Google recently launched a new advanced-search feature that allows searchers to filter their search queries by reading level. By conducting a “site:domain.com” search with the reading level annotation turned on, it is easy to determine the reading level of an entire website. Here is a screenshot of what google shows for the site with the highest reading level:
Here are links to Google queries that illustrate the ratings of the top three sites in terms of reading level from largest 100 sites:
To better compare the relative reading-levels, I merged Google’s basic, intermediate and advanced reading-level values into a single number and generated the chart below.
The range of reading levels is surprisingly large (from 3 to 61.5). The sites at the bottom of the list tend to be those where the textual content on the website is predominantly user-generated. Most corporate websites appear in the top half, and the sites that appear at the top tend to address more complex topics.
Reading Levels of the Top 100 U.S. Websites
Sorted from Highest Reading Level to Lowest
| webmd.com |  61.5 |
| wisegeek.com | 60.5 |
| linkedin.com | 60 |
| wikipedia.org | 52 |
| simplyhired.com | 49.5 |
| manta.com | 49.5 |
| reference.com | 49 |
| microsoft.com | 49 |
| careerbuilder.com | 48.5 |
| nytimes.com | 48.5 |
| fedex.com | 48.5 |
| windows.com | 48 |
| usps.com | 46.5 |
| wellsfargo.com | 45 |
| chase.com | 44.5 |
| live.com | 43.5 |
| bbc.co.uk | 42.5 |
| ups.com | 41.5 |
| whitepages.com | 41.5 |
| bankofamerica.com | 41 |
| time.com | 41 |
| hp.com | 40.5 |
| match.com | 39.5 |
| monster.com | 39 |
| washingtonpost.com | 38.5 |
| ask.com | 38.5 |
| foxnews.com | 38 |
| weatherbug.com | 38 |
| barnesandnoble.com | 38 |
| ehow.com | 37.5 |
| yellowpages.com | 37.5 |
| msn.com | 37.5 |
| suite101.com | 37 |
| cnn.com | 37 |
| comcast.com | 37 |
| google.com | 37 |
| netflix.com | 36 |
| accuweather.com | 35.5 |
| paypal.com | 34.5 |
| norton.com | 32.5 |
| shoplocal.com | 32.5 |
| legacy.com | 32.5 |
| cnet.com | 32.5 |
| adobe.com | 32 |
| wikia.com | 32 |
| local.com | 31.5 |
| huffingtonpost.com | 31.5 |
| att.com | 31 |
| examiner.com | 31 |
| craigslist.org | 30.5 |
| comcast.net | 30 |
| go.com | 30 |
| facebook.com | 30 |
| sears.com | 29 |
| answers.com | 28.5 |
| aol.com | 27.5 |
| bestbuy.com | 26.5 |
| chacha.com | 26 |
| wordpress.com | 26 |
| walmart.com | 25.5 |
| overstock.com | 25 |
| apple.com | 25 |
| imdb.com | 25 |
| amazon.com | 25 |
| pandora.com | 24.5 |
| ebay.com | 24.5 |
| target.com | 24 |
| wunderground.com | 23.5 |
| blogspot.com | 23.5 |
| thefind.com | 23 |
| weather.com | 22.5 |
| kohls.com | 22 |
| hubpages.com | 22 |
| associatedcontent.com | 21.5 |
| blogger.com | 21.5 |
| yelp.com | 20.5 |
| bizrate.com | 20.5 |
| drudgereport.com | 20 |
| godaddy.com | 20 |
| mapquest.com | 20 |
| jcpenney.com | 19.5 |
| bing.com | 18.5 |
| photobucket.com | 18 |
| twitter.com | 18 |
| people.com | 17.5 |
| about.com | 17.5 |
| yahoo.com | 17.5 |
| mtv.com | 16.5 |
| squidoo.com | 16 |
| dailymotion.com | 16 |
| tmz.com | 15.5 |
| metacafe.com | 15 |
| myspace.com | 13.5 |
| youtube.com | 12.5 |
| break.com | 8 |
| toysrus.com | 7.5 |
| hulu.com | 7 |
| flickr.com | 7 |
| tumblr.com | 6.5 |
| allrecipes.com | 3 |
Methodology: I assigned the following weightings to each percentage point shown in the google result:
- Basic: 0
- Intermediate: 0.5
- Advanced: 1
With this simple formula, a site with 100% basic content gets a reading-level of 0, a site with 100% intermediate content, gets a 50, and a site with 100% advanced content gets a 100.
Denis Grosz runs a growing network of consumer-based websites including wiseGEEK and CalorieGallery.