Readability
Silktide measures how easy your written content is to understand, and expresses the result as a - the age at which a typical reader could comfortably follow the text. Long sentences and long words push the score up; most websites should aim for a reading age of around 13.
That target is not about writing for children. It reflects how people actually read online: quickly, partially, and often while doing something else.
Why this matters
Easier text works better for everyone. Even highly educated audiences prefer and better retain simpler writing - you want readers to feel smart, not stupid. For people with cognitive or learning disabilities, dense text is a genuine accessibility barrier, and plain-language requirements appear in many public-sector content standards.
Half of the adult population reads below the level most websites are written at. Every year of unnecessary reading age excludes real readers - and readability has also been suggested as a search ranking factor, though evidence there is mixed.
How to fix it
- Start with the pages furthest above your threshold - see Content > Readability for the worst pages.
- Shorten sentences. One idea per sentence is a good rule; anything past 25 words deserves a second look.
- Prefer familiar words: "use" over "utilize", "help" over "facilitate".
- Break up long paragraphs with headings and lists so the structure carries some of the load.
- Where complex language is genuinely required - legal terms, medical content - exclude the page or the specific sentences from this check rather than degrading the writing.
How Silktide tests this
- Determine each page's language - see how languages work.
- Extract the text people actually see, ignoring navigation, code, and hidden elements.
- Apply a readability formula calibrated for that language. Formulas estimate difficulty from measurable features - mainly sentence length and word length. Which formula applies to each language is configurable in readability settings.
- Convert the result to a reading age, averaged across the page. The same measurement can also be viewed on and education-tier scales.
Troubleshooting
A well-written page scores badly
Readability formulas measure structure, not quality. Pages listing many long proper nouns - product catalogues, staff directories, legal citations - can score high while being perfectly clear. Judge the finding against the actual page before rewriting.
The page must use complex language
Terms and conditions, regulatory text, and specialist documentation sometimes cannot be simplified. Exclude the page or the affected sentences from the check; do not chase the lowest possible score regardless of audience.
The score seems wrong for a non-English page
Check the page's resolved language on the Languages screen, which shows where the value came from - see how languages work. A readability formula applied to the wrong language produces meaningless results.