cre8d design

Quick tests to check your blog isn’t putting off readers

How many times have you gone to a blog post you want to read, only to discover it’s difficult to read? You leave the site and aren’t interested in returning. I don’t want that to happen to your readers!

Here’s six quick and easy tests to check how readable your blog posts are. Does your blog pass?

#1: Colors have a AAA contrast rating

Check by pasting in one of your blog post links into here. Make sure you get three green arrows beside the blog post body section (this page will check your entire page’s design, not only the blog post text part).

#2: Font size of at least 16px

Using Chrome, select a paragraph of text in your blog post, right click and choose “Inspect”. Look for “font-size”. Look for the font size which isn’t crossed out in the list:

#3: Line height of 1.2-1.6

This is the amount of space between lines (also known as leading). Using Chrome, select a paragraph of text in your blog post, right click and choose “Inspect”. Look for “line-height”.

#4: Line length of 45-90 characters per line (including spaces)

Copy and paste a full line of text from your blog post when viewed at full browser width into here. Repeat the test on your tablet and mobile.

Research shows that 55 characters is the optimal number for maximum comprehension and reading speed on screens.

#5: Writing style of 60+ on the Flesch reading ease score

If you have Yoast’s SEO plugin already installed in WordPress, this is automatically calculated for you in the content analysis section while you write the post. Here’s an example for this article as I’m writing it:

Alternatively, you can get your score by copying and pasting your blog post into here.

A score of 60+ is said to be acceptable online. Exceptions to this criteria would be for highly specialized niches, such as a scientific research or law review blogs.

#6: Font is legible

Is your font itself making it harder for people to read your blog posts? Objectively look at yours and check. If you’re using a font like Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, Times New Roman, Open Sans, Proxima Nova, Brandon Text, etc you automatically pass. Scripted, hand-written, heavily-bolded, italicized or all capitalized fonts are not easy to read for blog posts body text.

Lots of premium WordPress themes don’t pass these tests – does yours?

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

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