Research shows that due to a concept called processing fluency, people trust content more when it’s easy to understand.

So the easier your content is to follow, the better.

Let’s pair that with another fact:

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 87% of American adults read at a level that’s considered below basic, basic, or intermediate. Only 13% are proficient readers.

Other studies have shown that most adults in the United States read at the level of a 12-to-14-year-old.

In other words, it’s important to use simple wording.

You can see how readable your content is with the WebFX Readability Test Tool.

Just paste in your content’s URL and click “calculate readability.”

After that, you can scroll down for more detailed scores based on specific grading scales. Like the Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease and Grade Level, Gunning Fog Score, SMOG Index and more.