A customer holding a quote or an inspection report encounters terms nobody explained. A glossary answers those privately, reaches people searching the term, and demonstrates competence, provided each entry says what it means for the customer rather than repeating a dictionary.

Who actually reads one

Three groups, and they matter in different ways.

Somebody holding a document. A quote, an inspection report, or an insurance letter using terms nobody explained. They are looking one up, right now, and they will not phone to ask because it feels like admitting ignorance.

Somebody searching the term. A person who encountered it elsewhere and typed it into a search. These are low-competition searches, because most sites explaining trade terms are national rather than local.

Your own customers mid-conversation. A page you can link to rather than explaining the same thing on every call.

Why it works for search

Terminology searches are specific, informational, and largely unclaimed by local businesses.

Somebody searching what a term means is not yet looking for a tradesperson, which means the page will not convert directly at a normal rate. What it does is establish the site as covering the subject, and bring people who return later when they need somebody.

That makes it a page to judge on visibility and standing rather than on enquiries, which is worth deciding before writing it rather than concluding afterwards that it failed.

What makes an entry useful

What it means for them, not the dictionary definition

A definition anybody could copy adds nothing. What helps is why it appears on their document, whether it is a problem, and what it typically leads to.

Whether it is serious

The actual question behind most lookups. Somebody reading an inspection report wants to know whether the term they just found means an expensive problem or a routine observation.

Answering that honestly, with the range, is the single most valuable thing a glossary entry can do.

What it typically costs to address

Where applicable. A term attached to a rough cost range answers the second question before it is asked.

Local relevance

Where a term relates to local conditions, building eras, or regional practice, saying so is what a national source cannot do.

Which terms to include

From your own correspondence rather than from an industry list.

The terms you explain on the phone repeatedly. The ones that appear on your own quotes. The ones from inspection reports customers arrive holding. The ones from insurance correspondence.

Twenty to forty entries covers most trades comfortably. A list of three hundred assembled from an industry reference serves nobody, because most of them are never searched by a customer.

The test for each: has a customer actually asked about this, or arrived confused by it.

One page or many

The structural decision, and it depends on the entries.

One page works for short entries of a paragraph each. Easier to maintain, easy to scan, and it accumulates as a single useful resource.

Individual pages suit terms with genuine depth, where somebody searching that term wants a full answer rather than a paragraph. Those are effectively articles rather than glossary entries.

A workable arrangement is one glossary page with short entries, and separate pages for the handful of terms that deserve five hundred words, linked from their entry.

What to avoid is thirty near-empty pages of one paragraph each, which is the thin-page problem in another form.

Making it usable

The anchor point is the practical one. Being able to send a customer a link that lands on the exact term is what makes the page useful in daily work rather than only in search.

Where it fits with everything else

The glossary is a reference, not a substitute for pages that answer questions.

A term deserving a real explanation gets its own page and the glossary entry links to it. A term needing a sentence stays in the glossary. Deciding which is which prevents the glossary from becoming a dumping ground for content that should have been organised.

The relationship to search is also worth understanding correctly: covering a subject thoroughly is what establishes relevance, and a glossary contributes to that by covering the vocabulary of the subject comprehensively, which is the mechanism described in why a competitor ranks for words they never use.

The version worth building first

Fifteen terms you have explained in the last month, one paragraph each, on one page, each answering whether it is serious.

That is an afternoon, it is immediately useful in your own correspondence, and it can grow whenever somebody asks about something new, which is the maintenance model that actually survives.

Frequently asked questions

Who reads a glossary page?

Somebody holding a quote or inspection report with terms nobody explained, somebody searching the term after encountering it, and your own customers when you link them to it.

What makes an entry useful?

Saying what the term means for them rather than repeating a dictionary, whether it is serious, roughly what it costs to address, and any local relevance.

Which terms should I include?

The ones you explain on the phone repeatedly, that appear on your quotes, or that customers arrive holding from inspection reports. Twenty to forty covers most trades.

Should each term have its own page?

One page with short entries for most, and separate pages for the handful deserving five hundred words. Thirty near-empty pages is the thin-page problem in another form.

Will a glossary produce enquiries?

Not directly at a normal rate, since people searching a term are not yet looking for a tradesperson. Judge it on visibility and on people returning later.

What makes it useful day to day?

Anchors on each entry, so you can send a customer a link that lands on the exact term rather than making them find it.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Explaining the same three terms on every call?

We build the glossary from your own correspondence, so you can send a link instead and get found by people searching the term.

Start a Conversation