Free SEO Tool · by overrank
Free Readability Checker
Your content can be technically perfect and still lose readers if it is too dense. This tool calculates 4 industry-standard readability scores (Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade, Gunning Fog, SMOG, ARI) plus identifies the specific long sentences that are dragging your readability down.
Paste text or enter a URL. We return all four scores, an audience-fit recommendation, reading time, sentence-level stats, and the top long sentences to consider splitting. Pure math — no AI, no API costs, runs instantly. Free, no signup.
✦ This is 1 of 30+ things overrank automates
Every article overrank publishes targets 8th-9th grade reading level.
So your readers actually finish what they start. Higher dwell time, lower bounce, better rankings.
No credit card · takes 60 seconds
Frequently asked questions
What is the Flesch Reading Ease score?
A 0-100 scale where higher means easier. 60-70 is plain English aimed at 8th-9th graders. Below 50 reads as difficult, above 80 as elementary. For blog and marketing content, target 60+. Technical docs can go lower (40-60). Anything below 30 is hard going.
What is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level?
Estimates the US school grade required to understand the text. Grade 8 means an average 8th grader can read it. For mass-market blog content target grade 7-9. Above grade 12 starts to lose general audiences. Above 16 is college-textbook territory.
Why do different scores disagree?
Each formula weighs different things — Flesch focuses on sentence length plus syllables per word, Gunning Fog focuses on complex words, SMOG focuses on polysyllabic words. They are roughly correlated but small differences are normal. Trust the consensus across all four, not any single one.
Should I aim for a low or high score?
For blog content, marketing copy, and email: lower grade level = better. Most people read at 8th grade level, including educated professionals. For technical documentation aimed at engineers, 10-14 is acceptable. The goal is matching your reader, not showing off vocabulary.
Does Google use readability as a ranking factor?
Not directly. But readability dramatically affects dwell time and bounce rate — and those ARE ranking signals. A grade-8 article and a grade-16 article on the same topic, the grade-8 will almost always rank higher because more people finish reading it.