Should I worry about readability?

Halo friends,

This is the slowest newsletter I have typed. I am holding my one-week-old baby on the cusp of my left arm while I type with my right hand.

Talk about multi-tasking.

Plus, I had forgotten what it’s like to have a little growing suckling baby in the house. We haven’t had a proper sleep most of the week.

But I guess moments like this make it all worth it…

Back to the business of the day.

Today, we’ll be talking about readability

As a new content writer or marketer, it’s easy to get stumped up by readability scores.

And that’s OK.

Writing for a 5th grader (a kid in Primary 5 or 6 in Nigeria) sounds cool.

Plus, most of the new-fangled SEO tools all keep pushing those readability scores in our face.

But does it really matter?

Well, it depends.

If your audience finds your blog posts hard to read and understand, they won’t hang around for long. This means:

• a high bounce rate

• and readers don’t spend time on your page

All these metrics tell Google that your content isn’t great - and so you slide down the SERPs.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

While it’s important to optimize your content for a 5th grader, it depends on your audience.

If you are writing about Levi jeans, you probably need to aim for a high readability score. Why?

Because that’s a common topic that will be probably be read by a broad audience.

However, if I am writing on the connection between the quark spin, the orbital angular momentum and the proton's spin…

It can be difficult to optimize such niche topics for readability scores. Some of the terms that come with the territory will reduce your readability score to “abysmal” levels.

So what’s the lesson in all this?

Understand your audience and craft content that’s a fit for them.

But remember, writing complex topics doesn't give you a pass to write jargon. Here are a few tips to help your writing cadence if you are writing a complex topic:

• Use short sentences when you can

• Use everyday analogies to explain complex scenarios

• Read it out loud when editing

• Get a friend or fellow writer to proofread and leave notes on areas that need improvement.

In summary:

Readability scores don’t matter as much as we are made to think. Make sure to create great content that’s a fit for your audience, and you’ll be in SEO la la land.

Content tools

A content tool I discovered this week

This isn’t really a tool, more like a template for building out a content strategy culled from Gay Flashman’s amazing book on using brand journalism to write compelling B2B content.

Get the template here.

Not Enough Writers

Next Thursday, we’ll be hosting Paul Davids, founder of Literal Humans - a creative marketing agency that builds resilient growth for mission-driven brands.

Paul is a great human and one of the most empathetic humans I have met. He’ll be discussing what he looks out for when hiring writers for the content side of things.

Time is 3pm WAT.

As usual, Zoom link will be shared in the Telegram group next week.

If you haven’t signed up for Not Enough Writers, you can join us here.

P.S: We have got Ross Simmonds lined up for September. Super excited about this. I personally think Ross is the king of content distribution.

Content writing jobs (Remote/Freelance)

✅ Tech Business Writer, Corum Group | Apply here

✅ Freelance Content Writer, L2T Media | Apply here

✅ Technical Blog Writer, Blaze Meter | Apply here

✅ SEO Content Writer, Know Marketing | Apply here

✅ Freelance Content Writer, ProPR Copy | Apply here

✅ Content Writer, Sharpen | Apply here

✅ Freelance Writer, Giant Freakin Robot | Apply here

✅ SEO Content Writer, Flux Group | Apply here

✅ And here’s a Google Docs link that also includes high-paying pitching opportunities.

(Seeing that we all have been learning to pitch our skills, now it’s time to put all you have learned to practice. I’ll update the doc weekly)

All the best, folks. And please share with any of your friends/colleagues who might find this useful. 🙏🏾

My biggest takeaway this week 🚀

Spanish philosopher Baltasar Gracian on how to give advice:

"When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see."

What I’m thinking about?

“Be the witness of your thoughts”

Buddha

What’s your biggest content marketing challenge?

Reply to this email. Let me know what you’d like me to cover next.

I read every reply.

Thanks for reading this far. I am grateful!

Stay safe and sane.

I’ll be back on July 16th.

Dozie

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