--- title: "Quality Assurance Readability" date: "2021-09-23T11:22:09+00:00" summary: "Discover how to assess and improve your website's readability with Flesch-Kincaid and LIX tests." image: type: "page" url: "/web-governance/quality-assurance-readability" id: "aaacfffa-dafc-4622-9d72-dba232a11dfe" --- Table of contents will be added **Introduction** ---------------- This article provides instructions on how to use the Quality Assurance Readability feature to detect the reading level of website pages. The readability feature categorizes the difficulty of the vocabulary on a website into comprehension and school grade values. This helps website owners improve the experience for their users.  Readability methods ------------------- The method that appears is the one that the admin selected during setup. ### Flesch Kincaid Readability Test (English Text) The Flesch–Kincaid readability test is used for English text and it measures word length, number of syllables per word, and sentence length. The formula for the Flesch (FRES) test is: **206.835 - 1.015 (total words/total sentences) - 84.6 (total syllables/total words)** The resulting scores and their meaning: Readability Score School Grade (United States) Additional Information 100.00–90.00 5th grade Very easy to read. Easily understood by students who are generally around 11 years old. 90.0–80.0 6th grade Easy to read. Conversational English for consumers. 80.0–70.0 7th grade Fairly easy to read. 70.0–60.0 8th & 9th grade Plain English. Easily understood by students in these grades, who are generally 13-15 years old. 60.0–50.0 10th to 12th grade Fairly difficult to read, students in these grades are generally 15-18 years old. 50.0–30.0 College Difficult to read. 30.0–10.0 College graduate Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. 10.0–0.0 Professional Extremely difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. Find out more about the [Flesch Kincaid Readability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests#:~:text=The%20Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid%20readability%20tests,the%20Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid%20Grade%20Level.) test. #### Errors in Flesch-Kincaid When Web Governance  is not able to generate a readability score for a page, the following error messages describe the reasons: * Language not supported: This indicates that the language of the page is not recognized as English. The Flesch-Kincaid test only works for English language. A encourages you to change to the LIX test to generate scores for non-English pages. * Score could not be generated: This indicates that it was not possible to generate an accurate score for the page. This is typically because either the text on a page is too short or too long, or the web crawler does not detect any text. ### LIX Readability Test (Non-English Text) The **LIX** method is used for foreign languages and the readability formula is as follows: **LIX = A/B + (C x 100)/A**, where: * **A** = Number of words * **B** = Number of periods (defined by period, colon, or upper-case first letter) * **C** = Number of long words (More than 6 letters) Find out more about the [LIX readability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lix_\(readability_test\)) test. Clear language rules also affect the overall readability scores. Generally, these rules apply: ![An example of a customer clear language score. The description of the information shown is in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/ffc77a90-7b3b-45b7-a667-102944460a94/web/Mon_QA-Readability-ClearLanguageScore.png) * **Long Sentences**: Sentences that exceed 20 words are flagged. Aim for 5% or lower total content with long sentences. The message is likely buried in complex statements and run-on sentences. A tip is to split the long sentences or use lists. * **Average Sentence Length**: Aim for 10 words per sentence or fewer for optimal readability. * **Passive Language**: Aim for 5% or lower total content in passive language. Active language is more direct and clear. Examples: * **Active voice:** Monkeys adore bananas. The cashier counted the money. The dog chased the squirrel. * **Passive voice:** Bananas are adored by monkeys. The money was counted by the cashier. The squirrel was chased by the dog. * **Readability**: The ideal readability score is 60 or higher. This ensures a clear message and easy-to-follow instructional text. **Instructions** ---------------- This section provides instructions on how to access the readability scores in the Quality Assurance module. 1. Click **Quality Assurance** (the checkbox icon), on the window toolbar. ![The location of the Quality Assurance button on the domain toolbar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/a306b968-cff0-4f43-b41a-35a3fe25ea5d/web/Mon_Opt_Dashboard-QualityAssurance.png) The _Quality Assurance_ page opens. 2. Select **Readability** from the menu on the left. ### Summary 1. In the Readability sub-menu, select **Summary**. * A bar chart shows a visual image of the number of pages in each readability difficulty level. * A circular diagram shows the readability category that the highest percentage of pages has. * The _Readability by Score_ section shows the number of pages that have a readability level in each category. 