it, and you should incorporate a few strategies that fall under that mindset and stick with them. You wonder if there is a standard for judging whether any of these strategies will work, right? Well, to be honest, there is a way to make an informed judgment.

Why is good content a king?

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a multi-disciplinary field that enables the communication between humans and computers. With search engines getting better at natural language processing, it is reasonably justified to expect them to better understand patterns of human speech, especially the raw bits that are different from our formalized usage.

Good content over the Internet is not only intended for humans but structured in a way to rank for search engines as well. Someone who wants to understand which content ranks and which tanks needs to get a content marketing certificate, which will give them all the skills to create and distribute viral content.

We know that content is king. But the core component of content is readability, which is the way information is presented to the reader, with a special focus on making it easy for them to go through it, i.e., skim.

If an article is written with readability in mind, the reader is very likely to find the information helpful.

If an article has a high readability score, it is likely to rank better than others on the Internet. Good, readable content is better for your overall SEO strategy.

This guide will present you with a list of reasons that will show you why you should focus on the readability of your content.

After that, this guide will attempt to provide a few tips for improving the readability scores of your articles.

So, without further ado, let us get straight into it.

1. Indexing:

Search engines are getting better at understanding human languages. This means that algorithms that could only detect certain patterns can now detect things that are prepared according to human preferences.

The implication of this portends well for us humans, as content is now not solely written with technological limitations in mind. So, if you write an article that is valuable in terms of its information and is also readable, it is likelier to get indexed.

A good readability rating helps you see whether your article will be easier for the search engines to crawl—for relevant keywords and terms. The keywords help search engines show relevant content to their users.

It also ensures that your article is accessible through voice searches, given that shorter sentences and simpler phrases are easier for search engines to read. So, to get your work indexed and gain the desired ranking, you need to work on the readability score of your article.

2. Better dwell time:

You want people to stay on your website to convince them of your products and services and convert them into regular readers.

This is a subtle communication between you and the visitor, and if you can convince them through your work, they are likely to reciprocate your sentiments.

The easiest way to do this is to present them with information that they are likely to enjoy. Another way of doing this is presenting that information in such a way that it helps them consume it properly.

This is where readability comes in. If your article is readable enough, visitors will likely stay on the website for longer. Not only does this improve the chances of them turning into loyal readers, but it also tells the search engines that your content is valuable and has the potential of grabbing readers’ interest.

It leads the search engines to rank your content for relevant keywords.

3. Reduced bounce rate:

If the dwell time of your website is good, then it also means that readers are going to stay on the website for longer, searching for related articles, and thus reducing the bounce rate.

For example, if a person opens a website to read an article on quantum physics and finds relevant articles in the sidebar, they are likely to open those as well. Internal navigation not only increases the chances of readers subscribing to your social media handles and staying updated whenever you upload new content but also tells the search engines that the website has content readers like.

The result is an improved dwell time and more views and reading time for the other articles on the website generally. Therefore, it is important to focus on the readability score of your articles to get the most out of your content, especially when it comes to doing good in terms of SEO.

How to improve readability score?

With that said, here are a few tips to get a good readability score for your articles.

  1. Be direct with your information. Try to present it as simply as possible without making it seem complicated.
  2. Use plain language because you do not want people to search for the complicated and obscure vocabulary in your articles.
  3. Use short sentences, for they allow the readers to consume information in small bits, which also helps them remember it.
  4. Focus on the structure of the information. You want your words to flow smoothly and seamlessly from one point to the next.
  5. Use sub-headings because it is always useful to divide information into several sections for better presentation.


This guide illustrates the importance of readability for a good SEO strategy at a time when search engines are getting better at understanding natural language. Therefore, the reasons listed above should help you understand why you should focus on improving your articles’ readability. Similarly, the tips given on improving the readability score should help you produce better content.

Dragan Sutevski

Posted by Dragan Sutevski
