Creating an About Page for your Website

The “About Me” (or “About Us” if your business consists of a team of people) page is one of the most important pages on your website, but is often neglected in favour of a sales page or a contact page.

I find that entrepreneurs are hesitant to have an About page on their website because they want visitors to their site to focus on their work, products or services rather than to focus on who they are. Also important to mention is the anxiety that arises when I suggest including a photograph of themselves on the site.

Tell us about yourself

People buy from people, not from brands. People want to know who you are and who they are going to be dealing with. You only have a few short moments to grab a reader’s attention, so put the most important points very early in your content.

You don’t need to pretend to be somebody you aren’t. If you aren’t naturally funny, you don’t have to write humorous copy. If you adore bold floral print, fluffy slippers and quirky-kitsch décor items, find a way to work it into your “about me” paragraphs.

Your about page adds a personal touch to your website and allows people to connect a face to the brand. You can bring some personality into the content while keeping the overall look and feel professional. This helps to humanise your brand and makes you more relatable.

If you don’t create a connection with your readers through an about page, it’s unlikely that people are going to continue to a contact page and even less likely that they’ll fill in a contact form and hit “submit”.

Tell us about your business

Your about page is the perfect place to tell your reader a little bit about your business. If you have a quirky name or a fun tagline, explain it here. Include your company’s mission statement or what you believe in. Explain why you do what you do – but do it in an interesting and relatable way.

As tempting as it is to get into what your business does, this isn’t the place to detail your services. That’s reserved for your “Work with me” or “Services” page. Simply write a few short sentences summarising the big picture of what your business does.

Tell Google about your business

Another reason to put careful thought into an about page is because Google’s systems index it. Google indexes every page on your site, but that doesn’t mean it will rank anywhere near the top search results for your desired keywords. A good about page can help both that page’s ranking and your overall site’s ranking. Telling Google who you are and “who” your business is can help your website gain visibility.

Use words on your page that you want to be known for. Are you a portrait photographer? Tell Google that. Are you a calligrapher? Tell Google. Are you a gourmet chef? Tell Google. Are you a life coach, dietician, chiropractor, yoga teacher, personal trainer? Tell Google all of that.

Providing Google with comprehensive information is a long-term investment of your time. This will not fix a non-existent or inconsistent SEO strategy, nor will it magically create SEO gold, but it’s a very good foundation to build from.

Conclusion

Putting time and thought into creating an about page that expresses who you are helps to put an extra special personal touch to your website.