Notes for owners · Websites and conversion
Explaining financial jargon on your website so a first-time customer keeps reading
How to write plain-language pages on a finance website: define the term, show a worked example, and say who the product is not for, so first-time customers keep reading.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
On this page
A first-time customer keeps reading when each page defines the hard word in one plain sentence, shows one small worked example, and says who the product is not for. Feature lists and scheme names do the opposite. They show a stranger how much you know and leave them unsure what they would be signing. Write the page for someone who has never taken a loan.
What does a customer do on hitting a word they do not know?
At a counter they would say "what does that mean?" On a web page they say nothing and go back to search. "Moratorium", "reducing balance", "lock-in", "NAV", "sum assured": each is a small door closing.
Here is a scheme page as an invented gold loan office in Bhopal might first have written it:
Gold Loan Plus. Tenure 12 months. Processing fee as applicable. LTV as applicable. Bullet repayment available. Apply now.
Picture a first-time customer who has pledged gold with a neighbour twice but never with a company. They read it twice. What will they pay at the end? No idea. They close the page and ring the office near home instead, or do not ring at all. The page held the facts in words the customer does not use.
What does a good explanation have?
Four parts, in this order, for every term that matters.
| Part | What it does | Example for "flat rate" |
|---|---|---|
| The term in one sentence | Defines it with no other jargon | "A flat rate charges interest on the full amount you borrowed for the whole loan, even as you repay it." |
| A small worked example | Shows the effect in round numbers | "Illustration only: borrow ₹1,00,000 for 12 months at a flat 12 per cent a year and the interest is ₹12,000, though you are repaying the loan month by month." |
| What to look for | Tells the reader what to ask or compare | "Ask for the total amount you will repay, and what the rate would be on the reducing balance." |
| Who it is not for | Says plainly when it does not fit | "Not suited to someone who expects to repay early and wants to pay less interest for doing so." |
Check the example against your actual product, label it as an illustration, and have your compliance contact clear it.
The fourth part is the one firms leave out, and it earns the trust. A page that says when its own product is wrong for you reads like an adviser.
How does the Bhopal page read after the rewrite?
A gold loan is money lent against gold you leave with us. You get the gold back when you repay. Loan-to-value means how much money you get, as a share of what your gold is worth that day. Illustration only: if your gold is worth ₹1,00,000 that day and the share is 70 per cent, you would receive ₹70,000. The share differs between lenders and changes, so ask us for today's figure. Bullet repayment means you pay the interest only until the end date, and the whole loan amount at the end. Ask yourself whether you will have that sum on that day. This loan is wrong for you if you cannot arrange the repayment before the due date. Call us on [number] and we will talk it through.
The page is longer than before, and the compliance contact sends it back once to reword the loan-to-value line, so the rewrite needs a second round. Nothing in it is clever. A reader who has never borrowed against gold should be able to say after two minutes what happens to the gold, what they pay and when. That is the test.
Which terms do you explain first?
Not all of them. Ask your staff to note the last twenty customer questions that began "what does ... mean?". The repeats are your list. Then sort them in two groups, and put the most effort into the second.
- Terms that decide whether the customer applies: rate, fee, tenure, repayment mode.
- Terms that decide whether the customer regrets it: foreclosure, penalty, lock-in, exclusions.
A customer who understood the fee before applying has less to be angry about later. Words that only make visitors feel foolish go on a glossary page, linked from the short explanations.
How do you write the sentences?
Short, and in the customer's words first. "The amount you still owe each month" before "outstanding principal". If a term has two names, such as "premium" and "instalment", pick the one customers say and mention the other once.
Drop comfort words like "hassle-free" and "best-in-class". Leave out promises about returns, approvals or speed; they are the lines most likely to cause trouble with a regulator. Keep each page about one thing: a term, a product or a question.
Where do the disclosures go?
Beside the claim, in the same size as the text around it. If your rules require certain wording, ask your compliance contact how to place it so it can be seen. A customer who finds a charge in the small print after a friendly page may remember the page as dishonest, however correct it was. Rules differ by product and body, and they change.
How do you test it?
Show the page to someone who has never taken that product: a cousin, a shop assistant, a neighbour. Ask them to say, in their own words, what it costs and who it is for. Do not help. Wherever they hesitate, the page has a hole.
Plain language will not help if most of your visitors are existing customers checking a balance. Then the problem lies somewhere else.
Rewrite the busiest product page first
Pick the product page that draws the most visits. Write the four parts for its three hardest terms, get them cleared, and put them above the scheme details. Put a phone number beside them for the reader who still has a question. The wider picture for lenders and advisers is on the financial services hub. If you want help writing this across a whole site, see website content writing and copywriting or tell us what you need.
