Yoast Readability Score?

michaelsmith77

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Hey,

I've just written my first article for my site and I've got the following scores from yoast on readability:

15.2% of the sentences contain a transition word or phrase, which is less than the recommended minimum of 30%.

I have tried editing my article so that it hits 30% but i just can't seem to get there. I just wondered what other people think is it really necessary to hit the correct amount of transition words and does it affect your search engine rankings?
 
I fucking hate that thing. It's a crock of shit in my opinion. Use hemingwayapp, and make sure you have no red and you're way better off for a human experience. I go as far as making sure I have no yellow either. This will put your writing at the 5-7th grade level, which is about where non-native English speaking is comfortable. I like to think of it as writing speeches, because it forces you to shorten your sentences and think about what you want to say. If you can't easily say it out loud, it's wrong..
 
I fucking hate that thing. It's a crock of shit in my opinion. Use hemingwayapp, and make sure you have no red and you're way better off for a human experience. I go as far as making sure I have no yellow either. This will put your writing at the 5-7th grade level, which is about where non-native English speaking is comfortable. I like to think of it as writing speeches, because it forces you to shorten your sentences and think about what you want to say. If you can't easily say it out loud, it's wrong..

Hemmingway app looks cool as fuck. I'm gonna buy it today - thanks boss.
 
Personally I wouldn't be too concerned about Yoasts bullshit scores.

Copy the number #1 articles and paste them into WordPress editor, see what score it gives them. I can guarantee most will be shite.
 
I use Yoast a lot and am a green light junkie, but @mickyfu and @SensualTyrannosaurus are absolutely right, there is some bullshit in their scoring. Use their stuff for the keyword-based information, and use Hemingway for the readability. I've stopped using Grammarly recently since Hemingway + Yoast covers everything I need for both readability and keywords.
 
Cheers guys for the responses that reply from mickyfu was funny as hell cause i did exactly what he said for the first result that comes up for my keyword and yoasts says there article is SHITE LOL. Am gonna try Hemingway and see how i get on. I've got green lights on all the other scores but it's just the transition words.
 
Whenever I write something I always throw it through a few apps. Hemmingway being one - Prowritingaid for larger pieces (or parts of my novel) - but no matter what, I always ask my wife or brother to read through it before it goes live.

In my opinion, for readability at least, another actual human being is best.

TAD
 
I use Yoast a lot and am a green light junkie, but @mickyfu and @SensualTyrannosaurus are absolutely right, there is some bullshit in their scoring. Use their stuff for the keyword-based information, and use Hemingway for the readability. I've stopped using Grammarly recently since Hemingway + Yoast covers everything I need for both readability and keywords.

+1 for being a green light junkie. I just love when I nail it down and all those green lights pop up for me. It's like god telling me I'm approved to make money now
 
I wouldn't think about it too much, just add a few more transition words. I love when it shows all green, but sometimes it's difficult to achieve it. And like one user said - getting another human being to read it is far better than just relying on Yoast.
 
I checked some articles from competition in #1 and they all pretty much have 60+ Flesch score lol. I was hoping some would be shit so I wouldn't focus on readability too much but can't seem to find any.

I bought Hemingwayapp, its pretty dope. Just post a paragraph at a time.
 
Like all the others said, do not look to much into the Yoast suggestions.

Hemmingway app is great, just make sure to not oversimplify your sentences and end up with a staccato reading piece. Add a couple of longer sentences, around 12-15 words to break it up. This method will allow you to better explain what you are communicating.

One tool I like to throw in the mix is https://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp This tool, like Yoast, analyzes the readability score based on Coleman Liau, Flesch Kincaid, Ari, and SMOG. It also shows you the average number of words per sentence.

As concerning the passive voice thingy that Hemmingway keeps on hitting you on the head about. Don't overthink this one to much. If I may suggest, have a look at this article. Maybe it will help to give you a bit of an insight about the whole passive vs. active voice debate: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf

After all this, the thing left to do for me is to find someone who is actually a native writer and have them check my ramblings.
 
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