What is jargon?
Strictly speaking, jargon is words, phrases and terms that are used by specific groups of people to describe ideas or behaviour peculiar to those groups.
While jargon can be a useful way of expressing ideas or behaviour within that group, it can also be confusing to others outside that group.
For that reason, it’s important to remember to keep the content you write for product pages and blog posts clear to help search engines understand a website’s content and make it easier for users to find it.
Aim to provide thorough, helpful information that covers relevant sub-topics, but keep it jargon-free by using clear, concise, and familiar language that’s easy for an audience to understand.
Write content that solves a problem or answers a question, and that appeals to the end user.
Sounding clever, isn’t clever
Not only can jargon make readability difficult for customers and confuse them, it can have a knock-on effect of leading to a high bounce rate and harming your websites SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
Remember that your goal is not to show how smart and knowledgeable you are, but get more people reading your content and to rank higher in search engine results.
‘If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough’ – Albert Einstien
The result you’re more likely to get by resorting to jargon or trying to sound clever is to baffle people with science or obscure terminology, With this you’ll get a high drop off rate or bounce rate because potential customers are simply losing interest and failing to follow through.
Good SEO focuses on user searches
The kind of customers typing business specific jargon into the search engine probably know exactly what they want and need, as well as who they want to buy it from.
So if you want to rank well to a broader audience, don’t use technical jargon. Stick to using simple words and plain language that’s easy for people to understand, and appropriate for the kind of audience you’re trying to attract.
If you really have to use technical terms, explain those clearly in plain language too, that your audience can understand. This includes abbreviations without adding in the full version at least the first time it’s referenced. ROI (Return on Investment) and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) are a couple of examples that might confuse some of our potential clients if we didn’t include what the abbreviation means.
Authentic Tone of Voice
With a host of AI writing tools now available, it’s become a common trend for businesses to ask the likes of ChatGPT to write everything from blogs to service pages. Not only can AI flood your copy with jargon, it can harm your authenticity. If you’re trying to earn authority on any subject you need to use copy in your own words and brand tone of voice to demonstrate you are knowledgeable and can be trusted.
What’s worse is AI is influencing human language. People have started saying things like ‘ever-evolving digital landscape’. Not only is that mouthful very artificial, it doesn’t have the impact many think it does. Instead, consider a phrase like, ‘The digital industry never stands still’. Simple, genuine words, but more impact.
Avoid internal jargon
Don’t use words specific to your organisation or industry. For example, retailers in the trade industry can have a habit of using technical phrases and product IDs that only have meaning to those working in the trade. But the average DIY (Do It Yourself) customer, makes up another large part of potential sales and won’t have a clue without a basic breakdown of the product.
It’s important to appeal to both of these customer personas but both will search differently. In fact those in the trade are less likely to need to search at all as they may have the products bookmarked or go to a trade counter to order in-person.
However, the average DIYer will in some cases be unsure what tool they need for the job so will search something like ‘tool for trimming doors’ – and a good SEO optimised page should lead them to Planers or a Jamb Saw.
Work with us
For creative copy that implements a strong SEO strategy and captivates the reader, enlist our super SEO copywriting services.