Plain language for websites: why how you write affects who can read you

What plain language is

Plain language is writing that the reader can understand the first time they read it. It is not dumbed-down writing — it is clear, direct writing that respects the reader's time. Plain language uses common words, short sentences, and an active voice. It organises information in a logical order. It puts the most important information first.

Plain language is not the same as simple language. A complex topic can be explained in plain language. A simple topic can be written in unnecessarily convoluted prose. The test is whether the reader — without specialised knowledge of your field — can understand what you wrote without reading it twice.

For a business website, plain language is especially important. Visitors are looking for specific information — what you do, how much it costs, how to contact you — and they want it quickly. Corporate jargon, passive constructions, and buried key information are the enemies of a website that converts visitors into customers.

Who benefits from plain language

The obvious beneficiaries are people with cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities like dyslexia, or acquired brain injuries that affect reading comprehension. They make up a significant portion of the population — Statistics Canada data consistently shows that around 16 percent of Canadians have a disability, and cognitive disabilities are among the most common.

People whose first language is not English benefit substantially from plain language. Canada has a large population of newcomers and people who use English as a second or third language. Dense, idiomatic, or jargon-heavy text is harder for them to navigate.

People who are tired, distracted, or reading on a small screen while doing something else — which describes a large fraction of mobile web visitors — also benefit from plain language. Even highly educated people with no disabilities read web content more easily when it is written clearly. Plain language is not accommodation for some users; it is better writing for all users.

WCAG and plain language

WCAG 3.1 covers Readable content. At Level AA, the relevant success criterion is 3.1.4 Abbreviations — requiring that abbreviations have an expanded form accessible to users. At Level AAA, 3.1.5 Reading Level requires that content is available at a lower secondary reading level (Grade 9 or below), or that a supplemental version is available.

Level AAA requirements are not legally mandated under AODA (which requires Level AA), but the underlying principle — write for your broadest possible audience — is both accessibility best practice and good communication. The fact that WCAG addresses reading level at all signals that the words themselves are part of accessibility, not just the technical implementation.

WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.3 Unusual Words (Level AAA) requires that definitions be available for unusual words or jargon. 3.1.6 Pronunciation (Level AAA) requires pronunciation guidance for words where meaning depends on pronunciation. These are AAA targets, but again the principle is clear: technical accessibility does not substitute for content that is readable.

Plain language in Canada

The Government of Canada has had a plain language standard for federal government communications since the 1970s. The Treasury Board's guidelines on web content require federal government websites to be written in plain language, and the Canada.ca style guide is a well-regarded public resource for plain language writing in Canadian English.

For private sector businesses, plain language is not legally mandated — but it is an accessibility principle that supports AODA compliance (for Ontario businesses), and it is simply better practice. Several regulated sectors — financial services, insurance, consumer contracts — have plain language requirements in specific contexts such as product disclosures and contracts.

Quebec's Office québécois de la langue française promotes plain language as part of its mandate for clear French communication, and Quebec government communications have strong plain language standards. Businesses with significant Quebec-facing content may want to apply similar standards to their French materials.

Reading level: what to aim for

Readability formulas like Flesch-Kincaid estimate the reading level of text based on sentence length and word syllable count. The Government of Canada targets a Grade 6–8 reading level for general public content. The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) in the US — whose resources are widely used by Canadian writers — recommends aiming for Grade 8 or below for general audiences.

This does not mean every sentence should be short and every word monosyllabic. It means that on average, your text should be accessible without a post-secondary reading level. A mixture of sentence lengths and vocabulary, with a preference for common words over technical ones, typically achieves a reasonable grade level without the text sounding stilted.

For a small business website aimed at general local customers — not specialists in your field — a Grade 7–9 target is appropriate. Home page copy, service descriptions, and contact page instructions should all be at this level or below.

Sentence and paragraph length

Long sentences are harder to parse. Every additional clause that you add to a sentence — even when the sentence is grammatically correct and the meaning is clear — increases the cognitive load required to reach the main point, particularly for readers who are skimming rather than reading linearly, which is how most people read web content. (That sentence illustrates the problem.)

Aim for an average sentence length of 15–20 words. Vary length for rhythm — a mix of short punchy sentences and moderate-length ones reads better than uniformly short sentences — but be suspicious of any sentence over 30 words. If a sentence requires a re-read to parse, break it into two.

Paragraphs on web pages should be shorter than in print. Web readers scan before they read. A wall of text — five or six sentences in a paragraph — is less likely to be read than the same content broken into two or three shorter paragraphs with whitespace between them. Three sentences per paragraph is a reasonable target for web content.

Word choice

Prefer common words over formal or technical ones where meaning is equivalent. "Use" not "utilise." "Help" not "facilitate." "Start" not "commence." "About" not "regarding." These are not stylistic preferences — studies of reading comprehension consistently show that readers process common words faster and with less cognitive effort than their latinate equivalents.

Avoid jargon unless your audience is specialists who share that vocabulary. A plumber's website aimed at homeowners should not use trade terminology without explanation. An accountant's website aimed at small business owners should explain tax concepts in plain terms rather than assuming familiarity with accounting language.

Use the active voice by default. "We build websites" is active and direct. "Websites are built by our team" is passive and weak. Active voice is shorter, clearer, and puts the subject and action in their natural order. Passive voice has legitimate uses — when the actor is unknown or irrelevant — but defaulting to it is a writing habit that reduces readability.

Page structure and headings

Plain language is not just about sentence construction — it is also about how information is organised. Most web users do not read pages from top to bottom; they scan headings to find the section relevant to them, then read that section. Your headings should clearly describe the content below them, not be clever or vague.

Put the most important information first. If someone arrives on your services page, they want to know what you offer and what it costs before they want to know your company history or your philosophy. Structure pages to give visitors what they came for quickly, with supporting information following.

Use lists and bullet points for information that is naturally enumerable — a list of services, a set of steps in a process, a collection of features. A bulleted list is faster to scan than the same information buried in a paragraph. But do not force list format onto information that flows naturally as prose — a list of two items that are actually related ideas reads worse as bullets than as a sentence.

Link text

Link text is both a plain language concern and a WCAG requirement (Success Criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose). A link should describe where it goes or what it does, not just say "click here" or "read more." A screen reader user navigating by links hears only the link text — "click here" tells them nothing. "Download the 2026 price guide" tells them exactly what the link does.

Descriptive link text also benefits sighted users who are scanning a page. "Learn more about our Duncan web design services" is more useful than "Learn more" when a visitor's eye is moving across the page looking for the specific thing they want.

Testing your content

Several free tools can assess the readability of your web content. The Hemingway Editor (hemingwayapp.com) highlights long sentences, passive voice, and complex words in real time. Microsoft Word and Google Docs both include readability statistics that show Flesch-Kincaid grade level. The Readability Checker at readable.com evaluates multiple readability formulas.

The most useful test is a human one: ask someone who is not in your industry to read your home page and your services description and tell you what you do. If they cannot answer clearly, or if they had to work to understand it, your content is not plain enough. The target audience for your writing is not your industry colleagues — it is your customers.