Flesch Reading Scale: Everything You Need to Know

Just about every business is rushing to secure a corner on the internet. In fact, about 69% of B2B companies have rolled out content marketing strategies.

What does that mean? You need to create rock-solid blogs, email newsletters, and other content types that cut through the noise and rise above the clutter. With content saturation, it's crucial to create both understandable and engaging content.

Looking to craft a piece that delivers a punch? Sure, many things come into play when developing compelling content. But what if we told you that you could find the secret in a readability formula?

Usher in Flesch Reading Score.

Relevant Reading:

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What is Flesch Reading Score?

Flesch Reading Ease Score is the brainchild of an established writer and author, Rudolph Flesch. He developed this formula in 1948. Yet, it's still revered as one of the most established readability formulas.

Ok, let's cut to the chase now, shall we?

The Flesch Reading Ease score calculates your content's reading level by checking your English language structure. It considers the length of your words and sentences- Small words and short sentences increases the score, while longer ones reduce the score.

Here's a typical breakdown of the scores:

Does Flesch Reading Ease Score Matter?

You have only 8 seconds to grab your average page visitor's attention and convince them to stay glued to the end. Do you want to scare them away immediately after landing on your page? Just bombard them with hard-to-read, boring blocks of words.  

And that's when the dreaded high bounce rate will slap you. If Google realizes that more visitors leave your website or page in quick clicks, your ranking will plummet.

At the end of the day, search behemoths like Google love understandable and easy-to-follow content that solves a searcher's inquiry. So the more readable your piece is crafted, the higher your chances of making the finicky algorithms happy.

It's worth noting that a considerable chunk of your audience isn't searching for complicated, complex explanations.

Sure, Google algorithms love long-form blog posts (than shorter, thinner ones) because humans love them too. But you must keep your content scan-able, simple, and easy to digest if you want to boost the odds that people will read up to the last period (.).

However complex your topic is, make it as reader-friendly as possible. Don't have a clue or time to write clear and engaging content void of heavy industry jargon? That's why Zoey writers are here to help.

How to Calculate the Flesch Reading Ease

Any Mathematician in the house? Time to crunch the numbers!

Here's the formula:

Flesch Reading Ease = 206. 835 – (1.015 x Average Sentence Length) – (84.6 x Average Syllables Per Word)

Where:

Average sentence length = No. of words/No. of sentences

Average no. of syllables per word= No. of syllables/no. of words

But who has that time to count all those syllables, words, and sentences (As if the above complex formula isn't dreadful enough)? 

Fret not- Tools of work will come to your rescue.

Flesch Readability Tools

The internet is awash with tools that will make the calculation painless. Here are our top choices:

1. Microsoft Office Word’s in-program tool
2. Readable, a web-based calculator
3. Flesch Reading Ease feature in Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress

Our 4 Tried-and-Proven Tips To Optimize Your Flesch Reading Score

Your target audience will play a crucial role in determining the appropriate score.

Elementary school children will love content whose score is around 89 and beyond. On the other hand, a university-level research paper may necessitate you to lower your readability score since you have to dive deeper into a particular content area.  

Your web content's readability score needs to sit between 60 and 70. That way, you can net the biggest possible audience. Too easy content (above 70) may put most people off.

Do you consistently get stuck below the 60 mark? Here are our four tried-and-true tricks to remember next time you craft a piece of content.

1. Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)

We stole this principle from software designers just for you.

Because we've realized many writers fall into the trap of injecting too much flowery vocabulary into their work.

While blending your words is great, why should you use "minuscule" when "small" can do? A simple word like "idea" sounds better than its complicated version, "concept."

Simple and engaging language hooks the reader to the end. They don't have to fight through your heavy jargon and words to get your content's value.

2. Use Shorter Sentences

Babbling on non-stop, cramming everything into a sentence like this one that appears to rumble on and on, is a perfect way of making your readers click that X in a huff. (See how that sentence made you furious?)

Stay with us- We won't repeat that mistake. 

Your best bet is to use simple sentences with a maximum of 20-25 words per sentence. Your readers' minds get enough wiggling room to digest and absorb your information while forming their opinions.

3. Cherry-pick Your Words

Design your sentence in a way that generates the impact you desire. An active sentence engages readers better than a passive one in most cases.

Remember that less is more. So use fewer words to pack the intended meaning. Ruthlessly eliminate unnecessary words that threaten to choke your readability.

4. Shorten Your Paragraphs

An average of 4-5 full sentences per paragraph is enough. So break up your piece into smaller, digestible chunks that have plenty of white space in between.

Befriend headings and subheadings. Well, these friends may not substantially tilt the Flesch scale. But they'll help you break up those massive walls of text into short paragraphs.

Just like our cute paragraphs. I bet you enjoy skimming through our content. 

But we have an exception: If you're writing technical manuals or documents for university graduates or a specific audience, you may have to use longer paragraphs.

5. Readers First, The Score Second

Your content isn't for Google or the Flesch score. It’s for actual human beings. So the target audience will ultimately decide your content strategy's direction

That means  rules aren't set in stone- If you need to twist or break them to deliver an impact, go for it.

You may have to weave lengthy sentences, use complex words, and slap blocks of paragraphs onto your page to deliver the content.

The goal is to inject meaning and value into every piece. Plus, the Flesch Reading Ease score wasn't meant to be an oppressive ruler- it's a helpful writing companion.

So, keep your people in mind when writing. Always.

Let Zoey Writers Give You an Optimum Score

At Zoey, we know the right Flesch Reading Score suitable for your content and target audience.  Even better, we've made it to the list of the 10 best content writing services for 2022, so you can be sure we know our stuff.

Call us today, and let's get on with making our content writing services work for you!

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash. Thanks, Tingey:)