List of Readability Tools to Improve Your Writing

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!