“Yoast SEO hates my writing style!”

This is just one of the many misconceptions about the Yoast SEO readability feedback we’re happy to set straight. We’ve often been telling you to go chase those green traffic lights. The traffic lights are a key part of the Yoast SEO plugin. They serve to give intuitive feedback on your text and gamify the Yoast SEO experience.

Trying to get all the green traffic lights can be addictive, but it isn’t necessarily the best way to create great copy. Over the years, we’ve seen all kinds of misconceptions about green traffic lights on social media and in our support channels. Let’s discuss some of them to understand how to approach the traffic light feedback.

1. I have some red and orange traffic lights, so I will never rank!

Generally, the more green traffic lights, the more SEO fit your text is, as we’ve told you in other posts on this site. But not every traffic light has to be green. The traffic lights indicate strengths and weaknesses in your text. They help you easily identify some elements you could improve on. Don’t take them as gospel. They are tools, not commandments.

Also, this is most important: never try to cheat the game by tinkering with your text until your red and amber traffic lights turn green. Use the plugin feedback to your advantage, and use common sense to determine whether you can make improvements to your text. Therefore, we always advise you to write the text first, and only check the feedback once you feel the text is finished.

2. All my traffic lights are green, but I still don’t rank!

It also goes the other way around: if all your traffic lights are green, that doesn’t mean you’ll rank. First of all, green traffic lights don’t equal great text. If your text has great readability but doesn’t have good information, you won’t be the best result. Moreover, if you base your text too much on the bullets’ feedback, your text may actually even be worse than it may have been otherwise.

Don’t become a slave of the green traffic lights. Of course, it’s also perfectly possible that you’ve written a great text, but your competition is stiff, and all of them have also written great texts. Or you may have SEO issues in other areas.

3. Every post should be optimized!

Not all posts have to be optimized. You must consider whether your post will be part of your SEO strategy. Some posts will suffer if you optimize them. Others, like announcements, don’t make sense to optimize for. Consider whether your post fits your SEO strategy and consciously decide about optimizing it.

4. If I paste Hemingway into the readability analysis, all I see is red and orange, so you can’t trust the Yoast SEO feedback!

The Yoast SEO readability analysis is aimed at optimizing for online content. Hemingway (or Shakespeare or any other great literary artist, for that matter) wasn’t looking to sell pens, maintain a mom blog, or anything like that. Most online authors are not trying to write the Great American Novel, and they shouldn’t. They should write readable online content. That’s the goal, so that’s what the plugin measures.

5. Yoast SEO hates my writing style!

We don’t hate your writing style, so the Yoast SEO plugin doesn’t either. It merely provides you with readability feedback. Your writing style may not fit the guidelines for good SEO copy that is easy to understand.

Research has shown that overusing passive voice leads to worse readability. It has also shown that too many long sentences make your text difficult to read. This is especially important when it comes to online copy. We don’t think that’s a question of style. You can decide for yourself whether you agree. If you don’t, ignore the feedback at your own risk!

6. Yoast SEO wants me to oversimplify my text!

We want your text to be as clear as possible. And you should aim to write as clearly as possible. Most of you are trying to reach a broad audience. Many of you are trying to reach non-native speakers. Using simple vocab and short sentences does not equal oversimplifying your text. It’s the other way around: it opens your copy up to a broader audience. This is especially important when writing online copy.

The longer it takes your audience to grasp what you are trying to say, the bigger the chances they bounce. Attention spans are short, so cater to them. And, of course, sometimes you must use jargon in a technical text. But generally, you should keep things simple. Writing clearly and concisely is an art, not a shortcoming.

Read more: Readability ranks! »

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