Your words · Readability
Your words are harder to follow than needed
Plain words are understood faster by everyone. If people have to work at it, many will give up.
- Applies to
- every page
- Typical severity
- medium
- Effect on conversions
- medium
- Effort to fix
- Takes some time
What to look for
Long sentences (around 25+ words), heavy jargon or acronyms without explanation, or passive constructions in customer-facing copy.
What good looks like
Copy uses short sentences and the words customers would use themselves.
How to fix it
Shorten long sentences, swap jargon for everyday words, and spell out any abbreviations the first time.
Based on
- Plain-English writing guidance
- Writing-for-the-web research
Related checks
Your wordsBig blocks of text are hard to skimMost people skim web pages. Long paragraphs get skipped, so your best points may never be read.Your wordsYour section headings don't tell people anythingPeople skim headings to decide what to read. Headings like 'Why us' give them nothing to go on.Your wordsYour lists are long and hard to skimLists only help people skim when each point is short and written the same way.
Does your site pass this check?
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