What’s the Purpose of an About Page?
The purpose of an About page is simple: to allow your client to decide if you’re a good fit based on personality, values and lived experience.
That means you have to:
A) Be vulnerable enough to show who you are.
B) Keep it relevant to your audience.
About Page Prompts
What’s Important to You?
1) Think of why you started the business, what got you involved? What were the missing elements in your field that you thought you could fill?
2) What personality and values are you excited to share with your audience?
3) What makes you unique? What value are you bringing to your customers?
What’s Important to Your Audience?
4) What are the major frustrations your target audience is facing?
5) What stories and personal experiences can you share that demonstrate you understand those frustrations and you’re the right person for the job?
What to Include in Your About Page
6) What qualities might your clients be looking for in a professional?
An about page should be as unique as the company it represents. That means there’s no set way to create an about page. However, there are some features that are commonly included in About pages that we’d recommend.
Your about page may not need to include each of the elements listed below. Just be sure to select the elements that will be most useful to your audience.
Business Bio
This is your opportunity to show your personality and tell stories that demonstrate your values.
Team Member Bio’s
Remember, the goal is to make a personal connection with your audience and put a human face to your brand. You can structure your team member bio’s however you like but we recommend including the following information on each team member.
- Headshot
- Professional title and any relevant credentials
- Education and experience
- Personal note: What motivates, inspires or interests this particular team member?
Social Proof
Social proof refers to any bit of evidence that other community members have had a positive experience with your business.
- Reviews & testimonials
- News articles & videos
- Awards
- Well known brands or people you’ve worked with
Contact Information
Be sure that your contact information is prominently placed so visitors can easily reach out.
- Phone
- Physical Address
- Map
Call to Action
Your About page can be one of your most compelling pages. Once you’ve gained the interest of your audience, offer them an easy next step to initiate contact.
A good call to action should include the following:
- A short phrase that indicates a specific action: “Free Consultation” or “Sign up for Our Newsletter” are good options. Avoid vague prompts such as “Get Started” or “Let’s Go”.
- A clickable link: A visitor should be able to click on your call to action and be taken to a sign up sheet or contact form.
- Visual appeal: Your call to action should be in a size, location and color that draws the eye of the visitor.
Visual Elements
As always, imagery tends to enhance the appeal of your page.
Consider including
- A map
- A photo of all of your staff together
- Images of clients and customers at your location
Pro Tip
Avoid stock photos. You want to send the signal that you are approachable and including stock photos can end up sending the opposite message.
Example of a Good About Page
We’ve selected a few great pages to help you get your creativity flowing. Having a compelling page doesn’t mean you have to have flashy features or extensive content.
An excellent about page is one that creates a sense of genuine connection between the visitor and the staff.
Cashco Loan
Cascho does an excellent job of connecting through authenticity, both in their images and their text. From their opening line of text, Cashco establishes relatability and trust.
“CashCo opened with money borrowed from credit cards and family
in a double wide trailer with no running water on January 2, 1989.”
Below, we’ll break down what works so well about this about page.
What’s makes it good
- Relatable & Engaging Story: Story is vulnerable (“we made nearly fatal mistakes”) and the language is conversational and welcoming (“but we also did something totally right.”). They treat customers with respect because they’ve been in the exact same position.
- Customer centric: The stories they share are relevant to their target audience.
- Concise: They don’t waste readers’ time with needless info. They didn’t even get into specific detail about the struggles they initially faced. They said just enough to establish a sense of trust, honesty and approachability.
- Social Proof:
- Online Reviews: They’ve selected reviews which support the main points made in the About page, namely: they’re friendly, genuine, respectful and they work hard for the people they serve.
- Video Testimonial: Videos are a great way to draw a visitor’s attention and create a sense of connection. Here, Cashco created a video that features both team members talking about their work and/or patrons talking about their positive experience with your business. This is a great strategy to reach visitors.
- Audience Representation: Instead of relying on generic stock photos, Cashco has done the thoughtful work of taking photos of actual patrons at their facility. They’ve featured a collage of diverse members from their community engaging with their staff.
- Authentic Imagery: In addition to featuring some images of their staff, Cascho has created a very effective collage of various members of the community engaging with their staff. What makes this so effective? Every person who visits your website is looking for signs that they’re in the right place. They want to know that someone, just like them, would feel welcome and be well served by the business they’re checking out. An excellent way to demonstrate that is to feature your images of your clients on your about page.
- Call to Action: There are 3 calls to action at the bottom page: “Ask a Question”, “Apply Now” and “Make a Payment”. Each of these is tailored to people at different stages of the buying process: those interested in more information, folks ready to sign up and existing clients.
The Vet Hospital
The folks at TVH know that when your pet needs urgent care, you want to find someone who’s has the education to provide treatment and the personality to put you and your pet at ease.
So, instead of featuring a long (and potentially irrelevant) back story about the clinic, they cut right to the chase and focused on their staff. Each section features a team member answering the same few questions ranging from their education to their super hero name.
It’s fun, effective and efficient. It’s a really good about page.
What makes it good
- Demonstration of Expertise: The education and credentials of each team member are listed at the top of their bio.
- Personality: Once they’ve established their credentials, the questions for each team member are light-hearted and create a sense of confidence, trust and humor between the visitor and the staff.
- Concise: It’s quick and easy to read and the consistent formatting means it’s easy to skim through.
- Authentic Imagery: Actual photos of staff (no stock images)
- Call to Action: A short contact form is featured at the bottom.
- Ease of Contact: In addition to the contact form, this about page also features a map to their clinic as well as their weekly hours of operation.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Generic / Copy-Cat Content
It’s tempting to pattern your about page after your competitors. But remember, the point of an about page is to tell the customer what makes you unique. You have to convey what makes you unique and you won’t find that information on your competitors website.
- Generic Phrasing: “We’re committed to excellence” and similar phrases are over-used and unlikely to trigger interest in your visitors.
Solution: Instead of simply saying it, try telling a story that demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction. - Stock Images: Stock images aren’t always a bad thing but they definitely don’t belong on your About page. Remember, the purpose of the About page is to allow your audience to connect with you and your team. Posting stock photos can send the message that you’re not approachable or relatable, no matter what your copy says.
Solution: Use images of your actual team members and/or images of your patrons engaging with your staff. Why is this important?
- AI Content: AI can be helpful for generating ideas or even editing something you’ve written but it’s not great at writing original content that explains what’s unique about your company.
Solution: The first step is to sit down and write out what makes you unique. From there you may decide to use AI to help you organize your thoughts.
Information Overload
Trim out anything that you think customers won’t benefit from.
- Long Origin Stories: Will your audience benefit from hearing the full lineage of CEO’s that have managed your company? Likely not.
- Industry Jargon: Remember to use language your visitors will understand.
Stock Photos / Videos
The point of an about page is to allow visitors to get to know you.
What to Focus on
An effective about page is one that aims to make an authentic connection with the audience. To do that, you only really have to know the answer to two questions:
- What makes you unique?
- What is important to your audience?
Once you know the answers to those two questions, deciding what elements to include on your about page becomes a lot simpler.