Five Tips for Creating a Good ‘About Us’ Page for Your Website
By Space Coast Daily // November 22, 2018
Your website will have different sections. The average site has a Homepage, a Products page, a Careers page, a Contact Us page and a Blog. All these are important and require careful thought and planning. But it is the “About Us” page that you should think through the most.
Many first time visitors to your site will head there first to gain a better understanding of who you are and what you represent. Getting the ‘About Us’ page right isn’t easy but can be done. Here are some practical tips.
Center on Your Audience and Not Yourself
This may seem odd. After all, isn’t the page called ‘About Us’ because you need to be telling your audience about yourself? Well, yes — but you have to be subtle. Think about how obnoxious a person you are talking to comes across when they go on and on about themselves in a conversation.
That is how your ‘About Us’ page is perceived when everything from start to finish is about yourself. Instead, focus on your audience. Even when you mention your history, milestones, credentials, awards, stats, website features (e.g. if you use application performance monitoring), do so in the context of how this met customer needs and improved the experiences of your site’s visitors.
Let Customers Do the Talking
When you are thinking about buying a new mobile phone, television or refrigerator, you probably won’t base your decision on what the manufacturer says about their own product. The manufacturer’s ultimate goal is to persuade you to purchase their product — they will go out of their way not to mention anything that may cause you to consider buying from their competitor instead.
For a more authentic view, you will likely turn to your family, friends, work colleagues and past buyers of the product. The situation is the same with your ‘About Us’ page. A couple of up-to-date, positive customer testimonials will add credibility. Make the testimonials believable by including photos, full names, state and/or country. You can also show customer satisfaction by highlighting any customer-focused accreditations and awards you’ve received.
Include Audiovisual Content
What you say about yourself in the ‘About Us’ page is important. It won’t matter though if it isn’t interesting enough to get your audience reading through it. Audiovisual content can make the page appealing. Add videos, photos, infographics and even social media feeds. You want to capture the reader’s attention long enough for them to stay on the page from top to bottom.
Headshots of the organization’s leadership, photos from an awards gala and images from a team building retreat can breathe life into the page. Videos are an effective way of communicating to visitors with a short attention span or who lack the time to read the entire page. You can condense everything into a 3-minute embedded clip.
Tell an Interesting Story
At least part of the ‘About Us’ page should be a story. Even if your brand is new with hardly any history in the market, you can be creative and incorporate the elements of your personal life journey that have culminated in your creating the product and/or website.
An interesting story makes you human, relatable and builds a powerful emotional connection with visitors that gets them to buy into your brand. Modest beginnings can be especially powerful as they not only demonstrate your drive to succeed but also how reluctant you would be to dissatisfy your customers.
Cut the Jargon
A page filled with the latest jargon, acronyms and buzzwords may feel intelligent. On the contrary, it makes the page cold, vague, distant and snobbish. People come to the ‘About Us’ page to gather information about you. Jargon doesn’t endear you to readers but rather erects an unnecessary barrier to seamless communication.
Keep language simple, write conversationally, portray accessibility and be friendly and fun.
Don’t go through the process of creating your ‘About Us’ page as a routine. It can be a valuable asset in building your brand.
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