How to quickly improve your About page
What is an About page?
The About page is often the most visited page on your website. People want to know about people, who they’re buying from, what makes them tick, and what drives them.
It is also one of the most notoriously hard pages to write on your website. I’ve even heard about copywriters employing other copywriters to write their About Me pages. I can sort of see the logic in that: we are sometimes too close to our own business and can benefit from a second pair of eyes. However, a copywriter’s About Me page is where they should be showcasing their style, so it does feel a bit like unethical to chose this path. But enough about us those of us who do this for a living… how can those whose gifts lie elsewhere – in gardening or design – make the most of this precious space?
Luckily there are a few quick things that you can do today to instantly instantly improve the effectiveness of your About Me page. And at the same time, make it easier for customers to connect with you and ultimately your business.
Start with a picture
People buy from people, and they want to see who is behind your lovely brand. Whether a solopreneur or with a team of people behind you, a professional – but accurate – image makes it easier for potential clients to visualise and connect with you. You know those corporate feeling websites with stock photos of employees having a whale of a time in the office? No one really believes them – much better a team photo, even if you aren’t all models.
Professional doesn’t need to be boring! If you feel uncomfortable posing, why not get a photographer to shoot you at work. If you are a potter, an image of you at the wheel speaks volumes. And it’s a bonus if you’re shy – you don’t even need to look straight at the camera.
Professional photographers are adept at bringing the best out of people and making even the most camera shy feel comfortable. A professional headshot session typically costs around £200 in London. If your start-up costs can’t run to that, then perhaps you can skill swap with a photographer who is starting out.
2. Although it’s called About Me, it’s really About Your Audience
Yes, of course you need to talk about yourself. But don’t get too carried away with your own story that you forget about your audience and their needs. After all, that’s why you’re creating your About Me page in the first place.
So, have a think about what your reader needs and how you meet that need. In copywriting jargon, this is known as writing about Features and Benefits and it’s the hardest part of the About Me page.
There is a little copywriting technique you can use to make sure you’re not going off track and supplying too much unneeded information. Start by writing about what’s in it for your customer (benefits) followed by how you meet that need (features).
If your company has a long history and tradition, you don’t need to go into minute detail about it. You can convey this with a few, well-chosen adjectives, or simply by mentioning when it was founded. No one is going to wade through paragraphs and paragraphs of dull history.
Here’s an example of one long, difficult to digest sentence:
“Coffee Cups has been at the forefront of London’s coffee scene for over 25 years with the last 15 being under the enthusiastic ownership of Tom and Sam together with their trusty team of baristas and bakers – many of whom you might know already and who are on hand to make sure our coffee is of the highest quality and because we care about what we do.”
It can be simplified and shortened while still maintaining the most important aspects:
“When you visit Coffee Cups expect coffee of the highest quality – after all we’ve been honing our skills for 25 years. Attention to detail and proud service is central to our offering because we care about what we do.”
3. Pay attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Those three letters are enough to make anyone shiver with fear. SEO just means boosting the visibility of your About Me page in Google so more potential customers can find you through search. While it can get pretty technical, there are some small elements that you can manipulate yourself easily.
Choose a number of ‘keywords’ – words of phrases that a potential client might enter into Google to find you. This could be location based: ‘Art classes in London’, it could be content specific ‘watercolour classes’. It’s up to you. Then try to include these words or phrases within your About Me page.
But don’t go overboard – your About Me page should still be pleasant to read and it shouldn’t be obvious to the reader what your keywords are. Google penalises ‘keyword stuffing’ – where the keywords are used so often that it negatively impacts the reader’s experience. This means your page will rank lower in Google’s results for your chosen keywords.
And you’ll be pleased to hear there are tools which can help you with this, like Yoast. This plugin also aids other aspects of on-page optimisation.
4. Break your About Me page into bitesize chunks
Nothing puts readers off like dense paragraphs. Our eyes naturally skim webpages, so it is helpful to break text into short paragraphs and subheadings.
Subheadings with helpful titles orient the reader and draw them through the page. Paragraphs can be as short as you like. In fact, it’s pretty common now to see one-sentence paragraphs. So many browsers using a phone or tablet these days, so this can help break up the text nicely.
How long should an About Me page be? I would recommend at least 400 words – anything lower will be harder to rank in Google. But the real answer is – as long as you need to connect with your audience and demonstrate how you can help them.
You want it to be concise and to the point rather than rambling and off-topic.
5. Include links to the rest of your website
Finally, perhaps the most important point – make sure you include links to the rest of your website. Don’t assume browsers will navigate with the menu -make it easy for them.
Briefly mention your individual services then link to the relevant page. You can also list the services at the end with a link.
Don’t forget to include contact details to encourage potential clients to get in touch with you. You may think it’s obvious, especially if your contact details are in the banner for every page, but a little reminder can make all the difference between a reader moving on and getting in touch with you there and then.
I hope this has given you some food for thought and is getting you updating your About Me page now! Need help with your About page?Check out Rise & Shine, my SEO-friendly website copywriting package for small businesses.
