Doesn't stand still. If a few years ago, to reach the TOP, a site only needed to comply with technical parameters, now readability of texts is more important.

I offer you some tips to help make articles on your website or blog interesting for people.

1. Stick to the informational presentation of the material. Remove cliches, bureaucracy and other empty thoughts. Write to the point.

1. Try not to pile up long, complex sentences, follow the rule: one sentence - one thought. Don't be like the German writers described by Mark Twain:

If a German writer dives into a sentence, you will not see him until he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic Ocean with a verb in his mouth.

Mark Twain

1. Play with the length of sentences, create rhythm in the text. Then it will be perceived more vividly and will not bore the reader.

The proposals are divided into the following:

Alternate sentences of different lengths with each other. Like this.

1. Stop safe words!

In this case, I’m not talking about what search engines don’t see because of their prevalence. The term stop words also has a second meaning: words that make the text unnecessarily heavy and unreadable.

These include:

Not only do they cause the writer to get confused with punctuation marks, but they also, more often than not, make the text “watery”. Find the safe words in my sentence from the list above - and you will understand what I mean. Clearing these words improves readability.

You can write without them completely: the text will be laconic and... choppy. And also peremptory. Therefore, make sure that it does not consist of only stop words. One per offer is enough.

1. Respect your audience.

Advertising attacks us from all sides, so people become insensitive to it. Moreover, she is annoying. The same goes for all these attempts to lure the reader with beautiful, incomprehensible words. Do not use jargon, bureaucracy, and do not oversaturate the text with terms unless absolutely necessary. If the blog is for a wide range of readers, make it accessible to everyone. Before writing, imagine that the person is not in the subject. Therefore, in simple language and in a few words, introduce him to what you offer.

Online programs to help you

The demand for checking texts for readability has prompted programmers to create a variety of programs for assessing readability. With their help, you can check the text using various parameters. For example, on this site the text is checked using a link to a page with the text: http://ru.readability.io/

Another good program for editing is https://glvrd.ru/ They not only give a final grade, but also highlight in the text what it is desirable to correct. By the way, this program is loved by customers of texts on exchanges: they believe that it saves them from some of the work of checking the text.

Everything is relative

I started an Instagram account. I show you the life of a copywriter, I make fun of you in stories, let’s be friends! GO TO INTSAGRAM

In conclusion, I will say: there are no ideal programs, and the requirements for texts depend primarily on their purpose. Therefore, there is no need to blindly believe the results of any test. Be creative, decide for yourself what needs editing and what is written as needed. In the end, it will be your readers who will judge the success of your efforts. Therefore, experiment, try different approaches - and you will find your own optimal formula for success.

My texts also do not always meet the requirements described above. I am improving some things in them even now, and leaving others as they are. The articles on my blog do not represent me in the best light, they reflect who I am. That’s why I think they should be like that.

I hope you benefit and enjoy reading my articles. And this is the main thing.

Copywriting plays a significant role in website promotion. The problem is that texts are increasingly written exclusively for search engines, and not for people. Given the new role of behavioral factors, SEO specialists began to look for ways to “make” people spend more time on website pages. And all methods are used: usability improves, page loading time decreases, but many forget about the most important thing - the content. About how easy it is to read texts on websites. In order to improve something, you need to analyze the current state. If we are talking about texts, there is a concept: readability index (“readability” or “readability”).

Readability (“readability”) is a property of text material that characterizes the ease of its perception by a person.

The most popular metric for assessing readability is Flesch index. Rudolf Flesch proposed seven recommendations, the observance of which will make the text readable, understandable and interesting. These rules are often called Flesch's aphorisms:

1. Use valid abbreviations.

2. Whenever possible, write sentences without using the word “what.”

3 . Use the pronouns “I,” “we,” “they,” and “you.”

4. When referring to a concept expressed by a noun, repeat the word itself or use the appropriate pronoun; no need to look for a colorful replacement.

5. Use short, clear sentences.

6. A paragraph should cover only one issue.

7. Write in a language that the reader understands. The readability index of English-language SEO texts can be calculated using the formula:

Where: ASL - average sentence length in words; ASW is the average word length in syllables.

Due to the fact that in the Russian language the average length of a sentence is shorter, and words are on average longer, the following formula was adopted:

For the formula to work correctly, it is necessary to analyze at least one hundred words. Interestingly, using this index you can find out which audience a particular text is aimed at:

up to 80 - a primitive level, assimilated even by children; 60-65 - light reading, level of newspapers and magazines; 50-55 — level of business literature, professional and industry publications, high-quality fiction; 30 and below - the level of scientific treatises.

Another metric that can be used is Fog index. By the way, it is actively used in American journalism.

Fi = (Nws + Nwt) x 0.4

Where: Nws is the average number of words in a text sentence; Nwt is the average number of words with a length of 3 or more syllables (per one sentence of text). There are also many other metrics, but, alas, they are not applicable to the Russian language. You can check English text for readability using numerous online tools, for example, this or this. There is a similar service for checking the readability of Russian-language texts (in web 1.0 style). I will talk in more detail about this and other little-known metrics in SEO in my report at the 8P conference.

