List of Readability Tools to Improve Your Writing

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You may agree that we spend lots of time writing content for our websites and blogs.

We also spend lots of time checking our content for search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. Best practices include the right keywords, word count, appropriate images, titles, sub-titles, and other factors.

How many members check the readability of their content?

Do we even consider the reading level of our target audience when writing our content?

Our content should give readers the best user experience, and that means content they can read and understand.

I struggle, as do others, to write content that is readable. So I found and use content writing tools to help me.

First of all, many members use the Yoast SEO plugin on their websites. Yoast not only checks SEO factors, it also scores readability.

Since I don't use Yoast, I had to look elsewhere. I currently use Grammarly and Hemingway Editor. I also found other useful tools, which I list below in no particular order. I include Grammarly and Hemingway examples for comparison.

List of Readability Tools:

Grammarly. Grammarly checks spelling and grammar. Here is a screenshot of a recent post performance report.

Hemingway Editor. This is a screenshot of the same content scored by Hemingway.

Readability Analyzer. RA is strictly a readability analyzer. It does not check grammar.

WebFX Readability Tool. WebFX is mostly a readability tool. As the image below shows, it scores readability using several different applications. WebFX also reports on content data such as number of words, sentences, and the like.

Another handy tool is the Cliche Finder. While it is not a readability tool, it does check for cliches that lessen the impact of your content. Cliches reflect lazy thinking, lazy writing.

I will leave you with this quote from French poet, Gérard de Nerval:

"The first man who compared a woman to a rose was a poet, the second, an imbecile."

UPDATE:

Based on Mike's recommendation below, I have added the Flesch tool as well.Testing sample text returned the following score,

Test your content today!

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Recent Comments

28

Thanks...my writing normally tests out between 7th and 9th grades.

So does mine, between 7th and 9th grades. It is a big improvement from where it was years ago when someone commented that mine was pedantic.

Thanks for the great tips Glen!
I’ll be checking out the ones I’m not familiar with.
KyleAnn

You are welcome, KyleAnn. I spent too much time playing with them all.

Great info thanks Glen. Will check out these tools.

You're welcome, Mickey.

Cheers.

Really interesting info Glen. Thanks!

You are welcome, Heather.

Thank you

You are welcome, Johane. 🙂

Thanks for your post Glen. I find Grammarly excellent for spelling but for grammar, I would score it poor. On several occassions, it has suggested words that would completely change the meaning of the sentence.

Derek

Thanks for sharing, Derek. I see that every once in a while as well.

Thanks, Mike. I updated the blog post with your input.

Building WA literacy one word at a time!

Great but imbecile is also used in the Italian language Lol 😂

I watched too much, Dr. House on TV. My favorite word is idiot.

Lol 😂 That’s what imbecile means in Italian someone stupid or an idiot

Good post about what we face as writers. Good tools to check with. I've used Grammarly for quite a while, love it. I didn't find Hemmingway all that useful. There's another you may wish to look at, it's called. ProWritingAid. It''s a paid program. Very thorough.
Thanks for your post, there's value for so many of us here at Wealthy Affiliate.

Thanks, David. I will have to check out your tip about ProWritingAid.

Thanks for sharing GlenPaulo

You are welcome, Dave.

Cheers.

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