Paragraph and sentence length checks

Why do I need to write short sentences and paragraphs?

Let’s take a look at the following sentence:

Although it can be a challenge to write shorter sentences, it’s really important to do so, because it makes your sentences easier to read, even if it requires a little more effort.

Now, let’s try to break this sentence up into shorter sentences:

It can be a challenge to write shorter sentences. Still, it’s really important to make an effort to do so. After all, it makes your sentences easier to read. It’ll be worth your while!

Do you notice the difference? When we break it up, it becomes a lot easier to read, right?

It increases the readability of your text

Long sentences are one of the main aspects that can make your text difficult to read. Reading long sentences requires a lot of mental effort, and it’s often unnecessary. Yoast SEO checks if your text has any sentences that are too long and shows you where they are in your text.

The same goes for paragraphs. Shorter paragraphs are easier to process. They help break down the text into bite-size chunks, which makes your text easier to read. Yoast SEO assesses the length of your paragraphs. It checks if your text has any paragraphs that are too long and it shows you where you can find them, so it’s easy for you to edit them!

It allows readers to scan your text more easily

Short and clear sentences and paragraphs also help your visitors to scan your text more easily. When scanning a text, people tend to look at headings and first sentences of every paragraph to find out what they can expect. If your paragraphs and sentences are too long, your content becomes one big blob of text. It’s difficult for people to scan such a text. Therefore, you should break up your text into easily digestible bits of content.

How to shorten your sentences and paragraphs

Yoast SEO comes with a sentence length check and a paragraph length check. You don’t have to search for those long sentences and paragraphs, as the plugin will highlight the sentences and paragraphs in your text that are too long. The only thing left for you to do is to shorten them, to make sure your text is easy to scan and read!