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There is an excellent video from Google's Matt Cutts on the question Should I focus on clarity or jargon when writing content?
The short answer is focus on clarity over jargon.
Matt explains that in most cases, having content that most people understand is way more important that having all the scientific and technical jargon about the topic you are covering. If you can't explain the topic to a novice, then the reader likely won't be able to understand your content.
Best case, start off explaining it in simple terms and get more technical as you go. But if you had to pick, it seems Matt is saying content clarity is more important over detailed technical and scientific content, in most cases.
Here is the video:
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Comments:
Adam Heaton
02/27/2014 02:41 pm
I'm not sure it's for Matt to decide what content people put on their website, as I'm sure some people would prefer to have all of the complex information available to them in one place than have to go elsewhere for that information. I agree with having it simple at the beginning and then more complex near the end, but I think that just all comes down to have you structure your content from the beginning.
Michael Martinez
02/27/2014 03:50 pm
This is the first video from Matt where I don't see that he actually helped resolve anything.
Adam Heaton
02/27/2014 04:59 pm
First? You must not have watched enough of Matt's videos, Michael!
10100111000111001010110
02/27/2014 05:25 pm
Sometimes it seems to me, that Matt Cutts selects questions to reply based on kind of the stupidity score. I respect his efforts to help intellectually mediocre people, but it looks more and more like pure populism.
Michael Martinez
02/27/2014 05:36 pm
I watch them all. They deliver the goods. They're just not the goods many marketers expect or want. This video is different. I think the goods fell off the truck as it was driving out of the gate.
Justin McGill @ Workado
02/27/2014 06:43 pm
I think this is also probably the reason why the video isn't that great of an answer. Because really, it's just whatever your visitors will find valuable. I don't really think there would be a penalty of sorts for over technical content if that's who you are trying to target.
Adam Heaton
02/28/2014 09:08 am
I'm not sure about delivering the goods, unless you mean they give you part of your parcel and you must get the other half yourself.
qpes
02/28/2014 12:44 pm
I'm a physicist and I do not agree with this. I almost find Dirac Green identity. In 1st 10 google SERPs don't have result. Such theorem cannot find to be understandable and simple. I was looking for an exact theorem and the proof. There are no shortcuts.
UK Tutoring Services - Cambodi
02/28/2014 04:24 pm
Yes. You have hit the nail on the head! I have a number of roles that I have to perform in the real world, just like the rest of us, so time is valuable. Having avidly followed SEO/Matt Cutts/Google etc for over 8 years (yes, I am somewhat behind the rest of you), I have come to the conclusion that unless you do exactly what Google wants you to do ( and I sincerely believe that they don't know in what direction they are going), you have to be a sheep. IMHO your best bet is to launch multiple one page websites. forget about links. Yes, have a couple of long term sites but just launch, launch, launch & launch - Matt Cutts? The man changes his image more times than I scratch my bollocks.
Michael Martinez
02/28/2014 07:09 pm
They are answering questions with the video, not delivering actionable business plans for people who want to make money. I take that for what it's worth.
Michael LaHatte
03/01/2014 03:10 am
Google shouldn't be telling people what they should and shouldn't post on their websites... What happened to freedom on the internet? ... Respect my Authoritah!
Gracious Store
03/03/2014 07:54 pm
It is a given that clarity is preffered over than jargons for any content that is posted on the internet. In any case the experts who undersatnd the jargon will not be using Google as source of their information. It is the novcies that use googlle to search for the information they need. If you want to talk to the experts, post your content in peer reviewed papers, if your audience is the common man, then post your content on the internet and write in the language your audience will understand.
Gracious Store
03/03/2014 07:58 pm
I'm not sure Google is dictating what people should or should not post on the internet, in my own opinion Google is correct in its response to the question