Quote:
Originally Posted by Arnox
The client paid me on Friday when I delivered the reviews and thanked me. This afternoon, I logged onto Skype and was told by the client that Yoast was reporting negatively with regard to my text, suggesting that it had certain issues. These issues were:
• 52.2% of sentences containing more than 20 words,
• Subheading followed by more than 300 words,
• 11.7% sentences containing more passive voice than recommended,
• Readability being 59.6 on the Flesch Reading Ease test.
I explained to the client that readability within the Yoast tool set isn't always a great way to determine whether or not a review is written well, and that things such as readability levels are mainly to ensure that text can be understood by people who are still developing (i.e. people under the age of 18). I also cited two blog posts from independent services that suggested Yoast's SEO readability guidelines had issues and shouldn't be taken as the be-all and end-all of content writing. Here is source one and here is source two.
Additionally, I went ahead and performed a small test on sites that ranked #1-#5 for a specific paysite + review as the keyword (such as 'Brazzers review'), and found that Yoast also had issues with these texts as well. Here is a screenshot that I sent to the client to confirm these results: |
I would fix the issues or refund. Here is why. I've worked with Yoast for the last 3yrs editing old blogs. While you don't think Yoast is that important, it is. The 52% of sentences over 20 words is big cause that means you have tons of run-on sentences. Just because the top 5 ranked have same issues doesn't mean it's all good.
If you went to a school that all got D's would you be proud that you graduated? Have some pride and fix issues or refund.
Also just cause the top 5 have issues means nothing because it is harder and harder for new sites to get listed so you need to cross your "t's" and dot your "i's" to get listed.