What’s the “About Us” Page For?

The “About Us” page on your website is one of the trickiest to plan. You don’t really want people to land on it first, so SEO isn’t the main issue. Conversion is central. 

The essential thing is to understand how people use this page. Many times, “About Us” pages are written as though they were an extension of the homepage. Sometimes they duplicate the homepage. Often they’re a plain presentation of the company mission statement, or an echo of a book’s copyright page. I recently did a site analysis for a company that used the “About Us” page for a glossary. These sites are not making good use of the “About Us” page.

Unpopular but important

In fact, only about 10% of your readers will go to your “About Us” page at all. Very few will start there — I’ve just been confirming my impressions on this by examining my clients’ Analytics, and most have zero visitors entering at that page — and fewer than 10% who do go there will leave the site from that page. Assuming you’ve designed the page well enough not to scare the visitors off, of course.
 
People go to the “About Us” page for two main reasons. First, they’re looking for contact information. If your site is well designed, your contact information will be obvious on every page so people don’t have to look, but many of the folks who want to reach you won’t bother searching around. They’ll go right for the “About Us” page, where they confidently assume that data will be easy to find.

Make sure that it is.

The second reason that people go to your “About Us” page is that they are seriously thinking about giving you something — money, their contact information , something they think is important — and they want to make sure you’re trustworthy.

About us content

Your “About Us” page is the closest you can get to a face-to-face meeting online. This is the page where you should put your staff or family photograph, your letter from the CEO to the customers, your two generations of experience or fifty years in the same location. This is the page for your sustainability commitment or community service information.

The people who visit this page may just glance at your picture and your signature and, reassured, move on to place that order or send that donation. But they may also be willing to stay and read all your details. Sometimes it depends on how much money and information they are contemplating sending to you. So you need a page which will send an immediate reassuring “You can trust us” message, but one which can also accommodate more in-depth content than you may choose to offer on other pages.

The example at the top of this page is from a new website we’ve just launched for a local realtor. He uses video to showcase his knowledge of the area and his likable, friendly personality, and the “About Us” page reinforces that. We used his own words for the text and a portrait of him for the image. Visitors can get a good idea of what the home buying or selling experience will be like with him.

Have a look at your own website’s “About Us” page. Does it serve its purpose? Does the content make your company sound human, likeable, and trustworthy? Does the design help your visitors travel through the page — and the site — in the most useful way? Giving your “About Us” page an update can make a difference in your conversions.

 

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How Much Do Titles Matter for SEO?
The ADA and Your Website
How Many Pages Should Your Website Have?

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Rebecca Haden

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