Your “about us” page won’t be your website’s most popular page. Still, it will become one of the most important because people who check out your About page are interested in what you’re doing.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through my formulaic process on how to write an about page that won’t be embarrassing and will help convert visitors into subscribers.
What to Include in an About Page
All “about us” pages should include some specific elements. It does not matter if it’s high traffic blog on coffee, a personal development blog for women, or an e-commerce store selling bowling balls.
All “about us” pages must have the following:
- Share the narrative of your website, store, or blog and why you started it.
- Describe the people you are targeting with your company and the purpose it serves.
- Explain how to navigate or use your website.
- Add pictures of the people behind your brand by featuring the team members.
- Include appealing material (e.g., an explainer video, data visualizations, links to blog articles) that may otherwise clog up your homepage.
- Include a call to action.
An effective short about us page should welcome users to the website and let them know the unique selling point of the website as well as why the website was started and why the website is valuable. Next, lead into a guided tour of the website and inform users how best to use and navigate the website.
Close the about us page with a clear call to action to subscribe to your email list, buy a product, or contact you. Whatever action is most important in your professional opinion. My own about page for this blog is created in this sort of style. I’ll break it down for you.
Share the narrative of your website
On my About page, I quickly establish that I’m an experienced, trained professional for my blog topic and YouTube videos. I demonstrate that I’ve helped tens of thousands of people (verifiable based on video views, blog traffic, and comments), and I link to my freelance page on Fiverr, which shows almost one thousand 5-star reviews.
Then I lead into why this blog exists by contrasting it with other websites that are large faceless brands that hire writers in mass to create generic, mediocre, dated, and biased content and how my blog is better organized, honest, and helpful.
Describe the people and audience you are targeting
After establishing your authority and why the blog exists, quickly transition to who it is for and how it helps them. In the next section, I focus on how the quality of my blog and videos are created with a specific goal to help you “plan, build, promote and profit” (my trademarked tag for my Teachable powered website).
The target audience is professionals who want to build a minimalist business with a blog, e-commerce store, niche topic blog, etc. I describe A minimalist company as any operation with five or fewer team members with high margins and low overhead costs.
Explain how to navigate and use your website
This is your opportunity to explain how to explore your website to your visitor best. What comprehensive guides should they view? What features does your website have?
Do you have any products for sale that they should be aware of? A podcast or YouTube channel that compliments your website? What about an email list? Last, ensure all of this ties together with the purpose of your website.
Explain how your products are made (for e-commerce websites)
Are you running an online store that sells a physical product? Let the visitor know all the fantastic details that go into your products’ craftsmanship, design, and detail.
If you’re a drop shipper of multiple products, this is not important, but if you are selling a unique offering, explain the story and process behind it and what problem your store is solving.
Who is associated with the website?
People want that personal connection as it helps them connect more with the content, particularly with the development of AI. Choose pictures that are appropriate for your website. If you’re a lawyer, then you need to look the part. A suit and tie all the way. A nice T-shirt or dress is fine if it’s more casual.
Just ensure the picture quality is acceptable and the picture you choose is not tiny and grainy where it’s a bit blown out. My bio image was shot with my Canon 90 and a 10-18mm lens—nothing fancy, but clearly a step up from a phone.
Include appealing material that does not fit on the homepage
Consider including additional material like videos, data visualization such as a business timeline, or anything that would not fit on the homepage due to causing too much clutter.
For my own About page, I have a dedicated “about/media” section specifically about me from a professional point of view. Again, though this website is my name, it is a 6 figure business with a strong focus on helping people. It’s not a personal hobby blog.
Include your struggle (for personal development brands)
If you’re positioning yourself as a coach, fitness expert, or giving financial advice, it’s helpful to include your previous failures and the lessons learned as you overcame adversity.
I don’t do this on my About page. But I could add a section if I wanted and title it something like “From Being a Broke English Teacher in Thailand to 10K a Month Digital Nomad,” where I talk about the difficulty and determination it takes to become self-employed.
This type of content is most beneficial to someone struggling with something, and you can show how you understand and can help them.
