Why online readability affects SEO

Readability is sometimes seen as a matter of style or personal preference, but good readability is increasingly important for SEO. This is not because Google automatically uses a “readability score” as a ranking factor, but because search engines and especially AI systems pay attention to good readability. With the rise of AI-driven search experiences, the importance of clear, well-structured content has only increased.

What do we mean by readability?

Readability goes beyond avoiding long sentences or difficult words. It’s about making your content quick and effortless to understand. Three elements play a big role in this:

• Choose a language level that suits the reader
• Provide a structure that builds content logically
• Also pay attention to a visual presentation that facilitates scanning and navigation

Give each section of text a clear purpose: What question are you answering? What is the most important answer? This makes your text easier to understand, even for AI systems.When you pull this off, the chances of visitors reading your texts, remembering and sharing the information increases. You also increase the chance that AI systems will include your answers in search results. (1)

How readability indirectly affects rankings

Google and AI systems are looking at signals closely related to readability. Consider better user interaction, with content that reads pleasantly. This results in longer visit times and higher scroll rates. In addition, internal links are also clicked more. This behavioral data helps search engines understand that the page is valuable.

Hard-to-read pages are more likely to cause people to drop out. If visitors return directly to search results, this can be a negative signal. It could be that people find your site poorly readable and difficult to use, or that they just can’t quickly find what they’re looking for.

AI models often select text snippets that are clearly worded and complete for inclusion in search results. Well-readable content increases the likelihood that your text will be included in a summary or AI-generated answer.

Readability thus influences metrics and thus indirectly contributes to better positions and visibility.

Readability in an AI context

As AI models generate more and more answers in search results, readability is especially important. To that end, AI models break texts into semantic fragments. The clearer and more compact a passage is, the more likely it is to be correctly interpreted and reused.

This means optimizing texts not only for your readers, but also for AI interpretation. Write with clear headings, consistent terminology and logical paragraph structure. Structured data also contributes, but the basis is always an easy-to-read text. (2)

Practical ways to improve readability

Higher readability begins with a conscious approach to your content creation. So write for your target audience, not for yourself. Use the level of language they understand, without jargon unless it’s really necessary. Also, work with clear paragraphs. Each paragraph should address one main idea, which helps both readers and AI understand the gist. In doing so, use signal words and connecting sentences. These make the logical structure of your text clearer. This increases the likelihood that readers will read on and lowers your bounce rate.

By applying these principles consistently, you not only improve the reading experience, but also your impact on SEO.

Higher engagement through better readability

A large e-commerce party in the home furnishings industry suffered from a high bounce rate for years. Their content was informative, but too technical and elaborate. We rewrote key pages with shorter sentences, clear headlines and visual structure. Within three months, average time on page increased 42%, and internal clicks doubled.

What was especially noticeable: AI systems such as Google SGE began to recognize and cite the new content faster in generated search results. So readability turned out to be not only important for users, but also a signal that the content was more understandable to AI.

Measuring and improving readability

There are several tools that give an indication of readability, such as Flesch Reading Ease or the readability scores in some word processing programs. The Flesch Reading Ease measures how easy a text is to read: the higher the score (0-100), the easier the text is to understand. (3)

These scores are useful as a signal, but getting high scores is not an end in itself. The important thing is to gather feedback from your users and look for numbers in Analytics that say something about their behavior.

For example, look at where visitors drop out, which pages do have high engagement, and how your content performs on different devices. For example, readability on a PC may be different than on a phone, on which content sometimes drops out.

Combining these insights gives you a good idea of where readability can be improved.

Summary

Online readability has an increasing impact on SEO, albeit indirectly. It affects your visitors’ engagement and the likelihood of content being included in AI responses. Nowadays, good readability is an indispensable part of any content strategy.

Those who consistently invest in clear, easy-to-read texts ensure that users can read the texts properly. This also strengthens the website’s visibility and authority. Readability is thus not an “extra,” but a structural factor in sustainable SEO results.

Frequently asked questions about readability and SEO

Good readability seems like a simple concept, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. That’s why I now answer the most frequently asked questions about creating good readability.

Does Google use a readability score in its algorithm?

Google does not look directly at scores like the Flesch Reading Ease, which says something about how understandable a text is. Signals that betray poor readability, such as short time on your page, low engagement and unclear click-through behavior do influence your ranking.

What tools help measure readability?

Tools like Yoast and the Flesch Reading Ease give a good indication. Still, user behavior remains the best indicator. High interaction, such as a long time spent on your site, usually means that your text reads pleasantly.

On average, how long should sentences be for SEO?

A sentence averaging 12 to 18 words works well. Shorter sentences read more pleasantly, but too many short sentences make the text staccato, which does not read well. Alternate short and long sentences for a natural reading rhythm.

Does good readability help generate AI search results?

AI models look at how comprehensible a text is. Clear, compact texts with clear fragments that answer questions are better recognized and more likely to appear in AI-generated answers.

How does readability affect conversions?

Higher readability results in fewer dropouts, more trust and a better user experience. These are three factors that directly contribute to a growth in your conversions.