How I Use Readability Tests to Boost Reading Time by 44% on Blog Posts

Sharing my sure-fire methods to create content people want to read

Nov 16, 2022

No matter if you’re just in your content writing learning curve or you’ve been doing it for more than ten years, as I have. There’s one thing I bet you’re struggling with more than anything else: reading time.

You probably get frustrated when a blog post on your website has half a dozen views and just a few minutes of reading time.

There’s no automatic trade-off here. Competition is increasing in the blogosphere, opposite to readers’ attention spans. Unfortunately, your average reader will spend less than a minute reading your blog in 2022.

To make things worst. Do you know the average time spent composing a post grows by the year?

According to Orbit Media, bloggers spent an average of 2,5 hours on each post in 2014. By 2020, that time had already increased to 3 hours and 46 minutes—a 63% growth over six years.

You probably spend an hour writing a blog post your usual reader will skim through in under 30 seconds. Isn’t that a shocking discrepancy?

Therefore, you must consider the bigger picture and remember that around eight million blog posts are published daily.

I’m guessing the question on your mind right now is: “How can I make my blog stand out?”

No worries, I’ll show you how to write a great blog post and share insightful takeaways about:

The proven strategies and techniques I use to increase readership.
The best readability tests to assist you in earning more by writing less.

The ideal blog post framework

The success of your blog post is determined before you even write the first word. It is poor writing practice for writers not to plan ahead and go with the flow regarding their work.

I used to make that mistake frequently, relying only on inspiration to write my stories. In hindsight, I was following a worn-out piece of advice: write from the heart.

There’s nothing wrong with waiting for inspiration to fall from the sky. You can do it, and your story may take off. However, you will be unable to replicate that performance regularly until you become more cerebral about your craft.

Writing a successful blog post is also about numbers:

Your blog title should be between 6 to 13 words and clickbait-free;
From my experience, you should aim for blog posts that range from 5–7 minutes long (give or take);
Aim for articles that have from 1100 words to 2000 words (1447 is the magic number according to a study by Backlinko);
Using the blogging best practices outlined in this article, I have increased reading time by 44%.

I know that you probably think that you already know all of this. But are you being consistent about applying these principles?

Consistency is key to building readership. You will not see results overnight. Everything is a process. I started following this system a few months ago, and now I am being consistent about my revamped approach to blogging.

Boost reading time using storytelling techniques

We are all storytellers. Whether telling a story to our friends or writing a novel, we all need to tell stories.

So, you should write a blog post as if you’re telling a story to your best friend. But it’s not as easy as just sitting down and letting the words flow out of your fingers.

Nevertheless, you can use many tricks to make your stories more interesting, compelling, and memorable for the reader. Here is an overview of seven techniques you can use to maximize your blog post reading time.

1 . The hook

In a blog post, the first thing you write can make or break your story; it’s what hooks your reader from the start. Without it, readers will rapidly lose interest. For instance, you can present a problem or a challenge to overcome.

A good hook should be attention-grabbing, intriguing, funny, or shocking — something that makes people want to continue reading.

2. The cliffhanger

Arouse curiosity, make a promise, raise a question. All these are enticing ways to use cliffhangers on blog posts. If you are paying attention, I’ve already used a few tiny cliffhangers in this piece.

Can you spot them?

Cliffhangers help the readers feel like they are part of the story and allow them to connect with it. They are like a teaser for the next part of your blog, making people want to read more.

3. The twist

Every story needs a twist to catch the readers’ attention beyond your initial hook. Build on the unexpected: Create an unforeseen twist or turn in your blog post — something that makes people say, “wow.”

Make sure to include some tension. Something that sparks debate. You may add a question in the middle of your blog post to keep it from becoming stale and dull.

4. The reveal

The reveal is where everything comes together — where the main point of your blog is presented in the most precise way possible. This is also the time to offer any helpful advice or takeaways.

5. Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary technique that uses hints, clues, or references to future events to hint at what may happen later in the story. It can be used in your blog posts to make your writing more exciting and compelling for readers.

6. Chekhov’s gun

Chekhov’s gun is a technique created by Anton Chekhov, a Russian playwright and author. This principle states that every element in your story must be relevant. If it doesn’t have any value to the plot or theme of your story, then cut it out entirely.

7. Hemingway’s chisel

I’ve just come up with the title for this effective technique, but the point here is always to make the most of your words and be concise.

“Kill your darlings” is one of the most widespread pieces of advice for authors, and I believe it was first penned by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and made famous by Hemingway.

Your blog post should read fluently; it’s important to revise it as if you were chiseling wood to make it smoother.

