Your About page is one of the most important pages on your site. It’s probably one of the most-visited pages. And it can be a great page to help stimulate rankings and inbound links when done right. See what information should be included as well as examples to help you rock your company’s About page.
This week I’ve got the About page on the brain. It started with influential blogger Chris Brogan’s revelation that most of his site visitors were reading his about page (of course they are!) Then Chris Lake at eConsultancy called out those with no About page whatsoever in his post 25 reasons why I’ll leave your site in 10 seconds.
When you understand how people use the online medium to gather information, you can see just how important your About page really is. Especially if you’re pursuing SEO as a major means of bringing traffic. Consider that people usually don’t know who you are when they land on your site. Can you really expect them to do business with you without getting to know you first?
Site visitors aren’t going to visit every page on your site to get the complete picture. The About page is a great place to get across the most important points you would want any prospect, customer, employee, investor or partner to know about your company. As part of optimizing a site, SEOs would do well to work with clients to rock this section of the site better.
In his post About Us Information on Websites, Jakob Neilson recommends providing About information at 4 levels of detail:
- With a descriptive tagline
- 1-2 paragraphs at the top of the main About Us page that tell about the organization’s goal and main accomplishments.
- A section following the summary that elaborates on its key points and other essential facts about the organization.
- Subsidiary pages with more depth for people who want to learn more about the organization.
Details to include on your About page
A good place to start for content is answering the questions a web user might have about you. Use Who, What, Where, Why, and When to make sure you’ve covered everything relevant.
What
- What does the company do (or make)?
- What does it care about?
- What’s different about your company?
- What evidence is there that you are a trustworthy business (testimonials, memberships, awards, etc.)?
- What disclaimers or limitations should I be aware of?
Where
- Where is your head office?
- Where are your branch offices or facilities?
- Where do you do business?
- Where can your products be purchased?
- Where can I find your blog or other social pages?
Why
- Why was the company created?
- Why is it a good choice to buy from your business?
- Why would a talented employee want to work for you?
- Why are you a good partner?
Who
- Who is behind the company?
- Who does the company serve?
- Who do you partner with?
- Who are you looking to hire?
When
- When was the company founded?
- When is your business open?
- When were the major milestones reached?
How
- How does your business offer value?
- How do you serve your customers?
- How do you make your products?
- How can people at your company be reached?
Build out pages by topic
Some may feel they only need a few brief paragraphs to get the facts across. But I’m of the opinion that when doing business online, the more information you can provide about yourself and your business, the better. A new page for each major topic lets people find the information they want to see without overwhelming. In addition, these targeted pages are great for SEO.
See how Sierra Trading Post makes available multiple pages wonderfully in their new beta site design.
Where’s the personality?
Your about page is also a prime spot for your business’s unique personality to shine through. Leave the dry tone and corporate-speak to weaker competitors who feel they must resort to that.
See how SEOmoz infuses the facts with a sparkling personality.
Be specific
Details help paint the picture and create a feeling of trust. RightNow includes on its About page specific results customers achieved using its services.
Kelly Watson uses her About page to select her audience, with a very targeted About description.
In 5 Rules for Your About Page, Seth Godin urges the use of testimonials on your About page, another strong way to build credibility.
Use pictures and video
Show real images, including the faces of people who work there, your facilities, your products, etc. This helps add the necessary visual dimension to support your written word. But I’d also caution not to rely on only video. Remember you will lose those who can’t or don’t want to watch for whatever reason. If you use video, include a text version, too.
See how David Meerman Scott tells his story via video and plenty of facts. He even offers up photos for use in online media. (I would, however, recommend he break out the different types of information and writing styles on this page into multiple pages to create an About section.)
Revisit the keywords you target in this section
Once you flesh out your content more, you may find that more or even different keywords come into play for this section of your site.
Make sure people can find your About page easily
It seems strange that you might want to hide your About information, but that’s what you’re doing if you call it something whacky or put the link where people can’t find it easily. Use standard terms (like About Us, Bio, etc.) and include it in a major navigation area.
I love this site, Grandgifting, that helps grandparents find good gifts for their grandchildren. It has tons of personality, so I was disappointed when I couldn’t find an About page to show you. But then I noticed a little link from a box on the home page, so here it is. (Rhonda, please include a link to your About page more prominently—perhaps in your bottom navigation.)
Give people options from your About page
What do you want site visitors to do? Sign up for your newsletter or blog updates? Access your storefront? Apply for a job? Make sure options are available, so you don’t leave readers hanging wondering what to do next.
Be sure to keep it current
Make it a priority to revisit your company’s About page every six months or so, to make sure it’s still reflecting accurately who you are.
What about you? Any About pages you particularly like or challenges you face? Let me know below…
More about About pages:
10 Ways to Create a Better About Page for your Blog by Michael Hyatt
Smashing Magazine’s Best Practices for Effective Design of About Pages (includes 60 examples)
Good tips and examples of About page content on Squidoo
14 Comments on "Optimizing your About page content"
Hey Lisa,
Thanks for this, it is exactly what I have been thinking about lately. Depending on what you do, it can be difficult to get the mix right, but I think it is worth the effort if it helps provide valable social proof and trust.
Cheers,
Hi Shaun, that’s a good point about “depending on what you do”. The formula that works for an industrial machinery parts manufacturer may be different than that for an ecommerce gift store. It’s all about finding the right balance for your business and your customers.
Great outline. Amazing to me how many websites do About Us pages as an afterthought. Even worse how few actually use it to let their personality and the people behind them shine through.
Great checklist and examples!
good reading
and very good point to take in to consideration on a web site
This article has come at just the right time for one of my customers. They are building an ecommerce site and I’m having a hard time convincing them that an about us page will highly beneficial to them in the long run – if not sooner.
Thanks again Lisa for some great work….
Great info thank you, it’s really rough to stand out in the crowd these days, seems like everyone and anyone has a website for the products your selling.
Hi Fred, I hope you’ll be able to convince the client to put some effort into their About page. I completely understand. I’ve had clients who didn’t want to have an About page (basically remain anonymous) or only post a rehash of what their main product is on it. That’s just not the way to run a successful website!
Thanks for sharing this. In fact, I’m probably going to have to update my about page now.
having read this articles i need to change my blog’s About Page.
I know this post is about the “About Page” but your question in the 3rd paragraph- “Can you really expect them to do business with you without getting to know you first?” brought up the reasons and purpose of blogging period…
My advice for small business owners is to blog once a week. It is INCREDIBLE how much resistance shows up in regards to the business owners actually doing that. Over and over again, I tell them that adding something new to their website will help search engines “recognize” and rank their site more effectively plus it will help visitors gain a better sense of who they are and what can be done for their business.
Thank you for raising that question. Too many people think that a magic button can be pressed and their website is right there, in position #1 in the Google SERPS. It really doesn’t work that way.
Wait a minute- where is Site-Reference Newsletter’s “About” page located?
Excellent article! Thanks for the great information. I will be putting it to use on my site. I had never thought of optimizing my About Me page before and will be adding a lot of new information because of this article.
Hi Reid, yes, I was looking for Site Reference’s about page, too. Maybe I’ll talk with the powers that be to see if I can help with building that out. I noticed there’s a bit of a description on the contact page, but I’d love to see more about the site on a dedicated page, too!
So you suggest multiple pages for each major topic that should be in the About category? This is the best collection of info on how to write an effective about page. Well done. Now I need to go and re-do mine. Thank you