Expert Blindness

Expert Blindness (also known as the Curse of Knowledge) is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual with deep knowledge in a specific field is unable to “unlearn” what they know and empathize with a layperson’s perspective. As a result, the expert (or brand) communicates in a way that is unintelligible to the audience, wrongly assuming that everyone shares their industry context and terminology.

In marketing and SEO, this is a silent conversion killer. Companies suffering from Expert Blindness create content that is technically perfect but invisible in Google because they use words their customers never type into the search engine.

How does Expert Blindness destroy SEO results? (Example)

The problem lies in the GAP between the “Language of the Offer” and the “Language of Demand”:

Expert Perspective (Company):
- A software vendor describes their product as: “An integrated ERP ecosystem for human capital management and payroll process optimization.”
- Result: The site ranks for phrases nobody searches for (Volume = 0).
User Perspective (Customer):
- The customer looks for a solution to a problem, typing: “software for holiday requests” or “how to calculate salaries faster.”
- Result: The customer never finds the expert’s site because Google (and NLP) sees no intent match. They go to a competitor who writes simply.

Symptoms of Expert Blindness on a website

If your Bounce Rates are high and organic traffic isn’t growing despite publishing content, check if you are making these mistakes:

Jargon over benefits: Using acronyms (API, SaaS, EBITDA) without explanation.
Skipping the basics: Assuming the user knows “why” they need the product and jumping straight to “how” it works.
Wall of text: Writing in an academic/legal style that is unapproachable for a user scanning the page (and for Google bots).

How to cure a brand of Expert Blindness?

The role of an SEO agency (like Delante) is to be the “translator” between the engineer and the customer.

Keyword Research: Hard data shows how people actually name your product. Often, the “professional name” has 10 monthly searches, while the “colloquial name” has 10,000.
“People Also Ask” Analysis: Checking Google for user questions (e.g., “is a heat pump noisy?”) instead of writing about “inverter compressor acoustics.”

Talking to Sales/Support: Salespeople hear the customer’s real language every day. This is a goldmine for blog topics.

Will simplifying language destroy my authority?

No. A true expert can explain complex things simply (like Einstein). Using difficult language is often a mask for insecurity. In its E-E-A-T guidelines, Google promotes Helpful Content, and unintelligible content is not helpful.

Does Expert Blindness apply only to text content?

No, it also applies to UX (User Experience). An expert designer might create navigation that is "logical" to them but completely unintuitive to a user who gets lost in the menu structure.

How to write for B2B, where the client is also an expert?

In B2B, there is still a human on the other side who is tired and short on time. Even engineers prefer reading specific, clear instructions over marketing fluff. In B2B, you can use terminology, but the structure must remain clear (problem-solving).