What Is A Good Read Ratio On Medium?

Summary

The website content discusses the significance of the read ratio on Medium, factors affecting it, and strategies to optimize articles for higher engagement.

Abstract

The read ratio on Medium is a crucial metric for writers, indicating the percentage of readers who finish an article. It reflects how engaging and relevant the content is to the audience. A higher read ratio suggests that readers find the story compelling enough to read until the end. The ideal read ratio is influenced by the article's length, with a recommended reading time of 5 to 7 minutes, the source of traffic, with Medium members contributing to a higher ratio due to the platform's paywall, and the article's engagement level, which is affected by the content's relevance and focus. The average read ratio for Medium members is between 55% to 60%, while external traffic tends to yield a lower ratio of 35% to 45%. To achieve an 80% read ratio, authors are advised to write concise paragraphs, use subheadings, include images, maintain focus on the topic, and provide unique, well-researched content.

Opinions

The author believes that a good read ratio is analogous to an author's book sales, emphasizing its importance for Medium writers.
The article suggests that reader engagement is heavily influenced by the article's length, with longer articles potentially having a lower read ratio.
Traffic source is considered a significant factor, with Medium's paywall affecting non-members' ability to read beyond a certain point, thus impacting the read ratio.
The author stresses the importance of maintaining the reader's attention by avoiding long paragraphs and including images.
The article conveys that staying on topic and offering fresh insights is crucial for reader retention and achieving a high read ratio.

What is the ideal Read ratio of Medium articles? And, what is the average Read ratio on Medium?

What is the good read ratio on Medium Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

A good read ratio for a Medium writer is like a published author gets more number of books sales. Read ratio is one of the most important metrics to understand because it gives you the idea that how are the Medium members reading your article finding your story? A good read ratio means, people are reading your stories till the end while a bad read ratio means, a reader left your story in the middle.

What exactly is a read ratio on Medium?

Before we begin to investigate the average read ratio on Medium let me discuss the read ratio on Medium.

A Read ratio is shown in the percentage of the average of how many people completely read your Medium story.

If you get 100 views, then a 60% read ratio means, 60 readers, read your article completely while the rest 40 people didn’t make it to the end. I think this is the simplest and easy way to understand the read ratio on Medium.

Factors affecting Read ratio on Medium

There are some factors that are affecting the read ratio on Medium. We will discuss what are some factors that could affect your Medium read ratio.

Medium article reading time: Medium usually considers 250 Words as 1-minute reading time. A story with 1,000 words might be 4-minutes reading time. The longer the story, the read ratio will be impacted. According to the Medium, an average and the most ideal reading time of an article is between 5 to 7-minutes.

The source of the traffic: If you published a story in a popular publication and getting curated and most of the people finding your story are Medium members then you will get a good read ratio compared to other sources of traffic. The reason behind this is “Paywall” Medium gives you the ability to read three articles every month for free but if people finding your stories aren’t Medium members then they will stop read that article because of the paywall and this contributed toward getting lower read ratio on Medium.

How engaging the article is? If you are writing about Entrepreneurship and you distracted from the topic and start writing about sales patches then a reader might leave your article in the mid of the conversation. Even if you are getting traffic from Medium members but still you will receive a lower read ratio. The way the author communicates with the reader also plays a very important role in getting the read ratio.

What is an average Read ratio on Medium?

Longer stories tend to have a lower read ratio compared to shorter 4-minutes reading time stories.

A story with a reading time of 8-minutes might have a lower read ratio compared to a story with 4-minutes reading time.

An average read ratio on Medium might range from 55% to 60% for Medium members while read ratio of traffic coming from external sources might be in the range of 35% to 45%.

Writing on Medium is fun and I personally loved to write stories on Medium. There are some Medium articles of mine that are getting a very high read ratio, above 70%, while some Medium stories really don’t go along with readers.

How to optimize your article for an 80% read ratio?

Don’t write longer paragraphs: If you are writing more then 5 lines in a paragraph, this is a huge red flag that the reader might not read it because of the focus. It is easier to focus on a paragraph with three to four lines then a paragraph with 6 to 8 lines.

Divide your articles into sub-heading: If you could add sub-heading in your article it is a good way of formatting your article.

A picture is worth a thousand words: If you could use a picture instead of writing a 7-lines paragraph then it might get the reader's attention. Getting attention in today's modern era is very difficult, an average attention span is 8 seconds.

Be Focused: Your reader clicked on your article because he wanted to make a Pizza, not a hamburger. Be specific and focused on the main topic, otherwise you will lose a reader.

Don’t just repeat: If I follow you for getting marketing tips and you are repeating the same marketing tactics then I might unfollow you and will make sure I find someone who elevates my life and gives me an insightful answer. Research before writing about any topic and come up with unique ideas.

Read ratio is one of the most important metrics to keep in eye on as a Medium writer. Medium read ratio might vary from author to author because every writer has a different experience and taste of communicating with its readers.