Foundational pillar / check skimmability
Skimmability: can a reader find the point fast?
Our writing methodology, not a Google ranking rule: we look at how the main content is broken up, by headings, lists, tables and paragraph length, and flag long walls of unbroken prose.
By Shimon Carroll, Founder, SEO for AI Agents · Last updated
What this check measures
On the main content of an English page with enough text to skim: the number of headings, the longest stretch of prose with no heading, list, table or visual break, whether any list or table exists, the share of paragraphs that run long, and how much is set in bold. Navigation, header, footer and cookie banners are left out. Pages with too little text are reported as not measured.
Why it matters
Most visitors scan before they read. A page that breaks its content under clear headings and turns sequences into lists lets a buyer find the answer they came for, and gives answer engines clean passages to quote. Bing's Webmaster Guidelines ask sites to "Use clear structure to improve comprehension" with a "Logical <H1> to <H6> heading hierarchy", and Google's helpful content guidance names "clear writing" as an example of the skill needed "to provide a satisfying experience for visitors". Neither engine publishes a skim rule or a heading count, so this is our methodology.
How we score it
A LOW finding when a single stretch of prose runs very long without a break, or when a long page has no list or table and few headings. Otherwise an info pass. The finding never goes above low and never takes the first action-plan slot while a measured defect exists. The exact thresholds are part of our methodology and are not published.
Confidence-flag rules
MEDIUM confidence. The structure is read from the HTML we crawled; a page that builds its text with scripts after load may read differently in a browser.
Common mistakes
- Adding headings that say nothing ("Overview", "More info") just to break up text.
- Turning every sentence into a bullet, which hides the reasoning that connects them.
- Putting the key answer at the end of a long section instead of under its heading.
How to fix it
Break long sections under descriptive headings that say what the section answers, turn steps and options into lists or a table, and keep paragraphs to one idea each.
Primary sources
Changelog
- · First published. Part of the richness lane writing checks. Cloned carousel and read-more blocks are counted once; short labels and buttons count as breaks.