The Blog Readability Badge Can Harm Your Website Rankings
Blog Readability Test is an online tool that analyzes the readability level of any blog or website - you type the website URL and this tool will suggest the kind of education that is required for visitors to understand your writing.
Is it any good ? Well this blog’s readability level is Genius while that of SlashDot is “Junior High Scool” so you can easily make that conclusion.
The real concerning part is that they have added a hidden link in the embed code pointing to an Online Cash Loans website - and the font size is in small so most people are likely to miss that hidden link.
The test might be fun to take the readability test but if you decide to display the badge on your site as it it is, that could prove very harmful to your site rankings in Google.
Meredith and Paul made that discovery last month itself but unfortunately, the Blog Reading Level badge still continues to get attention even from popular websites like Wired, Blorge and Mental Floss. Keep yourself away.
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Whew, close call. Thanks for the heads up. I took this silly test and was going to mention it on my blog but now I won’t. Thanks for the warning.
Yikes — I had no idea. (I wrote the Mental Floss post on this “test” that has been making the rounds lately.) I have posted an update on my post linking back to this article and warning users about the ad.
Thanks for the heads-up.
;Chris
i don’t see that much of a problem with the readability test. it’s a reflection of the way the blog is authored. a blog that’s written in simple language will not need a ‘genius’ to get it. it’s important to understand the difference between ‘readability testing’ and IQ. what i do have a huge problem with, which you have helped me solve, is the ad embedded in it. thanks for helping me get rid of it.
This testing thing is time pass activity. It rated 2 of my websites as as high school. level blog although they are static website and not th not blog.