Rank Math includes a number of content analysis tests, and one among them is to check for the presence of long paragraphs. In case if it finds any such long paragraph, you’ll fail the test, and you’ll see a message like this.
So in this knowledgebase article, we’ll walk you through how to find and fix the long paragraph tests in Rank Math.
Why Rank Math Checks for Long Paragraph?
If your page includes large blocks of content, then it makes it really hard for your readers to read through them. This offers an unpleasant experience for the readers, and they would eventually leave your page and look for an alternative search result.
Readers usually look at the headings of the content and then skim through the paragraphs. Having smaller paragraphs and preferably well-formatted makes it easier for readers to skim through your content and, in turn, offers a rich experience.
On the whole, having smaller paragraphs allow readers to engage with your content and helps you to retain them for a longer duration on your website.
How to Find & Fix Long Paragraphs?
Since there isn’t a hard and fast word count limit to distinguish small and large paragraphs, as a rule-of-thumb, Rank Math considers long paragraphs to have over 120 words and looks for them.
As of now, we don’t have a feature to point out exactly which paragraph throws this error, so you would have to manually look for paragraphs longer than 120 words to see which ones are causing this error.
Alternatively, you can also make use of this chrome extension to quickly check the word count of your paragraphs without leaving the WordPress Editor. To check the word count of a paragraph, at first, select a paragraph and then right-click your mouse. From the list of options, choose Word Counter Plus.
Now in the popup that appears on the screen, you will find the word count of the paragraph. If the word count of the paragraph is longer than 120 words, then you need to break it down into shorter paragraphs to pass this test.
Since it’s not feasible to check each and every paragraph in your content this way, we recommend you to start from the paragraph that looks longer for you and as you split long paragraphs, take our content analysis test as a cue to see if you’ve fixed all the long paragraphs.
Once you’ve split long paragraphs and passed this test, you’ll see a message like this.
And, that’s it! We hope the article helped you identify long paragraphs in your content and pass this test. If you still have absolutely any questions, please feel free to reach our support team directly from here, and we’re always here to help.