When developing an SEO campaign, typically you will want to thoroughly analyze the client’s site before any changes take place. This analysis should include a number of factors including design, usability, accessibility, etc. When looking over the site, it’s important to look it over as a typical user would (i.e. click on the links, read the articles.)
When strolling through the site, one final test that’s of great importance is the readability test. By taking a portion of the site’s copy, it is possible to determine the education necessary to thoroughly understand the text. One test I recommend is the Gunning fog index.
The Gunning fog index was developed in 1952 as a means to test a portion of writing. The test calculates its index based on average sentence length and the use of complex words. The test recommends rarely having text with an index 12 or above.
The test will give a number that represents the number of years of education necessary to the text. Using this test on your site can help increase the readability of your site. This will ultimately increase customer satisfaction and conversions.
By the way, the text you just read had a Gunning fog index of 11.75.