The Real Blog Readability Test

Sure you have tried this blog readability test before. Is it a real readability test? Most of blogger said it's just for fun. But, that blog test is reported as a spam links and harmful widget. See these blog posts:

• Spam links on Blog Readability Test widget
• The Blog Readability Badge can Harm Your Website Rankings (Is PR™ important to you?).

Some of readability tests suggested by Wikipedia - Readability test:

• Readability Test
• Online Text Readability

From those pages:

Readability is the measure of how easy it is to read and comprehend a document. Readability tests were first developed in the 1920s in the United States. They are mathematical formulas, designed to determine the suitability of books for American students at a certain age, or grade level. Automating the process was intended to make it easier for tutors, librarians, and publishers to determine whether a book would be suitable for its intended audience. The formulas are based around the average words to a sentence, and the average syllables used per word. As such, they tend to reward short sentences made up of short words.

For a document to be easily understood, the writing style should be clear and simple. This involves a writing style that is direct, and familiar to the intended reader. The structure of the document should be logical, unambiguous, and avoid redundant words.

Algorithm:

• Gunning-Fox Index:
  (average_words_sentence + number_words_three_syllables_plus) * 0.4
• Flesch Reading Ease:
  206.835 - (1.015 * average_words_sentence) - (84.6 * average_syllables_word)
• Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level:
  0.39 * average_words_sentence) + (11.8 * average_syllables_word) - 15.9

Forget about the spam/scam code. Based on the result tests, I think all of them are typically the same (algorithms). Try your self.. :)