[Video] Why ‘About Us’ is the 2nd most important page on your site

Let’s do an experiment.

Pretend you’ve never visited your own site. Remember, you know nothing about you. Nothing. Look at your About Us page?

Be honest, whats the one thing that’s wrong with it?

Why Your About Page is the Second Most Important Page on Your Blog?

Your About Page should NOT be:

  • An afterthought, something to fill with text, just to get it done.
  • Written after the site is launched when you’ve nothing else to do on a slow Friday afternoon.
  • In the third person — its your blog! Talk to me. Introduce who you are. Don’t talk down. Talk about your team, mention their names, show their faces, add pic and videos. Why not?
  • Flat — read the first paragraph. Does it excite you? Does it make you (i.e. the prospect) want to contact you, download your brochure, make an effort to connect?
  • Same — as every other About Us page. Cmon, you can do better. Pics, videos and MP3s. its so easy, try it.
  • Stale — update it every 3 months. Every month you do something worth sharing. Put it here.

Your About Page should be:

  • Intimate share something that cannot be found anywhere else on the site. Photos, videos, examples of your portfolio, places you’ve been, events, conferences — anything that paints a picture.
  • Warm make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. You don’t need to go over-board, but share a little. Show why you’re more interesting that the rest.
  • 7 Compelling Reasons — give them 7 reasons (if you cant think of seven, at least five) to cross the threshold and connect. For example, what do you stand for? What are your values? Who have you helped? What charity do you support?
  • What makes you different (really different!) than the rest.
  • Knock on the Door remember, its this page where people decide will I, wont I? So, it better be good. You want them to come in, right?

How To Sharpen Your About Us page

Your About Us page must have the following:

  • Story not your CV, but the story of YOU.
  • Why did you decide to do this?
  • How did you get here?
  • What mistakes did you make?
  • What you hope to achieve? and
  • Why the reader is important to you?
  • Share links to your Social Media sites
  • Contact form & email & tel number —make it easy for them. Put your contact details on every page.

Videos and Personal Branding

I use videos to help bridge that gap.

You see me at work, at soccer practice, with junior, my pet crickets, and even when I’m struggling.

Each of these helps close the gap between you and me. Maybe you don’t care for everything on the site, but your impression of me (and your memories of this site) are that much stronger.

Here’s a question for you?

Think of all the sites you visited this week.

How many do you remember?

Now, look at the video above. In a years time, you will still remember this video (for better or worse!) but all the blogs you read this week will be forgotten.

Why do you think that is?

PS – Rewriting your About Us page could result in a higher Google page rank and higher conversion rates for those who find it.