When Microsoft Word finishes a spell check, you can display information about your document's readability level, including readability scores for the following tests:

By default, the statistics output option is disabled. To enable it:

• Open a tab in Word File and select Options.
• Select an item Spelling.
• Make sure that in the section When correcting spelling in Word checkbox checked Also check grammar while checking spelling.
• Check the box Show readability statistics(Fig. 1).

Download the note in or

If after that you run a spell check in the document (tab Review, button Spelling), then after the end of the spell checker, a window will appear Readability statistics(Fig. 2). Readability test results are based on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.

The formula for calculating the Flesh Readability Score is:

K = 206.835 – 1.015 x ASL – 84.6 x ASW

where: K - text difficulty score, ASL - average number of words in a sentence; ASW is the average number of syllables in a word.

In order to clarify the coefficients in the Flesch formula, Oborneva conducted a study of the average word length in English and Russian. To ensure the representativeness of the sample, a Russian language dictionary edited by Ozhegov (39,174 words) and an English-Russian dictionary edited by Muller (41,977 words) were taken. The Flesch formula adapted for the Russian language in Oborneva’s interpretation looks like this:

K = 206.835 – 1.3 x ASL – 60.1 x ASW

Unfortunately, it is impossible to use the formula directly, since Word does not report the number of syllables in a word. But a formula based on the average number of characters in a word could not be found on the Internet. She is not known to Irina Vladimirovna either.

I decided to get creative and take advantage of the fact that the Flesch formula is a linear equation. Checking English text in Word displays three parameters: the number of words in a sentence, the number of syllables in a word, and the Flesch readability value. You can test three texts in English, and as a result get a system of three equations for the parameters (a, b, c) of the Flesch formula:

K 1 = a – b*SSP 1 – c*SSS 1

K 2 = a – b*SSP 2 – c*SSS 2

K 3 = a – b*SSP 3 – c*SSS 3

where K is the assessment of text difficulty according to Flesch, SSP is the average number of words in a sentence (in tests 1, 2 and 3), SSS is the average number of characters in a word (also in tests 1, 2 and 3).

The result was disappointing (absurd). It can be assumed that Word uses a non-linear relationship, or the use of the number of characters instead of the number of syllables in the formula is incorrect...

And yet it is possible to check Russian texts for readability using Flesch. I recommend using online resources. For example,

Text readability, how to check and improve it?

Each webmaster deals with filling sites and creating content in his own way. Some successful blogs have voluminous texts with detailed information, others have meaningful but numerous posts.


The most important thing is that the material is easy to read because it is written primarily for people.

Readability of the text, how to check and improve it? We will talk about this in this article, and we recommend that every blogger, webmaster and copywriter take this seriously.

The quality of content is very poor on most sites, and even if it is competent, it will not be ideal if the material is difficult to digest.

An important factor is the readability of the text on the site.

One of the indicators of readability is the font and color scheme. I sometimes come across websites whose owners try to be creative by using unusual fonts. It looks really nice, but it is better to stick to standard symbols, they are easier to read and visitors are familiar with it.

I am not a professional designer, I won’t give any advice regarding color schemes (everyone’s personal choice). But when the background is not chosen correctly and the text is presented in some bright colors (including white), reading quickly tires the eyesight and, as a result, the visitor closes the tab:

Small letters should not be used either, not everyone is sitting with their nose buried in the monitor, but not everyone knows. To determine which format is ideal for publications, you can conduct an experiment. Try using different designs and evaluate behavioral factors.

After checking, I found out how much headings and subheadings affect the readability of the text. Just by the title of an article, many people determine whether they should even start reading something. Subheadings are needed to quickly familiarize yourself with the material; sometimes there is simply no time to study an article of over 10,000 characters.

Bringing texts to perfection is difficult, especially if you have no experience in this matter. Some authors believe that it is better to make the most informative material possible, in the hope that the majority of visitors will still agree to read, since “there are not enough letters.”

This is not the right approach; it is better to divide the material into several parts, then everyone will choose something that interests them.

5 ways to improve text readability

Do you want your articles to be read to the end without causing stress to users? We need to try to increase the readability of the text. Design plays an important role in this matter, but there are other important points:

1. Give up standards and stop writing carbon copies. Phrases like “Our company offers...” are found on every commercial website. Why rewrite it over and over again, because there are many other forms for presenting this information. Use your imagination and, as a last resort, use synonyms.
2. Individual sentences can reduce the readability of the text if they are cluttered with different phrases. Remember one simple rule: one sentence - one thought. It’s better to finish your thoughts more often than to continue to stretch them out and turn the text into mush.
3. It is advisable to constantly change the volume of proposals. Alternate short (up to 4 words) sentences with medium (up to 10 words) and long (up to 23 words). This helps to diversify the material and prevents the reader from getting bored. Professionals take advantage of this, so their articles are read in one breath.
4. It is better to abandon some “hackneyed” expressions. In this article you will learn more about this. It also explains how to check text for readability online, using these words. Check before publishing, again use synonyms.
5. When writing articles, it is advisable to use words taking into account the target audience. If there is no need to clutter the text with abbreviations and complex terms, then it is better not to do this. This is especially true for sites on general topics, where “unenlightened” users can look.

