Website Strategy: About the About Us Page

I received an email from someone who wanted to know what to say on the About Us page of his website.  Here is my response:

The About Us page is not usually the most visited page on a website, but it's important for several reasons.  One is that visitors who are considering your products or services need to believe that they will like working with or buying from you.  Many search engines are also thought to penalize websites that do not have an About Us or Contact Us pages.

The About Us page might be viewed as an extension of what you might be tempted to say on a Home page. In fact, much of what you currently say on your Home page is a good start.  Consider shortening that text and promote more of your company's benefits and unique selling position.

If you were to promote yourself in a chamber of commerce event or cocktail party, what would you say?  Something to the effect of:

"We’re Acme Widgets.  We provide a very high level of <fill in the blank>.  We do this by <fill in the blank> which benefits our customers by <fill in the blank>. 

We <list a benefit>.  We <list another benefit>.  We are conveniently located...."

I would try and link text to other pages of your site which should help search optimization.

I wouldn’t make it too long.  Visitors will sometimes visit these pages before making a final decision.  This page strategy is to explain in a broad sense what you do (rather than on the Home page) and build likability and trust. Use the Home page more to get people to take the actions you want them to take, including navigation to interior sections.

Dedicated to your website ROI.

-- Kurt Scholle