2/9/2009
The About Us Page – How to Write a Website, Chapter 2
Thanks to Luke Gedeon for designing our project badge! You can grab the code here – in your choice of 12 beautiful color schemes. Thanks, Luke!
_________________________________________________________
After the Home Page, the About Us Page is the next stop for many website visitors, which makes it a pretty important page to say the least.
One of the key challenges with an About Us Page is that it can go in so many directions. It can be very “corporate” or very personal. It can detail company history or lay out the vision for tomorrow. It can speak to customers, stakeholders, alliance partners, employees, or all of the above.
Before opening up the conversation, I’d like to suggest that regardless of content direction, the About Us Page is an excellent platform for multi-media content. Images are always a plus, but how about a short podcast from the CEO? Perhaps a videocast featuring employees talking about their jobs? Or maybe a slide show presentation of the firm’s key products and services? When visitors come to an About Us page, they crave details, information – why not deliver it in a variety of styles to satisfy the various learning styles of the audience?
About Us Page Questions for the Group
Share your wisdom! If you write or even just read websites, we’d love to hear from you. Learn more about our How to Write a Website group book project.
- Personal or corporate – Should the About Us Page emphasize people, values, and business relationships … or stress facts and figures, tangible results, product and service specifics? Can the page do both?
- When does the need for sub pages kick in? – Rather than create a rambling 2000-word About Us Page, it may be advantageous to place certain material on subpages such as a Company History Page, a Meet the Staff Page, a Mission Statement Page, etc. What factors determine if and when this strategy is necessary?
- What is the critical content? – What three or four things are you most interested in learning on a firm’s About Us Page?
- Other key About Us Page issues – What are yours? What is the most important advice you could give a small business about building content for their About Us Page?
6 Responses to The About Us Page – How to Write a Website, Chapter 2
Brad,
Provided it is written in a concise fashion, I would not see any problem with emphasizing both ‘soft’ issues (people, values) and hard issues (facts, figures) at the same time, and I think it would be a good idea to do both if you can.
The key is to keep it brief.
Three crucial items for the about page – (a) brief description of services provided; (b) contact information; and (c) I like your meet the staff page idea – it would certainly help your firm come across as being more approachable.
Andrews last blog post..How healthy is Apple’s disclosure?
Hi Brad,
Luke did an excellent job on the badge! I can’t wait to hear what others contribute. For me the About Us page is one of the common failures in websites. Too often they either read like a commercial without revealing any substance about the faces behind the business. Every page of your site SHOULD be written with your target audience in mind and the About Us page should continue that consistency but also provide some substance. So many of the sites I am hired to rewrite have about us pages that read like a boring list of facts or reveal zilch about the business, values and practices.
Hi Brad – This sounds like a brilliant group project. A couple of years ago, I didn’t realise how many people read the about page. But a lot of folk do, so it’s really important. I know mine needs updating again now.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Desperate Business Owners & Media Bullshit
I think the about us page is the most important page of the site. It’s amazing how little time companies put into their “about” page, perhaps only providing a physical address and a phone number. But I think what was stated above is a great start to a superb about us page:
- small paragraph about the basics of company- what does it do?
- physical address
- phone number
- pictures of staff / people customers would be dealing with, and a small bio, perhaps.
- Contact form- because some people would rather use a form then open up their email platform and send an email.
- Any other contact info – twitter id? Facebook page? LinkedIn? etc.
Erica DeWolfs last blog post..Super Bowl XLIII Ad Reaction- 2009 Wrap-Up
Pingback: Learn To Write SEO Articles. | 7Wins.eu
Pingback: If You Have Lots to Say, Say It on a Business Blog : Word Sell, Inc.