Five simple tips will help authors create content that's easier to learn. Naturally, this will affect conversions and the number of fans. Even if visitors are not professional writers, they still evaluate the efforts made, at least by how interesting and easy the material is to study.

How to check text for readability?

The best way to perform this test is to try to read the text out loud yourself. Just out loud, as this helps identify difficult parts. Every experienced copywriter does this, some even re-read articles several times. Plus, we manage to find errors and correct them in time.

Text readability testing is offered by several services. Perhaps these mechanisms will help you determine the quality of the material and figure out what needs to be fixed. The first service is called, through it website pages are analyzed or text is added.

An interesting indicator here is the age of the target audience. It is not clear how it is calculated; for verification, an article from Wikipedia about astronautics was used, but the system shows that this scientific material is intended for readers 17-19 years old. The second service where you can check text for readability online is called

From removing unnecessary words to analyzing the author’s mood.

Here is a small selection of useful services that will be useful to anyone who occasionally writes coherent texts in Russian. They will help speed up the editing process and improve its final result.

1. Typographer Lebedev

This service processes text so that it looks good inside the HTML code or layout. Namely:

• Changes English quotes to Russian;
• If necessary, replace a hyphen with a dash;
• Connects words with prepositions and conjunctions with a non-breaking space so that there are no ugly hyphens.

You can read more about typography in paragraph 62 Leadership. If your activity is somehow related to content filling/website design, then I strongly recommend that you take a closer look at this book

2. Editor in Chief

The famous copywriter Maxim Ilyakhov created his own school several years ago, where he teaches people to write in the so-called “infostyle” - as clearly as possible and without unnecessary fluff. In order for a person to find out which words in his text do not carry a semantic load, this online service was developed. He finds newspaper cliches, ballast adjectives, possessive pronouns, modal verbs and other elements, the excess of which bores the reader.

Maxim Ilyakhov demands that his work be graded no lower than 7 on the Glavred scale. If it is more than 9, then the text may turn out dry and hard. Sometimes I check my texts, and, as a rule, 6.5 - 7 points are scored even before edits. But the main problems shown in the screenshot migrate from article to article and spoil the impression of the text. I hope to get rid of them soon.

3. Selection of synonyms

If you are a responsible and hardworking person, then you probably try to avoid tautologies. This service will help you find words with similar meaning and give the text a little more artistic expressiveness.

4. Character counter

5. Selection of rhymes

I don’t know how many readers of the site are poets, but without this site the selection would be incomplete. If you have small children, you can use it to play the “Write a Rhyme” game with them to develop their language skills.

6. Gramota.ru

Here are collected all the current rules of the Russian language, study guides, online exercises to improve your literacy level, and on the forum there are experts who can be consulted in a difficult situation. You can also check how this or that word is spelled.

7. Checking text readability

This service evaluates the readability of the text on several scales (approximate explanations are given in brackets, you can easily find the exact formulas for calculating the indices yourself if you are interested):

• Flesh readability index (calculated by the ratio of the number of words to the number of sentences and the number of syllables to the number of words);
• Colman-Liau index (calculated by the ratio of the number of words to the number of sentences and the number of letters to the number of words);
• Dale–Chall index (takes into account the complexity of words);
• Automatic readability index (takes into account the ratio of the number of letters in the text to the number of words);
• SMOG index (takes into account the number of words longer than three syllables)

As a result, a verdict is made for which age group the text being tested will be understandable. The opuses of IT journalists are usually defined as intended for people 15-16 years old. This is not very good, since the site recognizes the excellent texts of the Russian classics I have checked as suitable for children aged 9-11.

8. Search for repetitions of words

Here you can check whether Zipf's law is observed in the text. I’ll explain very roughly what this means.
For each word in the language, its frequency of use is calculated. Conditionally: for the preposition “in” it is equal to 3, for the word “once” 1000, and for “cornflower blue” 10000. If a word appears in the text much more often than it should according to its popularity rank, then there is a violation of the law, which reduces the quality of perception of the text .
After checking the text, a list of the 20 most popular words will be displayed and recommendations for the optimal number of repetitions for each word that would comply with Zipf's law.

9. Analysis of the mood of the author of the text

This is a funny service with a design that preserves the fond memory of the early two thousandths, which finds words in the text that correspond to certain emotions and makes assumptions about the state of mind of the person who wrote it. If someone gets a positive result, please write about it.

10. Comparison of two texts

And finally, a site where you can find the differences between the two texts. Yes, most text editors have this option, but sometimes it is convenient to do it online.