Introduction
This article provides instructions on how to use the Quality Assurance Readability feature to detect the reading level of website pages.
The readability feature categorizes the difficulty of the vocabulary on a website into comprehension and school grade values. This helps website owners improve the experience for their users.
Readability methods
The method that appears is the one that the admin selected during setup.
Flesch Kincaid Readability Test (English Text)
The Flesch–Kincaid readability test is used for English text and it measures word length, number of syllables per word, and sentence length. The formula for the Flesch (FRES) test is:
206.835 - 1.015 (total words/total sentences) - 84.6 (total syllables/total words)
The resulting scores and their meaning:
| Readability Score | School Grade (United States) | Additional Information |
|---|
| 100.00–90.00 | 5th grade | Very easy to read. Easily understood by students who are generally around 11 years old. |
| 90.0–80.0 | 6th grade | Easy to read. Conversational English for consumers. |
| 80.0–70.0 | 7th grade | Fairly easy to read. |
| 70.0–60.0 | 8th & 9th grade | Plain English. Easily understood by students in these grades, who are generally 13-15 years old. |
| 60.0–50.0 | 10th to 12th grade | Fairly difficult to read, students in these grades are generally 15-18 years old. |
| 50.0–30.0 | College | Difficult to read. |
| 30.0–10.0 | College graduate | Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. |
| 10.0–0.0 | Professional | Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. |
Find out more about the Flesch Kincaid Readability test.
Errors in Flesch-Kincaid
When Web Governance is not able to generate a readability score for a page, the following error messages describe the reasons:
- Language not supported: This indicates that the language of the page is not recognized as English. The Flesch-Kincaid test only works for English language. A encourages you to change to the LIX test to generate scores for non-English pages.
- Score could not be generated: This indicates that it was not possible to generate an accurate score for the page. This is typically because either the text on a page is too short or too long, or the web crawler does not detect any text.
LIX Readability Test (Non-English Text)
The LIX method is used for foreign languages and the readability formula is as follows:
LIX = A/B + (C x 100)/A, where:
Clear language rules also affect the overall readability scores. Generally, these rules apply:
- Long Sentences: Sentences that exceed 20 words are flagged. Aim for 5% or lower total content with long sentences. The message is likely buried in complex statements and run-on sentences. A tip is to split the long sentences or use lists.
- Average Sentence Length: Aim for 10 words per sentence or fewer for optimal readability.
- Passive Language: Aim for 5% or lower total content in passive language. Active language is more direct and clear. Examples:
Active voice:
Monkeys adore bananas.
The cashier counted the money.
The dog chased the squirrel.
Passive voice:
Bananas are adored by monkeys.
The money was counted by the cashier.
The squirrel was chased by the dog.
- Readability: The ideal readability score is 60 or higher. This ensures a clear message and easy-to-follow instructional text.
Instructions
This section provides instructions on how to access the readability scores in the Quality Assurance module.
Click Quality Assurance (the checkbox icon), on the window toolbar.
The Quality Assurance page opens.
- Select Readability from the menu on the left.
Summary
- In the Readability sub-menu, select Summary.
- A bar chart shows a visual image of the number of pages in each readability difficulty level.
- A circular diagram shows the readability category that the highest percentage of pages has.
- The Readability by Score section shows the number of pages that have a readability level in each category.
On the same row as a readability score, click on the number in the Pages column.
The Pages with Score pane opens.
- The toolbar at the top provides options to:
Readability checker
Add source code exclusion
It is possible to exclude a segment of the webpage from the readability scan. For more information, visit Configure Source Code Exclusions on a Scan.
History
The History Center stores all Readability issues and details from previous scans.
Click History Center (bar graph icon), located on the top menu bar.
The History Center landing page opens.
The page contains the following layout:
Domain: In the first field, click to expand the list of domains.
- Click to select a domain from the list or switch to another domain.
Module: In the second field, click to expand the list of available modules.
- Click to select Readability from the drop-down list. The Readability page of the History Center opens.
- The top section gives information on the profile that is being used for the results shown.
- Viewing as Profile: This shows the profile that is being used. For instructions on how to add a profile, visit How to use the Performance add-on.
- Device: The type of device used.
- Measure from: Distance from the server location.
- Network speed: The speed of the network.
Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
Important: The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that when you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections inside the Performance module update accordingly.
- Graph with performance speed and date as well as a donut chart showing the average performance score.
- Scan history results: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans.
- Scan history results: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans.
- Crawled at: Date and time of scan.
- Pages crawled: Number of pages scanned.
- Readability levels: Total number of issues per readability level criteria, broken down into category icons that represent the reading grade level. For more information, visit .
Readability score report
The Report Center provides a report on past readability scores.
For more information, visit Quality Assurance Reports.