2. On the same row as a readability score, click on the number in the **Pages** column. ![The location of the Pages link in the last column of the Readability by Score section.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/5ac15ab0-6087-4de5-b962-7fbd42c3737d/web/Mon_QA-ReadabilityByScoreSection-PagesLink.png) The _Pages with Score_ pane opens. 3. The toolbar at the top provides options to: * **Export**: Click to export the list. * A dialog box opens. Select your export file: * Start Export * A message informs that, "Your export is currently being generated, You will receive an email when the export is ready." To view the progress, click the avatar icon on the main toolbar and select _My Exports_, or use the provided button **Go to My Exports**. * **Search**: Click in the dialog box and type a search parameter. * The page header gives some quick help instructions and shows the percentage of pages with the selected score. The table with the results has the headers: * **Title and URL**: The page title and link to the page. * **Readability Score**: The readability score per school grade. * **Total words**: Total number of words that meet the criteria to determine the specific readability score. * **Priority**: Low, Medium, High as determined by the number of page views. * **Views**: Approximate number of page views since the last scan. * **Open page details**: On the same row as a page, click the **Page icon** to navigate to the overview of the page. This view shows the readability score as determined by the last scan. * **Redirect to page**: Click to navigate to the page URL and view the page as an external visitor. ### Readability checker 1. In the Readability sub-menu, select **Readability checker**. 2. Paste or type any text into the section provided. 3. Click **Calculate readability score** at the bottom of the section. The readability score for the text displays in the section to the right. **Add source code exclusion** ----------------------------- It is possible to exclude a segment of the webpage from the readability scan. For more information, visit [Configure Source Code Exclusions on a Scan](/node/58591). History ------- The History Center stores all Readability issues and details from previous scans. * Click **History Center** (bar graph icon), located on the top menu bar. ![The location of the History Center button on the domain menu bar.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/99c7c82b-6912-4aaa-8a27-b6e0698f2069/web/WebGov_MainToolbar-HistoryCenterButton) The _History Center_ landing page opens. ![The history center landing page. The fields are described in the document text.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/cbc1c0b8-62f0-46f4-90c7-061cd4444973/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard.png) The page contains the following layout: * **Domain**: In the first field, click to expand the list of domains. ![The Domains selection menu. Your domains appear in the drop-down list.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/dde969d2-5087-4d12-b90c-fc0f09c43b2d/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard-DomainsDropdown.png) * Click to select a domain from the list or switch to another domain. * **Module**: In the second field, click to expand the list of available modules. ![The location of the Modules selection drop-down on the History Center landing page.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/f7004dc9-afe5-4ab5-b975-a171a65bcf0b/web/Mon_Opt_HistoryCenter-Dashboard-ModulesDropdown.png) * Click to select **Readability** from the drop-down list. The _Readability_ page of the History Center opens. * The top section gives information on the profile that is being used for the results shown. * **Viewing as Profile**: This shows the profile that is being used. For instructions on how to add a profile, visit [How to use the Performance add-on](/node/61511). * **Device**: The type of device used. * **Measure from**: Distance from the server location. * **Network speed**: The speed of the network. * **Check frequency**: The frequency of the check. _**Important:**_ The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that when you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections inside the Performance module update accordingly. * Graph with performance speed and date as well as a donut chart showing the average performance score. * **Scan history results**: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans. * **Scan history results**: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans. * **Crawled at**: Date and time of scan. * **Pages crawled**: Number of pages scanned. * **Readability levels**: Total number of issues per readability level criteria, broken down into category icons that represent the reading grade level. For more information, visit [History Center](/node/58646). Readability score report ------------------------ The Report Center provides a report on past readability scores. * Readability Score Report ![webgov_reportcenter-qualityassurancereports.png](https://acquia.widen.net/content/110e4daa-0fba-47d2-b1bf-25c1395ce69a/web/WebGov_ReportCenter-QualityAssuranceReports.png) For more information, visit [Quality Assurance Reports](/node/58826).