If there’s two things I’ve learned since first starting my online business journey, it’s this:
- Your About page will be one of your most viewed pages on your site.
- Your About page is not about you, it’s about those looking to find out more about you.
Huh? Yeah, I know… took me a while to ‘get it’ too! But I will explain further about what I mean and then I will give you what I think may be some helpful suggestions on optimizing your About page.
What is the purpose of an about page?
If you answered “so people can learn more about me or my company”, you are not totally wrong, but that is only half the equation.
The purpose of an About page is to let people know what you have to offer them as well helping them to learn more about you, in that order of importance. Let’s face it folks, at the end of the day when people visit your site, what they really want to know is, what is it you do that can help them in some way.
Now that we’ve learned that it really is all about them and not about you, how do you translate this into an About page that is informative about who you are as a person and as a business; and at the same time show them what you bring to the table?
Many of you will feel inclined to tell your “story”…I was born, I was raised, I was schooled. Nothing wrong with that; but let’s make that secondary to “what it is I do and how can I help you”!
Your first step is to state right from the beginning what you and your business provides. That is what are your intentions with your website.
- If you are providing blogging tips to help others become a better blogger, than state so.
- If you are selling custom-made jewelry tailored to the wants and needs of your customers that will make you feel like a million bucks, than say it and say it out loud!
Provide bullets points, social proof, and statistics, whatever it is to quickly convince your visitor that they are in the right place and you are the right person to meet their needs.
Here’s an example from Problogger
Now that you’ve successfully drawn them in and they are excited to know that their prayers have been answered and you are a gift sent from the heavens to help guide them along their way (OK, a bit overboard), then you can tell your story.
Your story believe it or not is still not about you! It is in the sense that it expresses your background and experiences, but should be expressed with the intention of how those experiences relates to your visitor.
This applies to all types of businesses. Let’s go back to the jewelry business example. Your story may talk about why you started your business, your inspiration, your desire to bring joy to others with beautiful jewelry, etc.
What woman doesn’t feel good putting on a beautiful piece of jewelry?
The last part of constructing your About page is to end it with a strong call to action. They are obviously interested in you; they’ve read through your About page, why not direct them to the next step? This may be a request to sign up to your email list, check out a particular product, join you on one of your social networking sites, etc.
Here’s an example from David Risley.
Here are a couple of About pages that I found to be great, that may give you some ideas:
https://www.problogger.net/about-problogger/
https://www.davidrisley.com/about/
https://marieforleo.com/about
https://www.quicksprout.com/about/
https://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/about-ash-ambirge/
https://talkingshrimp.com/about/
https://www.daniellelaporte.com/about
So get to work if you haven’t done so already! If you already have an About page you are proud of, please share it with the rest of us in the comment section below. If you need more work on it, tell us when you plan to take that on.
And please show some luv and share this with your friends.