If there is a set number of pages that exist on every website, the About page is definitely one of them. Every website has them. Unfortunately, not every about page is effective for the website.
The Goal of the About Page
Before we can figure out what makes a great and effective about page, we need to consider what the page should do.
Imagine that you come to a website from a Google search. You’ve never heard of the site before, but you have just found one of their products. What’s the first thing that you want to do? Know that the company is trustworthy.
The about us page is all about building trust, convincing the visitor that your website and company is not a scam and can be trusted.
We are always afraid of being scammed, and perhaps even more so online, where we often never meet any physical person behind the site. It’s just a name on a page, and that is hard to trust.
How do we build trust?
Knowing that the goal of the about page is to build trust with the user, we can consider how we do this and use our findings to make the perfect about page.
Trust is one of these soft feelings that we get over time when someones values match our own, and someone proves to be reliable.
Translating this into the about page of your website, you should describe your company exhaustively but fairly. Avoid marketing jargon, which isn’t really adding anything.
Instead, use storytelling. Tell the story of your business, why you are doing it and what makes you excite about it. Build a connection with your visitor by showing that there is a reason that you’re in business, and that you truly care about the problems the visitor is having, and why you are a great fit to solve them.
Don’t forget to also present your team or employees, especially those in customer facing roles. Let’s face it, most people don’t care as much about a CEO presentation, as they do when they connect with the support representative that they are going to face. We simply connect easily with other people that are on the same perceived level as ourselves.
The perfect about page mixes presentation and sales
Instead of just being a page where you present jargon copy about your company, presenting your story and why you are in business is also selling the products or services that you offer in a subtle way.
There is no reason why an about page should not also be a great entry point to your whole offering. The perfect about page combines both the trust-building company presentation and storytelling, with adding links, descriptions and callouts to the relevant services.
After all our pages do not live in a vacuum. Our pages are part of our whole site and our whole offering. Let’s use that to our advantage in all channels.
