Your About page is a page on a website that often gets overlooked or given very little attention. Just about every single website has one and it’s where your visitors go to learn more about you. If you want to convert visitors to users, capture opportunities to work with people, and give your regular users a deeper appreciation of what your site does, a well written About page is your chance to do this.
What do you do when you meet someone for the first time?
You introduce yourself politely and strike up a conversation as you make an effort to socialise, interact and get to know that person, sum them up and form opinions about them.
It’s the same concept when visitors arrive at your About page.
Is your About page engaging and interesting?
When people land on your About page, they are assessing, appraising, and deciding whether to stick around and get to know more, or leave your site and look for someone else who they resonate with more easily.
In other words, your reader wants to know if you are worthy of their custom and whether they can trust you. If they like what they read, you’re in with a chance.
Your About page is a powerful tool to attract and reach your target audience and you should be using it like many companies do to communicate with their visitors. Often the About page is neglected by designers and web developers alike, but it is a major page on your site and requires some serious attention.
First impressions do count!
Remember, when someone is reading your About page, they are meeting you for the first time and you have about ten seconds to make a good impression.
So you had better make sure you are interesting and different and you stand out from the others:
- tell a story about yourself that shows you are ‘human’
- show your expertise and experience, personal facts of interest
- add group photos, personal portraits and interesting details about you and your team
- have a professional video that shows your personality
- give information about your products and services in a compelling way and provide solutions to your customers’ problems before they ask
- Communicate in your own words who you are and how your potential customers can benefit from being a client
- Show them some testimonials from customers who love you
- Encourage them to look around your site with some good ‘calls to action’
- Make it easy for them to contact you via email/contact form/mailing list
These are all things that will help to build trust in your business relationships, at the same time building an emotional connection. Be friendly, warm, and personal.
Your About page is your shop window.
Make it attractive so your visitors will want to stick around long enough to you and decide if they want to do business with you.
Your About page is not a bragging page – add dimension!
Your About page is the one page on your website where you get the opportunity to build trust, authenticity, and rapport with potential customers.
It’s your chance to prove you can do all the things you say you can.
Add dimension to your About page by showing and not just telling your customers who you are.
- If you are having trouble communicating what your business is, talk to clients and friends who can give you some ideas about how they view your business and what it means to them
- Review your testimonials, they will give you some ideas of how people see your business and some good points to focus your content on
- If you get really stuck for writing about yourself or your business reach out to a content company that can help you get started
Giving your customers an insight as to who you are and how you operate as a business, will help them to understand more about your business. The more they understand and know about you, the more likely they are to take action.
Add interesting, informative information that’s easy to understand
Your About page is your chance to make an impression, it gives you the platform to fully introduce yourself in your particular niche and the opportunity to showcase your skills and expertise in that area.
What makes your business so different from the rest?
Writing in a way that clearly communicates who you are and what your business does can sometimes be challenging!
- Be informative about your business and state the facts, try to avoid the overuse of too much industry-specific jargon. Chances are your customers may not understand some or any of it
- Make sure your information is organised in a clear concise way. It needs to be easy for everyone to understand. By doing this you are demonstrating that you understand your industry well enough to explain it in easy to understand terms.
- Build a narrative around your business, tell your story
- The About page is not a place to brag, but a place to demonstrate how your business can help the customer: what’s in it for them, what solutions can you provide for their problems and why should they do business with you
- Make sure you cover all the basics about your business and include any relevant qualifications or certifications you have
Don’t overlook your About page. It’s the one opportunity to get to introduce yourself to customers and show them who you are through well-written content that tells the story of your business.
Remember: keep your content simple, show and tell, make it interesting and make it approachable. Show your customers that you are ‘human’ – this will build their trust and help to convert the customer to a phone call, inquiry or sale.
Think about your client, what do they want from you. What are their problems and how can you provide solutions. If you start with this, you can’t go wrong with your About page.
Give customers the information they need about your business so that they feel comfortable doing business with you. If you are finding it a challenge to create content for your About page, get in touch with an expert who can point you in the right direction.
Whippet Digital is an award-winning SEO and content marketing agency from New Zealand. Their focus is on high level, ethical SEO strategies and a commitment to exceptional content and performance. Over the past 10 years, HPE has worked on hundreds of projects in both Australia and New Zealand from Government projects to NGOs to businesses of all sizes to personal thought leadership projects and social media campaigns. You can contact us to have a chat about how we can help you here.
