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The “About” page of your website holds so much potential.
It’s the one page on your site that you can dedicate to brand positioning. You can establish a personality that people will remember and want to follow, and even make some conversions while you’re at it.
Despite these benefits, many brand websites don’t even have an About Us page. Quite often, the ones that do are essentially left neglected. They might feature one main picture and one or two dry, descriptive lines about the company, and that’s it. No calls to action, no storytelling, no personality — the definition of a wasted opportunity.
By simply having an About page, you’ll set yourself apart from many brand websites. And by putting the time and effort into making it good, you’ll be head and shoulders above the rest.
Read on to find out how you can make the most of your website’s About page. In this guide, we’ll cover:
Before diving into the About Page writing process, take a look at our top tips for crafting a message that’s compelling, interesting, convincing, and uniquely your own.
The About Page is one of the best places on your site to really let your brand personality shine and establish your brand voice. Knowing the right tone of voice to use begins with knowing your customers — or potential customers. What do they expect from a company in your area of business?
You always want your voice to be warm and approachable, but whether you go with a tone that’s more casual or formal will depend on your niche. Get it wrong, and you lose potential customers. Startups can afford to be more relaxed, but customers probably won’t respond well to a lawyer or realtor who uses a lot of slang. Similarly, you should take demographics into account. Baby boomers won’t respond well if you speak to them like they’re millennials.
Be straightforward and welcoming. Whatever the case may be, always try to avoid jargon and complicated words, and use supportive, direct language when you can. Everyday people should be able to understand what you’re saying, not just fellow professionals in your industry.
An easy way to affect a supportive tone is to use first-person voice over third-person when referring to your brand. This means using “I” or “we” instead of “This company”. Similarly, when addressing your audience, you should use second-person over third-person, so “you” over “customers”. Address them directly. Using second-person makes your copy more personal, while third-person comes across as much more aloof.
Once you’ve established your tone of voice, it needs to be consistent across your site and communication channels. Consistency leads to memorability. If you get your brand voice right, your audience will come to recognize it over time. Your About Page is the perfect place to introduce it.
People love a good story. Storytelling is how people relate to each other and the world. By crafting a compelling story that conveys your brand’s core beliefs and values, you’ll establish an emotional connection with your customers and help them better understand what you’re about. It’s also a great way of making your brand stand out among competitors with similar products and prices.
A study by Harvard Business Review found that customers with an emotional connection to a brand are actually twice as valuable than highly satisfied customers. In the long run, emotionally connected customers will buy more of your products and services while being less sensitive when it comes to price.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? But what exactly does a compelling brand story look like? Maybe you have a product or service that doesn’t exactly inspire emotional resonance at first glance. That’s okay. Consider tapping into another aspect of your company that will resonate with people.
Let’s say you run a small business that makes garden shovels. Not very exciting, right? But maybe you’re dedicated to using only eco-friendly, recycled materials. Perhaps you do a lot of work with local community gardens, or you donate equipment to schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. These are all factors that make for a resonant story. Whatever your niche, if you approach it in the right way, you’ll find a way to make your brand stand out from the rest.
Take WP Standard, for example.
The company makes leather accessories, and their love and respect for the craft becomes abundantly clear as soon as you hit the About page. It features a compelling narrative about how founder Ryan Barr discovered his passion, which is cleverly weaved into a brief primer on the act of leathercraft, drawing unexpected but evocative parallels between his life and the process. In just a few richly drawn paragraphs, the reader has a good idea of what the company does, why, and its core values.
Much like with tone of voice, your brand story goes far beyond the About page. It should inform everything from the content you produce to what you post on social media.
That might seem a little contradictory, but it’s the truth. Yes, this is the page that is about you or your business. But it isn’t an excuse to brag. You need to approach your story in such a way that it illuminates the benefits you offer to your potential customers. Focus on their needs. Always ask yourself: What’s in it for them?
Similar to what we discussed in our post on what makes a good homepage, you need to illustrate your unique selling proposition (USP). This is what makes you stand out from your competitors. Only this time, it will be incorporated in your brand story.
The Moz About page does this really well. It strikes a balance between explaining who they are and what they’re about while placing the customer front and center.
If you’re already an established company, chances are you’ll have some data at your disposal to add credibility to your About page. Customer testimonials are especially great for this. If there’s one thing people trust, it’s recommendations from real people. Any press mentions or awards will also help boost the prestige of your brand.
It’s important not to clutter your page, though. Sprinkle in a percentage, a testimonial or two, or a case study quote to support what you’re saying, but don’t let it distract from the purpose of your page. You can link to a dedicated testimonials page or specific case study where customers can find out more.
“Above the fold” is the part of a webpage that is viewable to users before they scroll down. By putting the most important and engaging information here, you’ll make sure that users see it. You’ll also increase the likelihood that they actually will scroll down. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, web users tend to pay more attention to information placed above the fold. Anything less pressing can be placed further down the page.
An About page can also be a great place to highlight your team. Far more relatable than just featuring information about the company CEO, it will show that you care about all the moving parts that make your company what it is, while also putting human faces to your brand.
Again, it’s best to keep it minimal to avoid cluttering up the page. A common team section features candid shots of each employee with their name and title. You could also include a fun photo of the whole team at an offsite event. Many companies link to their Instagram feed as well, which helps promote a strong company culture. If you’d like to get more in depth, create a separate “Meet the Team” page.
