Today, the internet is inundated with lots of fake people. Before anyone does business with a stranger, they will start by checking the About Page.
But here’s the bad news:
- Your About Page will destroy your website if you don’t give it adequate attention.
Creating a perfect About Page is often neglected by many newbie bloggers. This is because striking the right balancebetween marketing yourself to your audience and scaring them away with a self-focused approach is often a difficult line to walk for most people.
The good news is your About Page does not require any magic touch to stand out(nor does it require any expensive ancient rhinestones).
I was carrying out some research on this topic and thought it would be good to share with you nine (9!) tested, easy to apply techniques that I picked up fromsome of my favorite “About Pages” on the internet.
You can use them right now to revamp your own About Page.
By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll not only discover what makes aperfect About Page, you’ll also learn how to apply it to your own site.
So let’s learn the art of writing a high-converting About Page.
Table of Contents
9 Tested and Proven Techniques to Revamp Your About Page Today
1. It’s not about you, make it about your audience:
Us humans are often more concerned about ourselves than we are about others. That’s just human nature.
Even if you’re the type that likes giving to charity, when it comes to sourcing products and services, we’re often more concerned about ourselves and what we can get from the product.
Most bloggers often make the mistake of using their About Page as a place to talk about themselves… and that’s all.
Remember:
- You cannot build a popular blog without an audience.
This is why you should first focus on them. You need to be customer oriented this way; they will feel at home the moment they land on your About Page.
Don’t know how to go about that? Follow these simple steps:
- While writing your About Page, your opening sentence(s) should bedirected at your audience’s needs.
- Start with the main reason whythey visited your site. This will convince them that you have their best interests at heart. For my About Page, I could start by acknowledging the problems bloggers usually face to build a thriving blog audience.
- Prove to them you’re different. Show them why you can be trusted.
- They’ve seen so many blogs out there that promised to address their problems, but ended up disappointing them. You can show them you’re different by telling them about some of your wins in the past, the awards you’ve collected (if any), an display some social proof.
2. Show them where to go:
After you’ve shown them why you’re the right person to listen to, the next thing to do is to show them what to read on your blog.
The second part of your About Page should be used to give your visitor lots of opportunities to dive into the experience of your site.
How?
- Link back to some of your most popular posts. As a blogger, don’t ever miss an opportunity to link internally to your other posts. If there are any posts on your blog that were well received when they were published, link back to it on your About Page.
- Do you have an active YouTube channel? This is also the time to show them any of your popular videos on YouTube. If not, you can at least add links to your YouTube page or any other social networking site where you are most active. Giving a social touch is highly recommendedfor any About Page. Show them you’re well received, and they’ll like you more.
This will further strengthen their trust in you (which is what you want).
3. Tell them who you are:
At this point, you’ve convinced them your blog is for them. They now understand that you care about them and you’ve also shown them some things to read in order to get more familiar with the kind of work you do.
Now it’s time to tell them about you.
Tell them all of the interesting things about you.
- Talk about your past failures and current successes.
- Tell them how, when, and why you started your business.
- Empathize with them by letting them know that it also wasn’t easy for you.
What ugly experiences have you encountered before? Tell them how you overcame them.
It doesn’t matter if your brand does not have an interesting story; you still have totell a story (very important).
Focus on the things that make you a human & you will connect with your readers (they’re humans too).
4. Don’t forget to include your pictures:
The benefits of this one cannot be overemphasized.
Most people often make the mistake of ignoring this. Don’t be one of them.
You absolutely should have your pictureon your About Page. Your readers want to know who you are and what you look like.
And you also want them to like and trust you. Including your picture on your About Page will dramatically increase your trustability/likability levels.
If you fail to do this, one of the consequences is that you’ll forever remain a mystery. That’s not what you want.
- Important: When choosing a picture, don’t select something Photoshopped; you should use a good, authentic picture of yourself.
It. doesn’t matter what picture you’re using as long as it’s a genuine picture of you.
5. Allow your customers to do the talking on your behalf:
When you’re thinking of buying a product on Amazon and you’re not sure if it’s a good fit or not, who do you turn to?
Do you base your conclusion on what the product owner says about it, or do you turn to the people that have already used it?
I’m guessing you choose the latter.
That’s exactly how it is in blogging. People always find it easier to believe you if you have a few people talking about you in a positive manner.
By adding good, up-to-date customer testimonials on your About Page, you’ll make it easier for your readers to trust you and choose you over your competitors.
Remember to add the customer’s full name together with any other of his/her details that will further boost the credibility of your testimonials.
6. Add your address and contact details to your About Page:
Adding your real and up-to-date contact details will help to solidify trust in your new relationship. If this info is out-of-date, you will lose out on a lot of potential business opportunities and you will lose a lot of trust.
Don’t forget to also include your email, social media handles, and/or Skype details to make it easy for them to contact you digitally.
Some of your clients will want to have a little conversation with you before they decide to give you their money. Make it easy for them to get in touch with you.
However, you may want to skip adding your personal contact details if you are growing fast. I have personally removed my details after the first 3 years of blogging due to an overwhelming number of emails & calls.
7. Write in simple to understand terms:
It doesn’t matter if you have a Ph.D. in the English language, your readers don’t care. When writing your About Page, write insimple and unambiguous English.
Your readers won’t remember anythingabout you if your About Page is filled with jargon. Tell them what they want to know (in this case, what you do) in simple English.
If your About Page is interesting to read,your readers will be happy and will want to spread the word.
Writing in a conversational tone will help to achieve this.
Tip: Don’t make the mistake of naming your About Page something vague like Our Journey or Our Ethos. That’s not what people are looking for. They want to see your “About Page”, so give it to them.
8. Include a call-to-action:
This is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people making.
- Not having a call-to-action on your About Page is crazy.
A call-to-action is anything thatencourages your readers to take a desired action. It could as simple as having an email subscription signup form (recommended) for them to join your email list.
The reason why this is so important is because you want your readers to stay with you for a long time.
Without an optin form, they can come to your site today and forget the URL the moment they close the tab. Then you’ve potentially lost them forever.
- Make sure to include a call-to-action on your About Page.
This is seriously a no-brainer.
Remember, it’s one of your most popular pages so leverage that traffic and use it to your advantage.
9. Tell them what to expect from you:
Your readers are now done reading your About Page.
The good news is they’ve found it very interesting and inspiring. Because of this, they’ve given you their email address(which means they’ve decided to stick around).
Now what?
The next thing is to tell them what they’ll be expecting from you.
There are a couple of things you should let them know:
- What days of the week/times you update your blog.
- How often you will be emailing them.
- The type of content they should always expect to see on your blog.
Have you worked on your About Page yet?
If you remember nothing else from this post, remember this:
Your About Page carries a heavy weight.
It’s one of the most active pages on your website. This is why you should make it worth reading.
- Remember the old saying: “The first impression is the last impression.”
Don’t create a boring About Page that will make your readers leave. You will kill your business.
If your blog’s About Page is lacking any of these elements I’ve mentioned here, you should consider revisiting it. It may take you some time, but the rewards down the road will be well worth it.
If you have yet to write an About Page or your About Page sucks, you should write/fix it now.
How are you making your About Page stand out? Drop your About Page link in the comment section below!
Don’t forget to share this post on social media and with your friends because, “You share, I share, let’s make the world aware”…