Press, testimonials, social proof
Press mentions, customer reviews, or any sort of impressive fact you can point to can all be included on your “about us” page to demonstrate how you’re making a tangible difference that’s being recognized.
James Clear does a masterful job at this. Short, sweet and to the point:
In addition, consider including social proof if possible. There are several methods to incorporate social proof into your about page like including your top performing social media profile, displaying the logos of publications that have written about you, and adding a line from a client review.
Milestones, such as mentions, accolades, and other victories, are typical examples of markers for story midpoints.
Free product/service testing
If you build a large following online, and tend to create review content then consider providing a clear way for companies to reach out to you and what to expect.
Yes, this information should be on your contact page, but you can also reemphasize it here. Provide your shipping address and what companies can come to expect and what the terms are.
Include a call to action
A call to action (CTA) is where you direct a visitor to take some action. What action that may be depends on the website. But typically it’s to subscribe or buy something.
Your about page is an excellent spot to include a call to action to subscribe to your email list or a product or service you highly recommend. At a bare minimum, at least direct the visitor to another page on your site when they get to the bottom of the about page.
The CTA should be sitting pretty at the very bottom of your about page right above the footer ideally.
Additional must know tips for writing about us pages
There are a lot of best practices for writing an about page. If you do nothing else, have a call to action on this page. This call to action could be to subscribe to the website, check out your YouTube channel, or read a specific blog post.
Your About page has the power to win over visitors because anyone who clicks it is interested in the reason why behind the website. This is your chance to add a personal but professional touch to your website to help visitors understand the value your website provides.
The about us page is not about you
An about page is never about you. It’s about the website and why it exists. Even if you want to create a more personal and longer story driven about page, everything you mention has to tie back into why the website exists, what gives you the authority to write it, and why it was started.
The only way to do this is to focus on the essentials readers need to know to trust the website. The wrong way is to get a bit too personal and lengthy. Going on and on about how you like long walks on the beach and how you went to Mexico once.
Establish your unique selling point
In other words, talk about your unique selling point and why anyone should care. This may involve the journey that led you to start the website. Keep it from talking too much about yourself, strictly about why the website came into being.
Also, your unique selling point should not be some millennial nonsense about changing the world or how your website will save humanity. Take it down a notch and lay out how you help people in some small way. You make the world a better place by helping people in a small way, even if it’s a coffee blog.
Just call it an about page
No need to get cute and clever. In your website’s menu bar, call the about page “about.” Please put it in the main menu at the top of the footer (or both). You should put it in the footer but not the main menu to keep the number of links in your menu bar to a minimum.
Also, the ideal URL structure should be /about, and the SEO title should be something like About This Website | Name of Website. Avoid overly complicated URL structures like about-name-of-website.
Why should anyone listen to you?
Key focuses about you personally should revolve around why you are qualified to write what you’re writing. Remember, no one cares about you until after they’re a fan. If they’re reading your About page, they are likely a new visitor.
Throw in any “featured in _____” or any credentials you have. If you need credentials, what about results or feedback from your audience? You need to include something to build trust.
Use a photo of yourself smiling
No need to have a full-on goofy smile, but an inspiring picture of you looking happy and doing something cool makes people feel that you have things together and have the answers to success (even if you don’t). Try to be in shape too.
Also, ensure the picture is taken with a proper camera, not your phone. It does not need to be a studio shot, but it does have to be of respectable quality to invoke trust.
Know your audience
You have to have some idea of who will be visiting your website. Are they rich, poor, young, old, religious, moral, or immoral? What do they struggle with? What language do they use to describe the problems they have? Use this language in your About page to convey that you understand and can help.
When you can use phrases to describe the problems your target audience faces, it’s incredibly effective at conveying that your website has the solutions to your audience’s problems.
How to Write an About Page Conclusion
Your About page will not be the most popular page on your website, but it will be one of the most important. It helps new visitors better understand your website, the value it provides as well, and how to navigate it quickly and easily. You need an about page for any website, so if you don’t already have one, get started creating a helpful “about us” page today.
