We'd love to hear from you, fill out the form below and one of the team will get back to you within in no time at all. Maybe you prefer a more direct route? Drop us an email at [email protected] or if you fancy a chat give us a call on: 01908 030 999.

The basics

Tell us a bit about it:

Handy things to tell us are what you’re aiming to achieve, what you have now, and your approximate budget and timescales for the project.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Close
July 2, 2021

5 top tips to take your readability to the next level

Readability isn’t rocket science. It’s all about how easy your copy is to understand. However, getting it right for your readers can be tricky from time to time.

Readability influences how clearly your copy is understood. In the age of 60 second Tik Tok’s, our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. If somebody is confused by your content, they’ll click off. So if you’re looking to optimise your copy, readability can be a quick and easy tool to level up your rankings.

Whilst there’s no one size fits all solution, we’ve got some top tips you can try out to improve your readability.

1. Activate your active voice

When it comes to writing content that captures your audience’s attention, the difference between using an active and passive voice is crucial. Passive voices can sound formal and impersonal. When you use your active voice, you're more engaged and involved. As a result, your audience is more likely to find your content engaging and get involved.

Writing in a passive voice can make your sentences clunkier, meaning your audience will spend valuable time making sense of your content. The harder your audience has to work, the less likely they are to let the message sink in. By choosing to use an active voice, you're creating a direct, effective and engaging experience for your reader. In turn, you’ll see more conversions come out of your copy.

Check out Impervia Flooring

2. Short and simple wins the race.

Let’s be honest, we like it easy on the eyes. One of the easiest ways to keep your audience reading is to keep your paragraphs short and sweet. Pick out the points that matter. Put them into their own paragraphs. See your readability scores shoot up and keep your content feel fresh.

Keeping things simple goes hand in hand with keeping things short. Avoid bulky blocks of text by cutting out semi-colons and committing to full stops. You’ll find yourself waffling less, and your audience interacting more.

3. You write what you E-A-T

Ice cream and sprinkles. Peanut butter and jam. Readability and SEO. They’re like peas in a pod, always better as a pair. To tie these two together, you'll need to use E-A-T.

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines suggest that E-A-T is the way forward with your writing. It stands for expertise, authority, and trust.

For Google, this means you provide content that is informative and useful. For you, this means becoming an expert in your subject. Approach it like you would if you were going on Mastermind. Build links in your copy and write with authority. Your audience will buy into your brand, and you’ll be easier to understand. As a result, your readability and rankings will level up.

4. To jargon or not to jargon?

We’ve all done it. We’ve all been so inspired that we’ve written everything we know on the page. Sure, it’s all correct. But can everyone understand it? So much copy falls flat by filling itself up with jargon. When you top up your text with words not everyone will understand, you compromise the POUR principles.

By cutting out the jargon where possible and putting the reader first, you'll write content that is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Content that your audience will understand is readability gold.

5. Flow well, work well, write well

When sentences flow well, they work well. It’s as simple as that. Sometimes it’s not as easy as simplifying your text or shortening your sentences. When that happens, use transition words to keep telling your story. Become best friends with words like ‘as such', ‘however’, and ‘on the other hand’. Your key points won’t get lost in quick and easy bursts, and your readers can connect the dots in a way that’s made to work for them.

Get in touch with us today to discover how we can help you level up your content and build your brand.

Written by
Marketing
Astronaut - Moon - Star DigitalAstronaut - Moon - Star Digital