What is the about page?

What is the about page?

Yes, we know it’s where you talk about yourself. But how does it relate to your business? And how can it help your business?

Well, after the homepage, the about page is the second or third most important page on your website (depending on your thoughts about a contact page). It’s where you can tell your story and explain your motivations. It’s a landing page, but more casual.

So here’s how you can make your about page a place to convince your prospective customers to choose you.

A place to tell your story

Your about page is your page to tell your story. This is all about your journey and your business’ journey to where you are today.

And your story is something that is unique to you. No two people take the same exact path to get to where they’re going. And if you happen to be competing against larger companies, telling your story and what you love can help you look more personable, helping and better suited to fulfill a customer’s need.

So tell your story here. Go through how you fell in love with whatever you’re doing, how you’ve turned your passion into a business and what you love about your business. It’s the best sales pitch you can make.

Be unique in your storytelling

There really aren’t any set rules on how you should tell your story. Yes, you should always follow basic and spell everything correctly (and I recommend finding an editor to help you out on that end).

But in the end, it’s your call on how you want to tell and present your story. Don’t feel like you have to follow the standard written story. If your business incorporates something visual, then making a video or creating a photo story might be a better option to show off what you business does and how it can help others.

Plus, really try to make the page unique to you. If you do go down the text route, add some photos along the way that show off you and your business. Or even a combination of text and video can help you stand out from the crowd.

As long as everyone can follow along with your story (that means photos with alternative text and videos with captions for accessibility), how you tell your story is in your hands. Just be sure to tell it in a way that fits you and your business.

Examples

Now that we know a little bit more about about page, let’s take a look at a few examples.

This website

So my about page is kind of simple, but sometimes simple can be good. The text is a simple retelling of my past and hour I got here, from a journalism major to a web developer. And I use photos to help both break up the text and reinforce the journey that I’ve been on.

If you’re not super creative, text with photos to break up that text is a solid way to go.

Eight Hour Day

Considering I love minimalistic approaches, I have to love this page design. It’s simple. It’s clean. And it gets the point across. Yeah, the text isn’t long, but it gets right to the point. Plus, it’s just so easy to look at. Always a major plus.

That being said, I would love it if the “Our Process” and “Our Merit” links were more like tabs that opened without going to a different page. But that’s a minor nitpick in a pretty well down webpage.

Joseph Payton

You’re not going to forget this about page for a while, I can guarantee that. Of course as an artist, Joseph perfectly illustrates that (pun completely intended) with his about page. After selecting “my story”, his page reveals a quick story complete with illustrations. The amount of text is small, but the illustrations reinforce the text and draw you into the story. It’s just about perfect.

Seriously, you’ll think about this one for a while.

So even if you’re not in the market for a new website, take a look at your about page and think about how it could be better. Is the text readable and make sense? Are you truly telling the story of you and your business?

A quality about page could help convince that prospective customer to become a paying one.