Jargon is damaging your SEO performance

By Carla Crichton, SEO Account Manager at an SEO digital agency

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. – Albert Einstein

This popular quote emphasises the importance of using clear and concise text to show that you truly know your stuff. If you land on a website in search of information and the writing style is complicated and hard to understand, you’ll probably look elsewhere.

It’s important to remember that jargon doesn’t build trust with your customers. It leaves them feeling outside of the conversation rather than part of it. Of course, you’ll have your own industry vocabulary, and that is fine to use. You just need to know the difference.

Imagine you are looking for a new fridge. You land on a white goods website, click on a product and are presented with the following:

There are many different types of gases used in refrigeration systems today, but the most commonly used are R-134a and R-438A. Refrigerants have low evaporation points, so they don’t evaporate easily into the air when they’re used in a refrigerator or air conditioner.

I bet you didn’t even read that paragraph properly. Remember, your customers skim-read just as much as you do.

Are you left wanting to know more about that fridge? Didn’t think so.

SEO vs Jargon

Your customers aren’t searching for jargon on Google, so why would you optimise for it? You certainly wouldn’t be searching for R-134a when looking for a new fridge. If you class jargon as a priority keyword in your marketing strategy, you aren’t using your resources correctly.

Similarly, jargon affects readability. Google assesses your web content and assigns a readability score. It is looking for authentic and human copywriting, free from fluff, wordiness and repetition. Its algorithm is smart enough to work out if you’ve included words just to fill space. If it doesn’t think it’s truly informative and readable, you will get penalised in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Reach out to our SEO consultants if you have any questions on ranking factors such as readability or on-page optimisation. 

Build a connection with brilliant content

When you get the content right, your whole marketing strategy falls into place. Your customers understand your messaging and are more willing to engage with your website. Snippets of the same content can be used on social media or email. Other online publications may even reference your content and include valuable backlinks to your site.

It really is a no-brainer to keep things simple. Is it time to check the content on your website and ask if it is written with the customer in mind?

If you need any help assessing your content or writing new landing pages for your website, we offer copywriting services and technical writing. Our content is written for humans and optimised for search. 

Email Extramile Digital at [email protected] or call us on +44 (0) 1785 850774.