AEO & clarity checklist
Free readability & AEO clarity checker
Clear writing wins twice: real readers stay on the page, and AI assistants can quote you with confidence. This free tool — built by a Singapore content & SEO agency — scores your text on the Flesch Reading Ease scale, estimates the US grade level, and breaks down sentence length, complex-word share and reading time. It then runs an answer-engine-optimisation (AEO) checklist that flags exactly what to simplify so your content is more likely to be cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. Everything runs in your browser — your text is never uploaded.
How the Flesch Reading Ease score works
The score runs from 0 to 100 — the higher, the easier to read. It’s calculated from two things: average sentence length and average syllables per word. Score 60–70 is plain English readable by most adults; 30–50 is difficult, university-level prose; below 30 is very hard, dense academic or legal writing. For web content aimed at a broad audience, a score of 60+ (roughly grade 7–9) is the sweet spot — clear without being simplistic.
Why readability drives AI citations
Large language models favour content they can lift cleanly. A short, self-contained sentence that answers a question directly is far easier for an AI to quote — and attribute — than the same idea buried in a 40-word sentence stuffed with clauses and jargon. That’s the core of answer engine optimisation: write the answer first, keep sentences tight, define terms plainly, and structure content with clear headings and lists. High readability isn’t “dumbing down” — it’s making your expertise easy to extract, which is precisely what gets you cited.
Quick ways to improve your score
Split any sentence over ~25 words into two. Lead each section with a direct, one-sentence answer before you elaborate. Swap long Latinate words for short Anglo-Saxon ones (“use” not “utilise”, “help” not “facilitate”). Cut filler (“in order to” → “to”). Use active voice. Break walls of text into short paragraphs, bullet lists and tables. Re-run the checker after editing and watch the score climb — then pair it with our schema markup generator to add the structured data that helps machines understand your page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good readability score for web content?
Aim for a Flesch Reading Ease of 60 or higher, which corresponds to roughly a US grade 7–9 reading level. That’s clear enough for a broad audience while still allowing nuance. Highly technical B2B content can sit a little lower, but going below 30 risks losing readers and making it harder for AI to quote you.
Does readability affect SEO rankings?
Not as a direct ranking factor, but clearer content improves engagement signals — time on page, scroll depth, lower bounce — and makes your pages easier to feature in rich results and AI Overviews. In practice, readable content tends to rank and convert better.
How is the grade level calculated?
It uses the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level formula, which combines average sentence length and syllables per word to estimate the US school grade needed to understand the text. A grade of 8 means a typical 13–14-year-old could read it comfortably.
Is my pasted text private?
Yes. All analysis happens locally in your browser with JavaScript — nothing you paste is sent to a server or stored anywhere.
