One of the keys to successful web content is having pages that are easy to read and to digest.
There's a time and place for dense, meaty, thought-provoking paragraphs — but a task/information-oriented web page usually isn't it.
One of the best tools I've found for quickly and easily reviewing web pages is The Readability Test Tool.
It tells you:
- how many words and sentences you have
- how many complex words (and what percent of your text they comprise)
- the average number of words per sentence
- and provides both an approximate reading grade level, and color-coded scores for six different readability scales
Like any tool, one has to use it thoughtfully (not every circumstance will warrant all the scores being in the green) — but it can serve as a great spot check after a first draft, or when assessing pages for updating and revision.