The Content Readability Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish

Run through this before you consider content readability actually done:

1. Match reading level to audience and intent — a technical B2B audience tolerates denser writing than a general consumer query does; there's no single universal target score.
2. Break up long paragraphs and use subheadings every 200-300 words — this affects perceived readability on screen more than sentence-level word choice does.
3. Use shorter sentences for the direct-answer parts of a page (especially anything targeting a featured snippet) and allow more complexity in supporting detail.
4. Read content aloud as a final check — awkward phrasing that scores fine on an automated readability formula is often immediately obvious out loud.
5. Double-check this after any site migration or major redesign, not just at launch.

None of these individually take long. The value is in doing all of them, every time, instead of remembering most of them most of the time.

Pair this with the generative engine optimization (GEO) checklist if you're doing a fuller pre-launch pass.

Readability & Word Counter runs through most of this automatically.

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.