The Hidden Cost of Overcomplicating Your Message

This sounds clever. But you have lost me.

We see this a lot.

Websites full of industry language, acronyms, and carefully crafted phrases that make sense internally, but not to the people they are meant to help.

Complex language often hides simple value.

Teams know what they do. They live it every day. But when that thinking is translated directly onto a website, clarity is often the first thing lost.

This is right up there with not having a clear call to action. No obvious next step. No clear buy or contact button.

A significant part of our early work with clients focuses on simplifying their story. In workshops and discovery sessions, we spend time stripping things back. The clearer and simpler this is expressed, the stronger everything else becomes.

When the message is clear:

• People understand faster
• Trust builds more quickly
• Conversion rates increase
• Enquiries and sales improve

A few practical ways to spot when clever has gone too far.

• If it needs explaining, it is not clear enough
• If users hesitate, the message is doing too much
• If acronyms are needed, clarity is probably missing
• If the call to action is unclear, nothing else matters

We often use the blink test.

1. Show someone the site for five seconds.
2. Close the laptop.
3. Can they tell you what problem you solve?

It is a useful test for every page, every journey, every message.