So you want to know what you’re supposed to put on your website’s About page. Well, you came to the right place.
Your About page is where customers, investors, and other people of importance are going to get to know you and your organization more personally.
I’ll give you a quick breakdown for the skimmers out there in a moment, but first, I have a couple of points that I wasn’t sure where else to fit.
- Don’t try to get clever when naming your About page: When I say the “About” page, you already know what I’m talking about. This is important to remember if you try to call it something clever like “The Lifeblood”. If people have to guess what your page is about, they’re not going to go there. This is why you’ll see common names like “about” or “who we are” or “team”. Go with the familiar and then get clever once they’re there.
- Aren’t these Different Pages? Many of the things I’m talking about today could absolutely go on their own pages. However, I want you to be careful about creating a bunch of individual pages with only tiny amounts of information on each. Your website has a purpose (like getting leads), and I bet that purpose isn’t to see which of your customers is loyal enough to click on 100 different pages.
Now for you lazy skimmers (just like me), here’s a list of what I’m going to talk about:
- The About Page is your “Who” and your “Why”
- History & Timeline
- Team
- Company Values, Vision, and Mission Statement
- Community Involvement
Your About Page Is Your “Who” And Your “Why”
The “who” piece of this section is much easier to explain. Your About page is where your customers are going to go to learn about who you are as a person and who you are as a company.
When it comes to the “why”, I believe there’s so much power in using your About page to describe why you got into this line of business.
- What is it about your industry that drew you in?
- Did you start because of your parents before you?
- Did you start so you could make a difference?
The more people understand why your business is important to you, the more they’ll find their own values aligning with yours.
History & Timeline
If you’re a company that’s been around for a long time, you can use this information to prove your experience in the field. Even if you’re brand-new, your history may help you reveal information to potential customers like “we started this business two years ago because the industry was really lacking _______” or “we wanted to change the way people experienced _____”
That all said, this isn’t the place to unravel your whole life story in full detail. Keep it short and sweet and just touch on the parts you find most important. The truth is that a large percent of people won’t read through paragraphs longer than a couple of sentences. (Guilty.)
To keep people’s attention, I find that a visual timeline is super handy if you do have a long history to tell. Customers are more likely to keep reading if you break up a long paragraph into small, digestible sections with visuals that go along with them.
Team
I push every client to include a section or page about their team.
In these times, local business has never been more important. By including images and bios of yourself and your team, you can begin to build trust and familiarity with your potential customers and prove that you’re not some faceless corporation.
Are you tired of going through long phone menus and listening to hold music to get a simple question answered? So are your customers, and showing that you’re a small, local team will help them understand that they won’t get this dreadful experience with you.
Bonus points for showing your personality like our friends at Advantage Collision: https://advantagecollision.ca/the-team/
Company Values, Mission, and Vision Statement
Your About page is a fantastic place to show off your values, mission statement, and vision statement. These are all important aspects of your business that show your personality, what’s important to you, and what you’re looking to accomplish.
We all prefer to work with people we like and people we share values with, so show off your values and start to build a connection with people who care about the same things before you ever meet them.
If you don’t already have your Core Values worked out, feel free to use this activity I wrote an article about: https://www.yastech.ca/5-step-activity-creating-your-companys-core-values/
For your mission and vision statements, past everything I already mentioned with the values, you want to use these to show potential customers that you have clear goals you’re working toward. Everyone wants to be a part of success, so give them a chance to be a part of your success story. On founding, Microsoft’s first vision statement was “A computer on every desk and in every home”. This seems obvious now, but it was a massive hill to overcome when they started.
Community Involvement
Not every business has the opportunity to give back to their community as much as they’d like, but for those of you who can, your customers want to know! Share your green initiatives, and share your not-for-profit partnerships. Spread love and a helping hand and people will want to help you do that.
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Of course there are other things you can put on your About page like reviews, testimonials, a list of your most important clients, etc. Tell me what you love seeing most on business’ About pages in the comments below!
This is awesome content! Thank you
You’re welcome Brody!