Your Website Is Making Noise

Your website shouldn't make potential customers burn mental calories just to understand what you do, why they should care, and what to do next.

Here's something I've noticed while looking up contractor and service business websites:, too many make visitors work for the answer to a very simple question: What does this business actually do, and why should I care?

That's the question every visitor arrives with. And most websites make them dig for the answer.

But before we talk about why, let's define what noise actually means because it's not always what you think.

Your website is making noise when a potential customer has to burn too many mental calories figuring out what you do, why they should care, and how to take the next step. Sometimes that happens because there's too much information. Sometimes it's because there isn't enough. Sometimes it's because the information is buried under jargon, generic language, competing messages or poor visual hierarchy.

The common denominator is always the same: the visitor has to do too much of the work.

The Caveman Grunt Test.

Here's a quick test. Go to your homepage right now. Don't read anything. Just look at it for three seconds the way a first-time visitor would: someone who has never heard of your business, doesn't know what you do, and is deciding in real time whether to stay or leave.

Now ask yourself: could a caveman understand what you do? No reading required. No scrolling. No squinting at the fine print. Just a three-second glance. If the answer isn't immediately obvious, your website is making noise.

This is what Donald Miller calls the Caveman Grunt Test in Building a StoryBrand. The idea is simple: your homepage should communicate what you do so clearly and immediately that even a caveman (someone with zero context) could grunt the answer back to you: "Them build houses." "Them fix pipes." "Them design brands.”

Your visitor shouldn't need to be an expert in your industry. They shouldn't need to know your company history or understand your internal terminology. They should be able to look at the page and think: "I know what these people do. I think they can help me. Here's what I do next."

That's clarity. And clarity is something most websites don't have enough of.

Too much. Too little. Both are noise.

Spend an afternoon looking up contractor and service-business websites and you'll find two distinct problems showing up again and again.

The first is the wall. A homepage packed with paragraphs stacked on paragraphs. Company history, service lists, certifications, testimonials, mission statements, values, capabilities, and industry jargon all competing for attention at roughly the same volume, with no visual hierarchy and no breathing room.

The visitor's eyes scan, find no clear entry point, and their brain quietly decides this is going to take too much effort. They don't read the wall of text. They leave. There’s a chance you’ve encountered a website like this yourself. And if you left, there’s a chance visitors landing on your website do the same.

The second is the void. And this one is arguably worse.

One contractor website I came across had no headline in the hero section (the first thing a visitor sees when they land on your website). Just a scrolling gallery of project photos. You had to scroll before finding the actual headline buried below, which told you they were one of the most respected contractors in the state. Bold claim; I only wish it had better placement.

Another had a hero section with the company's full legal name as the headline and a Bible verse as the subheader, followed immediately by a contact-footer combo section. That was the entire homepage. No meaningful explanation of what they do. No services. No reason to stay. Just a name, a verse, and a form.

If visitors have to scroll around, search Google or make assumptions to figure out what you actually do, you've still made them burn mental calories. In both examples - one overwhelms, the other underwhelms. But both leave the visitor doing the same thing: guessing. And your customer shouldn't have to guess their way through your website.

Both create noise. Both can lose customers.

WHEN EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT, NOTHING IS MEMORABLE.

The problem with saying everything

The instinct to say everything is understandable. Business owners know their businesses inside and out. They know the services they offer, the equipment they use, the certifications they've earned and the reasons they're better than their competitors. Naturally, they want potential customers to know all of it. So, it all ends up on the website.

The result is a homepage filled with enormous blocks of text that technically explain the business but make it harder to understand. There might be 500 words where 50 would have made the point. There might be six different messages competing for attention when the visitor really needs to understand one thing.

More information doesn't necessarily create more understanding. Sometimes it creates the opposite – confusion. When everything gets equal billing, the visitor has to figure out what matters, what doesn't, and where they should look first.

When everything is important, nothing is memorable.

And then there’s jargon.

Another form of noise is language that sounds impressive to the person inside the business or industry but doesn't tell the customer very much.

"Full-service." "Solutions-driven." "Industry-leading." "Comprehensive." "State-of-the-art."

None of these phrases are inherently bad. But when every business uses the same language, they stop communicating anything meaningful. If I can remove your company name from your homepage, replace it with your competitor's and the copy still works, you probably haven't given me a reason to remember you.

Your customers aren't impressed because you know the right industry terminology. They're impressed when you make it easy for them to understand how you can actually help them.

Remember: Caveman grunts, "Them build houses." "Them fix pipes." "Them design brands.”

White space isn't wasted space.

I've seen otherwise solid business websites where almost every inch of the screen is filled with something. Text, images, buttons, icons, badges, testimonials, logos, and more text are all competing for attention. The instinct is understandable – empty space can feel like wasted space. But white space isn't empty. It gives the things that matter somewhere to breathe. A headline surrounded by space gets noticed. A short paragraph surrounded by space gets read. A call to action surrounded by space looks like something worth clicking.

When everything is shouting, nothing gets heard.

Your website doesn't need to say less because your business has less to say. It needs to say the right things at the right time. Your homepage doesn't need to unload the entire business on someone the moment they arrive. There will be plenty of opportunities further down the page or on other pages to explain your capabilities, showcase your work and establish credibility.

Your website isn't supposed to make people work.

This doesn't mean your website needs to be stripped down to three words and a button. A complex contractor may legitimately need a lot of information. A commercial buyer may want to see technical capabilities, certifications and project examples before making a decision.

The question isn't "how little can we put on the page?" It's "what does this visitor need to understand right now?" Those are very different questions. Your business may be complex. Your services may be extensive. But don't make your visitor do the work of figuring out what's important. Do that work for them.

That's ultimately what good communication does. It takes something that may be complicated on the inside and makes it easier to understand on the outside. And when you do that well, something interesting happens: your website starts feeling simpler without necessarily becoming smaller.

That's clarity. And clarity is a competitive advantage.

Your homework.

Here's what I want you to try. Fair warning: it might hurt a little.

Go through your website and cut 50% of the words. Not the important stuff. The fluff. The repetition. The sentences that sound professional but don't actually say anything. And when you're done, cut another 50%. 😂

I'm only half joking. The point isn't to make your website shorter for the sake of it. It's to force yourself to distinguish between what your customer needs to know and what you simply want them to know.

Then run the Caveman Grunt Test. Show your homepage to someone who knows nothing about your business for five seconds and take it away. Ask them what you do, who you serve, why they should care and what they think they're supposed to do next. Pay attention to where they hesitate. That's the noise.

For the business whose entire homepage is a hero section and a contact form-footer combo, you can skip the 50% exercise. You've got a different problem entirely and we should probably talk. 😂