The Hemingway editor will help you with this task. I use it in every blog post and aim for my stories to read between grand six and eight.

Test your blog post

Here comes the twist on this blog post. Point number 7 is all about chipping away at your story.

This probably got you thinking.

“Well, if I chisel my story down, I’m losing precious reading time because instead of a seven-minute long, I end up with a five-minute piece.”

You know what? I will take a five-minute-long with 50% reads over any long-form article, earning me under 15% full reads.

In the end, it all comes down to readability.

“How long does it take you to read your story.”

This is a question I ask every writer that starts working under my editorial wing.

Most of the time, they don’t know the answer or will say what they believe is the reading time for the post number of words.

My answer is always the same.

“Read it aloud, and I will time you.”

The reader needs to be able to read it at almost the same pace as the person who wrote the blog post and knows everything about it.

To increase reading time, we must focus on readability, even though it may seem paradoxical at first glance.

Using readability tests to boost reading time

Readability tests measure the number of years of schooling needed to understand your writing, which is why they are also known as grade-level scores.

Readability tests are a great way to measure the readability of your blog post. They can help you improve your writing, boost reading time and make your content more accessible.

I believe readability tests are the best way to ensure that your blog posts are as effective as possible is to make them as readable as possible.

And what’s more readable than something written at a Grade 6 level?

There’s nothing more exciting than a blog post that reads like an elementary school textbook.

You’ll also find out how important it is for writers to incorporate new comprehensive methods into their writing process and some tools you can use to make reading easier for your audience.

There are two main methods for conducting readability tests: The Flesch-Kincaid grade level and Gunning fog index.

Both offer quantitative and qualitative scores, which give insights into your blog post’s readability.

1. The Flesch-Kincaid system

This test, developed by Rudolf Flesch and J. Peter Kincaid, uses the Readability Ease score and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score.

This system uses an algorithm to assess how difficult it is to read a given text. The formula counts the number of words, phrases, and syllables present and uses the data to calculate its score.

In the end, the result indicates the American school grade you would need to be in to comprehend the text on the page.

Test your writing here.

2. The Gunning’s fog index

The Fog Index was created in 1944 by Robert Gunning, an American businessman.

This tool uses a different formula to determine the difficulty of reading a piece of writing — it’s based on word length, sentence length, syllables per word, and syllables per sentence — but it also gives you an idea of how long it will take readers to understand what they’re reading.

The index estimates the age of formal education the reader requires to understand the text on the first reading.

So, for example, if your text gives a score of 6, it will be easy to read for those who have completed 6th grade in the U.S. school system.

If you want your text to be understood by the general public, look for your text to have a score close to 8–10.

Test your writing here.

Concluding remarks

Readability tests are essential tools for writers. They help you ensure that your content is accessible to your audience and can be used to get a sense of how much time people will spend reading your content.

Both methods are helpful in different ways; you can use them separately or together to get an accurate readability score for your blog posts.

The importance of readability tests cannot be overstated: they provide insight into how quickly people will comprehend your writing, which affects how much time they’ll spend reading it.

By analyzing these two metrics together, you have a better insight into how to make your blog posts more readable and, by doing so, make them a lot more profitable.

A reader’s comprehension depends on many things besides their education levels, such as age, interest in the topic, and past experiences with similar content.

However, this doesn’t mean that all of your readers will be able to grasp everything you write about fully — you should always consider your audience when writing content so that it’s accessible to everyone who might want to read it.

Thus, the most important thing to remember about readability tests is that they are not a one-size-fits-all solution. You should always research which test would be best for your needs based on the type of content you’re writing and who your target audience is.

Thanks for reading this article and supporting our community of creators here on Substack. Please consider joining my journey across the blogosphere by picking up a thread from my insightful content on Medium or Vocal. Your support is highly appreciated. Till next time, cheers. - Rui

General references:

Anderson, C. (2006). “The Long Tail. Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.” New York: Hyperion.
Kelleher, T., & Miller, B. M. (2006). “Organizational blogs and the human voice: Relational strategies and relational outcomes.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). “Bloggers. A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers.” Washington: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Ouellette, G. P., and Beers, A. (2010). “A not-so-simple view of reading: how oral vocabulary and visual-word recognition complicate the story.” Reading and Writing.
Rodrigues, Bruna et al. (2020). “Developing and Validating Tests of Reading and Listening Comprehension for Fifth and Sixth Grade Students in Portugal.” Frontiers in Psychology.
Schmidt, Jan (2007) “Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages 1409–1427.
Sylverster, Ruth, & Greenidge, Wendy-lou. (2009). “Digital storytelling: extending the potential for struggling writers.” The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 284–295