Quality Assurance Readability
Introduction
This article provides instructions on how to use the Quality Assurance Readability feature to detect the reading level of website pages.
The readability feature categorizes the difficulty of the vocabulary on a website into comprehension and school grade values. This helps website owners improve the experience for their users.
Readability methods
The method that appears is the one that the admin selected during setup.
Flesch Kincaid Readability Test (English Text)
The Flesch–Kincaid readability test is used for English text and it measures word length, number of syllables per word, and sentence length. The formula for the Flesch (FRES) test is:
206.835 - 1.015 (total words/total sentences) - 84.6 (total syllables/total words)
The resulting scores and their meaning:
| Readability Score | School Grade (United States) | Additional Information |
|---|
| 100.00–90.00 | 5th grade | Very easy to read. Easily understood by students who are generally around 11 years old. |
| 90.0–80.0 | 6th grade | Easy to read. Conversational English for consumers. |
| 80.0–70.0 | 7th grade | Fairly easy to read. |
| 70.0–60.0 | 8th & 9th grade | Plain English. Easily understood by students in these grades, who are generally 13-15 years old. |
| 60.0–50.0 | 10th to 12th grade | Fairly difficult to read, students in these grades are generally 15-18 years old. |
| 50.0–30.0 | College | Difficult to read. |
| 30.0–10.0 | College graduate | Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. |
| 10.0–0.0 | Professional | Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. |
Find out more about the Flesch Kincaid Readability test.
Errors in Flesch-Kincaid
When Web Governance is not able to generate a readability score for a page, the following error messages describe the reasons:
- Language not supported: This indicates that the language of the page is not recognized as English. The Flesch-Kincaid test only works for English language. A encourages you to change to the LIX test to generate scores for non-English pages.
- Score could not be generated: This indicates that it was not possible to generate an accurate score for the page. This is typically because either the text on a page is too short or too long, or the web crawler does not detect any text.
LIX Readability Test (Non-English Text)
The LIX method is used for foreign languages and the readability formula is as follows:
LIX = A/B + (C x 100)/A, where:
Clear language rules also affect the overall readability scores. Generally, these rules apply:
- Long Sentences: Sentences that exceed 20 words are flagged. Aim for 5% or lower total content with long sentences. The message is likely buried in complex statements and run-on sentences. A tip is to split the long sentences or use lists.
- Average Sentence Length: Aim for 10 words per sentence or fewer for optimal readability.
- Passive Language: Aim for 5% or lower total content in passive language. Active language is more direct and clear. Examples:
Active voice:
Monkeys adore bananas.
The cashier counted the money.
The dog chased the squirrel.
Passive voice:
Bananas are adored by monkeys.
The money was counted by the cashier.
The squirrel was chased by the dog.
- Readability: The ideal readability score is 60 or higher. This ensures a clear message and easy-to-follow instructional text.
Instructions
This section provides instructions on how to access the readability scores in the Quality Assurance module.
Click Quality Assurance (the checkbox icon), on the window toolbar.
The Quality Assurance page opens.
- Select Readability from the menu on the left.
Summary
- In the Readability sub-menu, select Summary.
- A bar chart shows a visual image of the number of pages in each readability difficulty level.
- A circular diagram shows the readability category that the highest percentage of pages has.
- The Readability by Score section shows the number of pages that have a readability level in each category.
On the same row as a readability score, click on the number in the Pages column.
The Pages with Score pane opens.
- The toolbar at the top provides options to:
Readability checker
Add source code exclusion
It is possible to exclude a segment of the webpage from the readability scan. For more information, visit Configure Source Code Exclusions on a Scan.
History
The History Center stores all Readability issues and details from previous scans.
Click History Center (bar graph icon), located on the top menu bar.
The History Center landing page opens.
The page contains the following layout:
Domain: In the first field, click to expand the list of domains.
- Click to select a domain from the list or switch to another domain.
Module: In the second field, click to expand the list of available modules.
- Click to select Readability from the drop-down list. The Readability page of the History Center opens.
- The top section gives information on the profile that is being used for the results shown.
- Viewing as Profile: This shows the profile that is being used. For instructions on how to add a profile, visit How to use the Performance add-on.
- Device: The type of device used.
- Measure from: Distance from the server location.
- Network speed: The speed of the network.
Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
Important: The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that when you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections inside the Performance module update accordingly.
- Graph with performance speed and date as well as a donut chart showing the average performance score.
- Scan history results: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans.
- Scan history results: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans.
- Crawled at: Date and time of scan.
- Pages crawled: Number of pages scanned.
- Readability levels: Total number of issues per readability level criteria, broken down into category icons that represent the reading grade level. For more information, visit .
Readability score report
The Report Center provides a report on past readability scores.
For more information, visit Quality Assurance Reports.
Web Governance