The True Value of an About Page
By Annabelle Amery
Annabelle@allthiscontent.com
When visitors land on your website, the first place they’ll stumble upon is your homepage. If they like what they see, they’ll dig a little deeper and more likely than not, end up on your ‘About Us’ page, to learn a bit more. You’d be surprised to know just how much action an About page receives so it’s important to make a good impression.
Those clicking on your About page are on a fact-finding mission. They want to really get to know YOU, the people behind the company, your story, and what exactly sets you apart.
The True Purpose of an About Page
Most About pages are missing a key ingredient that will turn visitors into customers…
They need to like you. The more likeable you are, the more chance you have of turning visitors into valued customers. Someone clicking on your About page has likely already read your home page, which means that they are interested in your product or service. Now you just need to reel them in and make them feel more secure.
The About page is a place where you need to convince your potential customer or client, that this is where their search ends and that they have found ‘the one’. You need to build their trust and communicate to the reader that your product or service possesses the experience and skills necessary to solve their needs. An About page should tell your story, how you got from nothing, to something, and the inspiration behind it all.
Beyond that, after talking about the company or product itself, let them know that YOU actually exist. Talking about yourself (not blabbering on too much of course), humanises your company, and gives it some much-needed soul. When your potential customers realise that you are not merely an AI machine, and that there is a real human being behind that screen, it automatically builds more trust – giving them an emotional response and a better sense of who you are.
Best Practices
You’d be surprised to know that most companies and organisations can’t quite seem to explain what they do in one paragraph – very important for the usability of an About page. One study regarding ‘About Us’ pages, found that task success for finding out what a company or organisation actually does, dropped over the course of the five-year study. Meaning, the About pages seemed to be going downhill. The study noted that; “in place of a frank summary of the business, marketese and blah-blah text ruled the day on many sites.” – what a shame! Learn from this and make your content concise, answering the questions that a user desperately wants to know – and keep it lively while you’re at it!
So how do you make your About page convert and what are some of the best practices?
- Talk about your story and then you – it shouldn’t all be ‘me, me, me’: that comes later.
- Your story should answer the what, why and how’s – especially the problems that your organisation or company solves.
- Use varying types of media, it shouldn’t be too wordy – words should be concise and to the point, but images, videos and other forms of media (graphs/gifs etc.) will keep the user’s eyes interested.
- Let your company’s personality shine through and while you’re at it, give it some oomph – some passion!
Call to Action – Can I Get Your Number?
So what if a user is hooked on your About page and wants in? If you haven’t included a call to action at the end – you are wasting a prime opportunity to get those conversion rates up.
Be sure to include one along with your contact details. Companies seem intent on making contact information impossible to find, burying them in the deepest darkest areas of their website, or worse, not including contact details at all. This will surely backfire, as websites without contact details will gain a rep for low credibility. Just like a successful date ends in a phone number, the best About pages end with your company contact details. Put your contact details proudly on display, and make it easier for potential customers to get in touch.
Is all of this giving you a headache? Do you need a killer About page written?
Get in touch with us at All This Content, and we’ll work our magic for you.
