Readability for SEO: Does Google Care About Grade Level?

Many SEO guides say content should be written at an 8th-grade level to rank. Google has never said that. This post sets out what Google's own pages say, what the one large public study found, and how to use a readability score without treating it as a ranking rule.

We have no data showing that a readability score moves search rankings, and this post does not claim it does.

What Google says

No reading-level factor is listed. Google's guide to its ranking systems describes systems for freshness, links and more. It does not mention readability or grade level.

Google asks about quality, not grade. Its page on creating helpful content asks writers to check questions such as whether the content has "any spelling or stylistic issues." It does not set a reading level.

E-E-A-T is not a direct factor either. The same page says: "While E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor." It adds that Google's systems give more weight to trusted content on health, money and safety topics.

Interaction data is used, but the details are not public. Google's explanation of ranking says: "We also use aggregated and anonymized interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries." It does not say it uses bounce rate or time on page.

AI Overviews need nothing special. Google's AI features page says of appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode: "There are no additional technical requirements."

What the data says

The largest public study we found is by Portent. It scored a large set of ranking pages with the Flesch-Kincaid formula and concluded: "There is no correlation between ranking on Google and reading level for the page."

That fits what you would expect. A page for doctors and a page for patients can both rank well for their own searches.

What the tools check

Readability scores in SEO plugins are writing feedback. They are not Google signals.

• Yoast SEO checks things such as transition words and sentence length. Its sentence check advises you to shorten when more than 25% of your sentences are over 20 words. Yoast itself says a page "will still be able to rank even if it doesn't pass all of the tests."
• Hemingway Editor shows one grade level. Its paid Plus version targets grade 9 by default.

Neither tool sets a grade that Google requires. See our page on Yoast's readability checks for more.

How to use a score for SEO work

1. Write for the reader behind the search. Someone searching "how to save for retirement" wants plain words. Someone searching a technical term expects that term on the page.
2. Look at the pages that rank now. Search your keyword, read the top results, and score a few of them. Note the date. Results change.
3. Use the score to find problems. A high grade points to long sentences and long words. Fix the ones that slow a reader down. Our guide on improving your score lists the edits that help most.
4. Keep the terms your readers use. Do not strip out the words an expert audience searches for just to lower a number.
5. Measure on your own site. If you want to know whether clearer writing helps your pages, test it and watch your own analytics.

For targets by audience, see what counts as a good readability score.

How we checked

We read the Google pages and the Portent study on 9 October 2026 and quoted them directly. An earlier version of this post cited audits and benchmarks that we could not source. They have been removed.