What I think you may be missing is that the messaging on those sites has been crafted for an audience which you are not part of.

That’s not to say that every company shouldn’t be easily understood by a layperson, but there are many variables that are considered throughout the messaging process.

Maturity of industry, maturity of company, competitive standing, ideal customer demographics and firmographics and psychographics, business aspirations and goals, and so on are just a few of the elements to be considered.

Take Optimizely. If you look at past versions of their website, it was more simplistic. Now they’re targeting an enterprise customer, the website messaging has changed to reflect that.

Their messaging may also serve a purpose: to dissuade potential customers from contacting them. This is common in businesses who sell to large enterprises – generally, it’s much more efficient to disqualify potential leads than qualify them.

Again, this is not to say that every business shouldn’t be messaged to be easily understood by most people, but more often than not, you may just not be part of the target audience, and therefore the value messaging and highlighted attributes on those sites may not resonate with you.

It’s exactly the same as you might expect in consumer marketing. For example, the difference in marketing a clothing brand to a young woman and an older male. A young woman might care more about the fact that wearing certain clothes showing she is trendy and popular; an older male might care more that clothes are long-lasting, made of ethical material, and come in a range of sizes.