I was talking earlier today with the client I mentioned in the post called "The Call to Action" and in "Your Website is Not a Piece of Paper." We've fixed his website up since I wrote those posts. It's far better than it was before, and in fact he's ready for another round of optimization, for a new and narrower group of keywords.
This is a great idea. But as I was talking with him, I had to think about vocabulary. This guy's website specializes in animal tissue and blood for research. We're working on terms like "mouse albumin," "tyrosine hydroxylase," and "tissue homogenates."
I have another client who specializes in transporting chemicals. We've been working on terms like "Ammonium potassium thiosulphate" and "acetone" (and you might be surprised how much there is on YouTube for that term).
And yet just yesterday I was trying to work with a client to get rid of phrases like "empowers operational continuity." And just this morning I was working with a client to change things like "public facilities hygiene management" to "We clean restrooms."
These are all questions of vocabulary. And all questions of vocabulary come down to what your audience is really used to and using. The picture above, for example, is for me a picture of Icarus.
I'm aware that there are huge swathes of humanity to whom that word means nothing.
So, if I'm going to write web content to go with that picture, how do I decide whether to use the name "Icarus" or to write something like "There is a Greek story about a boy who made himself a pair of wings..."?
You just have to know your audience. If I'm the kind of person who needs to buy some rabbit complement, then I probably use that term. "Hey, guys!" I shout down the hall to my colleagues in the next lab, "I'm gonna order some rabbit complement. Do you need any glutamate receptor antibodies while I'm at it? How are you for anti-sera?"
But if I need someone to clean the toilets at my restaurant, I probably don't say, "You know, we really need a public facilities hygiene management expert." I probably say, "We need someone to clean the restrooms." And when I go to Google in search of some temporary tech guys to help me through a staffing change, I'm sure not going to type in "empowers operational continuity."
There are fields in which the experts who supply the stuff use different terminology from the people who actually buy the stuff. If your field is one of these, clean the jargon out of your website. You'll be glad you did.
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5 comments:
I witnessed the most hilarious conversation about language and jargon.
It involved the word 'grip' though. As in "That's a grip of enchiladas."
It's surprising how often we use specialized language without realizing it. At least in situations where we are talking with people in the physical world, we can notice that they're confused and adjust what we've said.
On your website, you just lose visitors without realizing why -- or don't get them in the first place, since what you've written is so far from what they search for.
I love this article and glad I found your website.
I'm currently working on a website that talks about stained concrete services targeted to regular home owners that don't use words like "micro troweling" and "acrylic chip sealing." Getting some clients to understand they can't use their industry insider language if they want to drive leads to their site is a difficult proposition when site owners want more control of their content, yet want you to improve their traffic. And when I see the word "leverage" I want to puke!
SEO is definitely a writers role. I'm about to break out old composition theory books to reeducate myself on the writing conference. Not so much from a teacher/student perspective, but from a writer/business owner perspective.
Thank you. And I agree that some clients are certainly their own worst enemies. SEO writing is a specialized skill, and not all business owners realize that. There's a reason I write websites instead of micro troweling (whatever that may be) and there's a reason your clients should stick to their micro troweling and let you advise them on their content.
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