Optimize website: Understand at a glance what the company stands for (examples DAX 40 companies).

Do you know this: you call up a website and have no idea what the company actually stands for? Clear content is an essential building block for successful Website content. Clarity provides in the Content marketing not only provides a better user experience, but also increases the trustworthiness of the company.

Target: Clarity

Clarity is a trust building block that pays into the company's aura. This affects companies of all sizes. It may be the doctor's website where I can't see if the doctor even has the expertise for my condition. Or use the methods I swear by. Or the DAX company whose shares I might want to buy. And what does the company do?

Clarity is an indispensable prerequisite for trust in the provider, with whom I have not yet had any personal contact. Without clarity in communication, establishing a trustworthy connection doesn't work. And I'm off the website again very quickly.

It's also no wonder that the average time spent on websites is extremely short. Often only a few seconds. This is often not because the user recognizes that he is at the wrong company. Often, they simply don't recognize that they are with the right company. Communication is diffuse. The user quickly leaves again.

A key goal for website content must therefore be to communicate the essential content very clearly and quickly. And what could be more essential than the question of what the company stands for, what products and services it stands for, and perhaps one or two other important positioning points?

Positive and negative examples from the DAX 40

In small and medium-sized companies, I see time and again that the content is not clear. Texts here are often not written by professionals. It is therefore not surprising that there is potential for optimization.

It should be different for the most important German companies, which are grouped together in the DAX40. However, large companies in particular like to believe that everyone knows what the company stands for anyway. But this is a gross misjudgement. Let's take the example of the potential shareholder. An important target group that no DAX company wants to leave out so easily. But initially he has no idea what Symrise, Sartorius, Qiagen or Vonovia actually stand for (yes, they are among the most important German companies). And even at Siemens or Mercedes-Benz, it's not so easy to say off the top of one's head which products and services are current.

The Mercedes-Benz Group does it very well. The two concise sentences get to the heart of the matter. Otherwise, no frills. Everything else follows on the subpages. This is what clarity looks like. Why the annual report is teased with an English headline, however, remains an open question.

The Vonovia also quickly gets to the point.

And just as good is the entry at Continental. You would think that this should always be the case. But unfortunately this is not the case.

At Sartorius (also for Qiagen) it fails because the functionality to switch the content to the German language does not work. This is embarrassing for a DAX 40 company.

But is BASF really only working on climate protection, electromobility and the circular economy? There is nothing else to be found on the homepage.

And whoever wants to make it according to the view of the homepage of Symrise manages to tell me what the company actually does gets 100 points
"Our corporate strategy: sustainable action along the entire value chain" - Aha.
"We assume social responsibility, create forward-looking technologies and rely on processes that conserve resources" - Clear now?
"Discover exciting stories from the world of fragrance, taste, care and nutrition on our blog" - after all. That at least roughly makes it clear in which area the company belongs. But do you now know what it does exactly? I don't.

It starts with the brand

Actually, it is quite simple. The brand should reflect the characteristics of the company. And show as clearly as possible what the company stands for. The renaming of Daimler AG to Mercedes-Benz Group is consistent and exemplary after the spin-off of Daimler Truck.

BASF's claim "We create chemistry" also leaves nothing to be desired in terms of clarity.

Quite different at Henkel: "Reshaping & enriching life. Every day." With adhesives, oral care and cleaning products? That takes a lot of imagination.

Here, every company has the opportunity to check whether its own values are adequately and appropriately reflected in the brand.

The Corporate Design of Merck does not have to please everyone. But it is innovative at all times and radiates this also for the entrepreneur.

Foreign words and corporate wording confuse

I have already mentioned that I do not consider purely English websites to be appropriate for stock exchange companies listed in Germany. But also the Denglish on many websites is often not only unnecessary, certainly not "cool" and in doubt not clearly understandable to every user.

This can be applied to all countries and languages. Of course, in B2B business, the vast majority of users are comfortable with English. However, if a country is important to you, it provides a significant plus in clarity if you also make your website available in the local language. France is a good example, where you can't expect everyone to speak English. And in China even less so.

The use of foreign words and the company's own language creations is another bad habit. This also includes abbreviations that hardly anyone outside the company understands. The marketing and Internet industry is of course a prime example. But we also strive to use the German language. You can see that this doesn't always work from the title of this paragraph, which I'm deliberately leaving as it is ;-).

I experience it very often in workshops. We collect keywords for the individual websites. The words I hear are regularly not clear until I ask. Therefore, check the words that are used in your company. And if in doubt, communicate more simply .

Well-intended design as a trap

"Form follows function." - an age-old guiding principle for design of all kinds. Unfortunately, it has always been and still is often disregarded. Design is not per se there to look good. It wraps content. On the internet texts, images, graphics and videos. Of course, in a way that is as beautiful and suitable for the company as possible.

On homepages, large stages with a slider in the immediately visible area were the order of the day for a long time. Big disadvantage: Nobody waits until the slider has run through. This means that important content that has been specially placed at the top of the slider is not seen there. Also, these sliders are often populated with news or current promotions right at the beginning. So if you have such a slider, remember to put the most important content about the company also below as a text block.

Why your search engine optimization agency / SEO does not always help

If you want to create your homepage search engine optimized, your SEO agency will surely tell you that the most important keywords must be in the h1 heading, for example. She is right.

In addition, there are further indications, especially for the homepage. This has the most chance to rank high for several good keywords as well. Therefore, you get a whole smorgasbord of words and word combinations that you should include in the text.

It is important here to think of the user or reader. Because it is only for him that you are doing all this. If the page contains all the keywords, but the users are all gone because of the resulting linguistic gibberish, no one is helped. In case of doubt, the reader has priority for search engine optimization.

6 tips for clarity in website content

1. Present the company's activity in a maximum of three sentences in the immediately visible area of the homepage
2. Avoid foreign words and company-specific wording
3. Show the core values and activities of the company with your company name, brand, corporate design and slogan
4. Use the SEO keywords only in such a way that the clarity for your users does not suffer
5. Offer your content in the main local languages for your target regions
6. Create the content concept first, and only then the design

Website Check: It doesn't have to be the cleaning lady - but it can be

The test described here used to be called the "cleaning lady test". The background to this is the idea of having someone completely unbiased check an advertising medium or website. Just give it a try.

Think about a few questions your potential customers might have. What products do you offer? How long are the delivery times? Are there local contacts? Or whatever is relevant in your industry.

And then you let people look at your website on their PC or cell phone with these questions. It can be the cleaner in the office. Or the neighbor at home. You'll be surprised at the hurdles these test subjects come up with.

Summary

Clarity is hugely important in gaining the trust of new customers. It's worth thinking about how to build your website content as simply as possible.