What to Put in Your "About Page"
Your website is among your most powerful selling tools, and the "soft sell" can work to your advantage. The About page is one of the less-discussed parts of your website but it is just as important as any squeeze page or landing page when it comes to customer trust. Having an About page is not enough -- it should be easy to read and represent you honestly. Our "About Us" page is the third most viewed page on our website, it gets more traffic than any of our "services" or "portfolio" pages. People actually care about who they are working with and they want to put a face to the name... It's just human nature. So, with that being said what should you have on your "About" page? Here is a list of things to help guide you.
Examples:
We could say to look at our "About" page... However, we want to highlight two clients that have done a good job at showing who they are. The first one is CBC Cleaning and Restoration, their "About" section not only talks about the company but also the people behind the company. In addition, they talk about how they give back, their mission, qualifications and how they continue to educate their staff. The second example is SCV Locations, although they don't have as much detail as the last example they still hit all the main points. They cover their mission, history, experience and put a face to the name. Take a look at both of these examples below.
Now let's break down the elements that they have:
Your Name
What is your actual, "introduce you" name? We are 95Visual, and the About page on our website uses our name. Giving yourself a silly title like "The Hammock King" may sound fun at first, but this makes it difficult to find you. Part of your About page's appeal is that it gives your reader a direct line into tweeting to you, emailing you, or in some other way addressing you as a human being. Not every website has the name of the person who represents the company or the company itself, but good sites do.
Picture of You
One of the most important parts of addressing you as a person is that you need to have your picture, so people know who they are addressing. Not having your picture means it is harder for your reader to imagine the person who is speaking to them, and this turns off many people. Your picture may not be the same as your LinkedIn "smiling in your finest suit" image which means it can be more casual. Just make sure the picture is more formal than a “selfie.”
Authenticity in Your Voice
Many great websites have sparkling copy written in a consistent voice -- with the exception of the About page. Often, this is where an otherwise great writer becomes either stilted and overly "corporate" sounding, or becomes overly sales-focused and somehow channels a late night infomercial speaker. Both of these are mistakes, as neither is likely your true, authentic writing voice. When your voice is consistent, your reader will begin to feel a stronger connection with you. This relationship will make the reader more likely to want to trust you with their business when the time comes. Your writing voice in your About page must be consistent and real to the point where you can read it aloud with conviction and believe it.
Good Story
Good stories help you connect with people; they show your wisdom and how you see the world. Provided the story is interesting, and you follow some basic rules of good storytelling, even rules about writing too much can be bent for this part of your About page. When you write a good story the topic can be specifically about your business, how you got started, why you do what you do, or even something from your personal life that somehow relates to what you do. No matter what your story is it should always be authentic and written to be an enjoyable read. One quick rule of thumb is to pretend you are telling this story to a friend at a bar -- if you can imagine your friend teasing you about how it is not interesting, your reader will be equally bored.
The Topic: Your Reader
Your About page would, at first, seem to be about you. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Your About page is actually about the reader, about how you help them, about connecting with them. When you connect with your reader through the About page, you have accomplished the mission at hand. If you write about yourself, you will be more likely to end up writing in a boring, "you had to be there" style that is unrelatable.
Wrapping It All Up
In Conclusion, both CBC Cleaning and SCV Locations have good "About Pages". They each tell their story in their own way and that sets them apart. If they both looked the exact same then they would blend into the rest of the internet and not stand out. At the end of the day you want your message to stand out and you want people to remember who you are.
