When it comes to creating or updating a website, companies not surprisingly tend to focus their time and attention on product pages and specialized landing pages. That’s good, because those areas are important. However, they often do so at the expense of other critical pages. One in particular that they often overlook is their About Us page.
While every person’s approach to researching a company is different, I tend to go immediately to the About Us page—and both my experience with clients and their customers and what you hear from web analytics experts would seem to confirm that I’m not alone. When I visit a website to buy a product, to get information, or for any reason really, my first question is, “Who are these folks?” I want to know if I can trust what they have to offer or to say. If the answer is “No,” there’s no point in navigating to a product page or anywhere else on their site. There are just too darn many other places out there where I can spend my limited time.
Are you giving your website visitors the information they need?
Here are some tips for creating an About Us page that’s clear, concise, and effective:
Get to the point
Too often, About Us pages force you to hunt through multiple paragraphs to figure out what, in a nutshell, the company does. On our 30dps About Us page, within the first couple sentences we let you know that we’ve 1) been around for decades, and 2) that (in bold text) we are “a leading inbound marketing, content marketing and custom website design firm.” If you’ve come looking for a public relations agency, you know immediately that we’re likely not the crew for you. It saves you time, and frankly, it saves us time.
Show you can meet the visitor’s needs
Assuming that your company focuses on addressing your customers’ pain points and solving their problems (and if it doesn’t, you probably should consider another line of business), make it clear that you understand what drives them and how you can help. Somewhat ironically, your About Us page should be largely focused on them.
Minimize the jargon
About Us pages frequently include an excess of industry jargon. Yes, there are key terms that will help assure the reader that you know their business and that will also help with SEO, but don’t overdo it. Too many technical terms or buzzwords make the content sound cold and unfriendly.
Provide a way for readers to engage further
After reading about your organization, some (hopefully many) site visitors are going to want to deepen their relationship with you. Make it easy for them. On our site, we allow readers to click a link to sign up to receive our blog posts. We post new content multiple times a week, which gives a prospect an opportunity to get a better feel for who we are and what we’re about.
Be yourself
Your About Us page is a place for you to let prospects see who you really are. Are you fun and relaxed? Show them that. Are you a little more formal in your approach? Let them know. The best business relationships are built on honest interactions.
How Does Your About Us Page Score?
OK… If you were to give your About Us page one point for each of the characteristics above, what’s your total? If it’s not a strong five, you may want to consider making some changes. And if you want a fresh perspective on the content on your About Us page and throughout your site, we’ve been helping great companies achieve greater success for more than 25 years. Let’s talk about your marketing objectives and how to meet (or better yet, exceed) them today!