It’s a wasted opportunity if you’re not encouraging users to take some kind of action. For an About page, it’s probably best not to make a hard sell, since site visitors may still be in the “getting to know you” stage. As such, it’s a great place to ask users to sign up for your newsletter. Reel them in with a visible opt-in form and an irresistible call to action, ideally placed somewhere above the fold.
Email newsletters provide a great opportunity to nurture leads and eventually turn them into loyal customers. Learn more about launching a successful email marketing campaign in our email marketing 101 guide.
Every page on your website is an opportunity for getting your site found on organic search. Your About page is no exception. At the very least, you should be doing keyword research and deciding on a primary keyword that will be featured in your page’s H1 and supporting keywords that will be sprinkled sparingly throughout the rest of the content.
Read our easy small business SEO guide for a more in-depth look at getting started.
Where better to draw inspiration than some actual About Us pages? Take the time to visit some of your favorite websites and see what their approach is. In the meantime, here are some great examples of About pages done right.
It’s hard to think that Google really needs an About page considering the search engine is an everyday go-to for millions of people around the world. But they do, and it’s a good one. They use the space above the fold to immediately hit you with their mission statement:
It’s short and snappy, but it says a lot. It really drives home the fact that you don’t need to write an essay to impart your company values. The remainder of the page has other essential About page features, such as links to company news and information about the company’s culture and products.
Much like with Google, you’d hardly think that Twitter needs to explain what it is. But this site has a mission statement that explains itself way better than you ever could, and it’s featured prominently on their About page.
The rest of the page is made up of a few choice, tweet-like subheads that communicate exactly what the micro-blogging site is all about in just a few keywords.
Online marketplace Etsy has a simple but effective About page which outlines its mission and values. It also features information about becoming a seller, shopping, and making secure payments. The page is optimized for several kinds of conversions, but isn’t obnoxious about it.
Scroll down to the end of the page and you’ll find links to other important pages like company news and careers. The About page ends with an invitation to sign up for their newsletter.
Marketing platform Mailchimp manages to manifest an air of brand approachability throughout its About page. It emphasizes both the importance of its customers as well as its team and work culture. Even the founders’ stories are extra relatable thanks to the inclusion of childhood anecdotes.
It’s a great example of how to incorporate humanity into your branding.
Starting with a succinct paragraph, the brand’s Purpose page explains the “why” behind the brand — to serve athletes — and dives into how the company has evolved since its founding in the 1970s. Acknowledging that the world around them has changed, they simply state how their “belief in sport will never, ever change,” so they are ready to meet the future challenges and evolution of athletics. It’s a great example of the power of a decades-old brand on an About Us page.
This natural beauty products company is rooted in coconut oil as the key to glowing skin, and they make their ethos clear from the first line of their About Us page. From the beginning, they state their purpose “in a nutshell” — a cute nod to their coconut-based line of products — so the reader knows immediately what the brand is all about. And by uniting the power of good website page design and clever text, they reinforce the brand’s core values, such as sustainability and clean beauty, as the reader scrolls down the page. Notably, Kopari roots their brand story in claims they can back up while using their brand voice to reinforce their uniqueness.
The eponymous designer is known for whimsical musings woven throughout descriptions of — and sometimes, on — quality handbags and accessories. The founding principles stated on their About page clearly point to the brand’s principles of optimism, femininity, and attention to detail that the company has become well known for since opening in 1993.
Importantly, Kate Spade keeps things simple, just like the brand voice infused throughout the site. The company utilizes only a little bit of text to make it crystal-clear that they imbue every part of their company with their brand values and brand voice. No stone is left unturned while excess commentary is left on the cutting room floor.
A cult favorite across the United States, Whole Foods is well known for its commitment to quality and to natural, healthy, and organic foods. That’s extended to its About Us page, where the company immediately informs the reader that they’ve stood for quality groceries for quite some time.
Here, Whole Foods focuses on brevity, keeping their About information to a single paragraph. If the reader wants to explore other things that make the supermarket company great, they can navigate to the side of the page, where they can choose the information that’s most interesting to them.
The file-sharing service keeps their About Us page short and sweet. Up top, the reader will see a split screen with a single line that emphasizes not what the company does in literal terms, but how their product changes how people work and makes their lives easier.
Dropbox concludes with something a little different, though. At the end of their story on the About Us page, they embed a link to a PDF that contains lots of information about Dropbox products, key statistics, and a company timeline. It’s not “must-know” information, but it’s important to a certain audience, and by utilizing the linking method, Dropbox puts that decision in each visitor’s hands.
The razor company gets right to the point with its first sentence: Harry’s is out to change how people shave. The About Us page dives right into why this razor is different, discussing the engineering and design work required to make it a truly unique product in a crowded marketplace. Over the years since its inception, Harry’s has built brand recognition and loyalty, and they know they can leverage their About Us page to engage new groups of customers who may not think about their shaving routines every day.
When it comes down to it, a good About page should define your brand’s mission and appeal to your customers’ needs and wants, while maybe even making a conversion or two. It may sound like a tall order, but if you keep it focused, uncluttered, and approachable, your website’s About page is certain to be effective.
As you get started, keep these main points in mind:
Are you ready to create a new website for your business? Be sure to use Namecheap’s Site Maker tool to build a unique and functional website for your brand, and check out Namecheap’s hosting options to choose a new home for your online presence.
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