Want more website enquiries? Avoid jargon.

Across the health sector we have been attracting the attention of and obtaining record numbers of enquiries from business owners looking to replace their old websites - driven, in part, by stricter GDPR rules - but also those taking the opportunity to work on their websites in a more customer-centric fashion, whilst using less technical language on their websites. Why is this?  

 

Using technical language and jargon can be off-putting for customers coming to you from outside the medical industry. However, if you work in the sector and are offering complex services, it can be hard to avoid.  

 

Then there are the other added benefits of SEO to consider. So, when you come to create your website it can be hard to strike the right balance between using this kind of technical speak but not creating an online presence that is too daunting. 

 

That was exactly the problem facing two of our recent clients: Fourways Dental Surgery and Kingsnorth Neuro Physiotherapy. These two medical service businesses were looking at very similar issues.  

 

They offer a range of medical and therapeutic treatments that naturally involve a certain amount of complicated language and processes. But they both wanted to be able to communicate with customers in a clear and concise way, that was welcoming and easy to understand. 

 

We worked with them to help them to change the tone and language used in their content, creating a warmer and more welcoming approach that was still professional but not daunting for users, and the website interest has never been higher as people connect more easily with the businesses. 

 

 

In short, jargon is unnecessarily complicated language that is used to impress, rather than to inform. It is always advisable to leave out jargon from your content or websites, but this is not the same as useful technical language. 

 

We don’t advocate leaving out necessary technical terms. However, you need to make sure your language is clear and easy to understand.  

 

In some cases, technical language describes a process — this is fine, however, visitors might not know what ‘neuro rehabilitation physiotherapy’ is and this language choice may have just halved (or more) your potential audience. So if you simply state: ‘Helping people recover from brain and back injuries’ - instantly the website starts to connect with the visitors' needs and most likely more search queries too - immediately broadening your audience! 

 

 

This is the difference between the use of a technical term and the use of jargon. Readers complain about jargon more than any other writing fault. This is because writers don’t understand that the terms and language they use may not have any real meaning for their audience. This is a disconnect that is all too common on medical sites online and many other industries make the mistake of doing the same. 

 

Here at it’seeze Ashford when we are working on a website, we try to substitute everyday language for jargon wherever we can. Terms can be useful as shorthand within a particular industry, but when you are communicating with the general public you can risk alienating them. This was the key task that faced us when creating content for these clients. And we think we achieved it with great success.