Yoast set the standard for readability. AISA fits it to your language and your readers

Topics: readability analysis

New in 2.0.2 · Readability

Yoast set the standard for readability. AISA fits it to your language and your readers.

From AISA 2.0.2, every post, page and product gets a readability score while you write. The formula follows the language of the text: Flesch for English, Gulpease for Italian, the index built for Italian. The thresholds follow your audience. All in the free version.

Yoast SEO facts checked on 29/09/2026 against the official yoast.com pages

Where we started

Yoast won on readability. We said so ourselves

In our AISA vs Yoast SEO comparison we said it plainly: analysis while you write was Yoast territory. Yoast taught millions of people to watch long sentences, the passive voice and subheadings. It is a great standard.

But it is one standard for many languages and every audience. A council website and a law firm do not write for the same readers. So we built the missing pieces.

Why it matters

Clear text opens your site to more people

One adult in four struggles to read

According to the OECD PIAAC 2023 survey, 26% of adults across OECD countries read at the lowest level: they understand short, simple texts, not long and tangled ones. Write hard, and for them your site does not exist.

Accessibility is not only code

WCAG asks for understandable text (success criterion 3.1.5, reading level), and the European Accessibility Act, in force since June 2025, brings accessibility into online services and shops. Contrast and alt text are not enough: how you write counts too.

AI engines prefer clarity too

ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity quote paragraphs that stand on their own: one question, one clear answer. Text that is clear for people is also easier to quote in AI answers.

The right formula

The index follows the language of the text

Flesch was built in the United States for English and counts syllables. On English text, AISA uses Flesch. On Italian text it uses Gulpease, developed in Rome in 1988 at La Sapienza University for Italian: it counts letters instead of syllables and its thresholds match the reader's schooling. AISA reads the language from the text itself, so a bilingual site gets the right formula on every page.

Yoast SEO
  • The Flesch score sits apart, in the Insights tab: it is not one of the traffic-light checks
  • No Gulpease for Italian
  • Thresholds set by Yoast, the same for every audience (passive voice: 10% of sentences)
AISA
  • The readability index is the first check of the traffic light and makes up 30% of the overall score
  • Flesch for English, Gulpease for Italian
  • Thresholds chosen for your readers, with 5 audience profiles
What's in 2.0.2

The Clarity panel, check by check

9 checks

A light for every issue

Readability index, long sentences, long paragraphs, subheadings, passive voice, transition words, repeated sentence openings, text length and sentence variety. Each check explains why it matters and what to do.

Profiles

Thresholds that fit your readers

Pick a profile for the whole site or for a single piece of content: general audience, public administration, B2B, specialist, e-commerce. The profile sets the readability target, the sentence length and how much passive voice is fine.

Rhythm

Sentence variety

Sentences all of the same length are tiring, even when they are short. AISA measures how much sentence length varies: a check the Yoast traffic light does not have.

Three editors

In the editor you already use

Gutenberg, the Classic editor and Elementor, with its own tab. The text is analysed in the browser while you type, without slowing you down or loading the server.

Content list

The Readability column

When you save, the score lands in a column of your posts, pages and products list. Sort by score and see at once where to start.

One number

The same index everywhere

The editor panel, the SEO audit and an AI assistant connected over MCP all read the same index, with the same profile threshold. No green panel and red audit on the same page.

The facts

Side by side, in the free versions

Documented features only. For Yoast: official yoast.com pages, checked on 29 September 2026. Including where Yoast is still ahead.

Yoast SEO (free)AISA 2.0.2 (free)
Analysis while you writeYesYes: Gutenberg, Classic editor and Elementor
Readability index in the traffic lightNo: Flesch sits apart, in the Insights tabYes: Flesch for English, Gulpease for Italian
Thresholds per audienceThe same for everyone5 profiles, per site or per piece of content
Sentence length varietyNoYes
Score in the content listYesYes
Sentences highlighted in the textYesNot yet: the panel shows the details of each check
Analysis languagesMany languagesEnglish and Italian
And in Premium

Split long sentences, without changing their meaning

In Premium, the “Split long sentences” button offers to break up sentences that run too long. You see before and after, and you choose what to apply. AISA splits without rewriting: it keeps your words and their order. If a sentence cannot be split cleanly, it leaves it as it is and tells you why.

No need to choose

Next to Yoast, not instead of Yoast

AISA works alongside the SEO plugin you already have: Yoast, Rank Math, SEOPress or All in One SEO. Keep your traffic light if you like it. Add the readability that fits your readers.

Writing clearly is not dumbing down: it is leaving no one behind.

Measure readability with the right formula

The readability index inside the traffic light, thresholds for your audience, three editors and one number from the editor to the audit. Free, from AISA 2.0.2.

Try it free

AISA and Yoast SEO, the comparison · The Accessibility Act is here · Accessibility, SEO and AI Vision · What is GEO

Yoast sources, checked on 29/09/2026: yoast.com/features/readability-analysis, yoast.com/features/flesch-reading-ease-score, yoast.com/help/features-per-language (the pages disagree on which languages get the Flesch score). Gulpease: Gruppo universitario linguistico pedagogico, La Sapienza University of Rome, 1988. Literacy data: OECD, Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) 2023. Third-party features may change. AISA analysis languages in 2.0.2: English and Italian.