Does reading grade level affect rankings? What level should I write for?
-
Search engines measure the reading level of your page.
But how does it affect ranking? Should I be aiming more for a low or high Flesch–Kincaid grade level?
-
I can't quite anser how google uses it, but after looking at this recently, I was suprised at the large portion of the adult workforce has a reltivly low reading comprehension. Make sure your target audiance can read your content, then worry about google second. You might find that this alone restricts you to the point where theres not enough wiggle room to worry about the score.
-
Write for people, not search engines and then keep it simple. Everyone understands simple - even rocket surgeons!
The only caveat here is when you're talking to a very specific audience. In which case you'll want to use language that they use/understand otherwise you can be perceived as an "outsider" or "amature".
So - think of your audience and then keep it simple as you can.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Do Blog Tags affect SEO at all anymore?
We're trying to standardize the use of tags on our site amongst writers/editors, and I'm trying to come up a list of tags they can choose from to tag posts with - and telling them to use no more than 10 (absolute maximum) per post. We are also in the process of migrating to a new CMS, and have 8 defined categories that will all have their own landing page within our "News" section. TLDR: Do blog tags have any impact on SEO anymore? Are they solely meant to help users find articles related on popular topics, or does creating a tag for a popular topic help to improve organic visibility? Full Question: With the tag standardization, I want to make sure we're creating the most useful and effective tags; and the UX/SEO sides of my brain are conflicted. To my understanding, creating a tag about a high volume topic in an industry helps establish the website's relevance to Google/other search engines about that topic and improves overall relevance; but the tag feed page (ex: http://freshome.com/tag/home-protection/) isn't really meant for organic search visibility. So my other question is, is it worth it to noindex the tag pages in the robots.txt? Will that affect any benefit to increased relevance for Google (if there is any)? I'm interested to hear others' thoughts and suggestions. Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | davidkaralisjr0 -
One page dropped like a stone from rankings - why?
I have one page targeted to a specific keyword that seems to have dropped into oblivion but rest of website seems Ok and as usual. website is www.pod-exhibition-systems.co.uk search term is "banner stands" Grade is A in SEO moz tools and 3 other SEO programs. looking for an avenue to try as has been 2 weeks so far. regards Joe
On-Page Optimization | | podweb0 -
Competitor rank
Hi We have been doing SEO on one of our properties for 4 years now. We had a new competitor jump in and is now ranking above us within 6 months. I verified various parameters including link backs/etc. but cannot see as to why Google would rank them above our page despite us following all ethical SEO practices/updating content etc. Do you guys have an experience/thoughts on this? P
On-Page Optimization | | Parvesh0 -
How much the Page Rank matters in SEO?
I have my own blog which is 6 Month old with Page Rank 1, and my fiends has a blog with page rank 2 which is 6 Months Old domain as my. I used to work hard on content and Link Building. Following every webmaster guideline spending 3 to 4 Hours on my blog, but my friends website is just crazy, 3 Website links to it with no PR, no Facebook, no twitter shares and nothing. I want to Know How my friend website has High PR than me, Does Page Rank Really matters in SEO or my friend is performing some black hat magic on his website. Best answer will be appreciated thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Ganesh340 -
Trying to maintain rank while switching back & forth from sitewide 301 to 302 redirects?
My company's website has earned industry "authority" over the years and ranks well for a number of keywords. For reasons not worth explaining, we've moved the entire site (all pages) to be secured (https from http). When we launch our completely new website in 5 months from now, we will launch it as "http:" For the next 5 months, we're stuck with using site-wide "https". Is it better to 301 or 302 all pages (from http -> https), with the intent to move back to 301 in 5 months from now? Obviously, this situation is not ideal, but we'd like to preserve as much authority/presence as possible. What should we do and why? Any input would be greatly appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | WhiteCap0 -
Anchor_partial_atpiu??? in ranking factors
Could anybody explain what does it mean anchor_partial_atpiu in ranking factors http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-1
On-Page Optimization | | PeterSEO0 -
Are Forum Links To Website Causing Rankings To Drop ?
For many years our top keywords hve ranked in top 5. Usually top 3 for a few in particular. The last few months those particular keywords have dropped to 25 +. Our other rankings are doing pretty decent and are remaiing the same. We are members of about 6 forums since they relate to our website and sometime we have contests on them. I do know that the forums are based on those particular keywords and are linking to our website, as well as other forum members linking to us. Each forum has roughly 300 links to our website. It does not seem as if our competitors are affected by this, as they are members of the forums as well. What could be causing this for these certain keywords? If those forums were affected by Google's new algorythm would this have an affect on our website?
On-Page Optimization | | hfranz0