Why readability matters on a landing page
Visitors scan before they read. Short sentences and everyday words let them pick up your message on the first pass; dense, abstract copy makes them work, and many won't. Plain language isn't “dumbing down”: specialists read plain copy faster too.
The scores
- Flesch reading ease (0–100, higher is easier) is based on sentence length and syllables per word. 60–70 is plain English; most landing pages should aim for 60 or more.
- Grade level (Flesch-Kincaid) estimates the US school grade needed to follow the text. Around grade 7–9 suits most audiences.
- Average sentence length: keep it under 20 words, and break up anything over 25.
What it highlights
- Long sentences: split them, or cut words that don't add meaning.
- Possible passive voice: “It was built by our team” becomes “Our team built it.” The detector is a heuristic, so use judgement.
- Buzzwords: replace “innovative, best-in-class solutions” with what you actually do and the result it gets.
- You vs we: copy about the reader (“you get”) usually persuades better than copy about the company (“we provide”).
PageScore's full audit runs the same reading-ease, buzzword and you/we checks across your whole live page, alongside conversion, trust, SEO and speed.