Measuring Web Content Readability & Consistency –

Why it matters?

Fergal McGovern, CEO

A little background

measures:

Clarity &

Consistency

Let’s consider clarity

Copyright Visible Thread 2011 – Confidential and Proprietary

From: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before_after/index.cfm

‘Clear writing’ seeks to simplify written language; the result is clear

and unambiguous communication.

“When the process of freeing a vehicle that has

been stuck results in ruts or holes, the operator will

fill the rut or hole created by such activity before

removing the vehicle from the immediate area.”

OR

“If you make a hole while freeing a stuck vehicle,

you must fill the hole before you drive away.”

Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Obama signed on Oct 2010), E.O. 12866 & E.O. 12988

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/plLaw/index.cfm

How do you measure unclear content?

Clarity Measures for 9 Australian Universities

Takeaway: Very Complex content on multiple pages.

Level of long & run-on sentences very high. Passive Voice

very high. Audience will not read or engage.

A quick example

Nice Graphic Design

The learner registration process will not be

deemed to be complete until the appropriate fees

have been paid to the Awarding Body.

VS.

To register as a learner, you must pay

appropriate fees to the awarding body

…but the text is a little less

nice!

Why measure clarity?

People don’t read on the Web: they scan

− Anything that makes the text more difficult to scan impedes

communication.

People use the Web to find specific information and complete

tasks

− People use the web differently than print materials. If visitors can’t

find the information they are looking for, they quickly go elsewhere.

− Complex language puts a greater cognitive burden on your visitors.

Approachable web language builds trust

− If your competitor has web copy that makes them look approachable,

then you will look stuffy in comparison.

What about consistency?

An example challenge

Is the UAL brand consistent in content?

We created a simple dictionary

Scan results across different sections of the site

The inconsistent terms

Takeaway: Inconsistent brand name

used. Findability impacted

Actual content

With the aim of attracting a rich variety of contributions from a broad selection of people - from academia, media and practice - and utilise contributions for uploading to a newly established international repository for fashion to be housed at the London College of Fashion, University of Arts of the London.

Key content likely not findable and searchable

Your audience may be confused and may not

engage due to a mix of terminology

Your SEO keyword strategy may be diluted

Your content may not align with Brand/Corporate

Standards especially for course names and

approved/disapproved terms.

Why care about language consistency?

Worried about Clarity or Inconsistency on your site?

Drop by our stand for your free analysis

Clarity Grader is powered by:

Extras

What are prospective ‘customers’ searching for?

Each column is a university website 500 page scan with noun occurrences

This is the list of

nouns with frequency

Takeaway: Student missing entirely in 1 site. Campus

missing in 2 sites, information missing in 1.

Prospective student will not find the information they need.

Content

Planning

Content

Creation

Content

Review

Post-live

Assessment

1. Evaluate editorial quality of online content for:

i. Readability & clarity of language.

ii. Legal & regulatory requirements

iii.Adherence to brand standards.

iv.Consistency of terminology.

v. SEO & Findability.

2. Identify key targets for improvement.

3. Pinpoint the right corrective actions for each web page.

4. Assess the quality of content submitted:

i. Readability & clarity of language.

ii. Legal & regulatory requirements

iii.Adherence to corporate standard.

iv.Consistency of terminology.

v. SEO & Findability.

5. Evaluate the ROI on updated content by:

i. Comparing with other metrics of web performance.

ii. Assessing the quality of work vs. cost of contactors.

6. Plan a new cycle of content improvement.

Using Clarity Grader in your content process

Copyright VisibleThread, 2011.

Average words per sentence: 10.5

Hard Words: 2.9%

FOG Index (readability): 5.5

VS

Average words per sentence: 21.6

Hard Words: 5.11%

FOG Index (readability): 10.7