How to Create the Perfect About Page and Why it is Crucial for Your Blog
The About page is one of the most important pages in your blog. When building or running a blog, there is a lot you need to focus on — content creation, design, SEO among other things. In addition to all these, you should also spend considerable time and put sufficient thought into creating an About page for your website.
When a site visitor navigates to your About page, it means that they have a level of interest in your site and want to know more and you. With the perfectly crafted About page, you can grab a visitor’s attention and make it easy for your audience, first-time site visitors, and potential sponsors to learn more about your blog and about you.
Why You Need an About page
Legitimacy
Your About page gives your site legitimacy and it is integral in creating a trustworthy brand. According to Statista, there are about 1.88 Billion websites currently existing – with more being created every minute. Many of these websites are spam websites, automatically populated by bots, and even fraudulent. This is why it is important that you differentiate your website and show that you are a legitimate brand. People want to know that a real person is running a website, and then they want to have a level of trust and familiarity with that person.
Audience Building
Your About page is your chance to speak directly to your audience and bring them into your world. It is not the place to appear mysterious or cagey. You should address your audience directly and write in the first person. Share who you are, what your blog is about, what you’re passionate about, and what they should expect from you when they visit your blog. This will also help differentiate you from the competition.
Sponsorship Opportunities
When a potential sponsor or advertiser visits your site, the first page they go to is your About page. Think of it as the billboard of your business. Make sure the About page is professional-looking, comprehensive, and showcases your blog in the best light for sponsorship opportunities.
SEO
When I optimize a site for SEO, one of the first things I look at is the About page. Amongst other factors that contribute to SEO, search engines crawl website About pages to determine the credibility of the website. A properly constructed About page can improve search engine rankings. Secondly, other websites will look at your About page before linking to your site. This is to ensure that they are linking to legitimate sites. So a properly constructed About page can lead you to get quality backlinks.
What Should Be Included on Your About Page?
Your Mission Statement
Some of the most compelling writing you’ll be doing when you start a blog is crafting a mission statement. It should be a few sentences that succinctly describes the reason your blog exists. To write a good mission statement, think about what your core message is, who you want to reach with that message, and how you want to reach them. This What, Who, How approach will help you easily define your mission and communicate it to the world. It’s also a good place to include the values and guiding principles of the blog.
About the Founder
In addition to sharing the mission statement of your website or blog, you should devote a good section to sharing information about the founder and owner of the blog. People want to know who’s running a website and this is the place to share that information thoroughly. Share your background, the origin story of why you started the blog, and list your credentials. By sharing the origin story of your blog, you are giving readers a glimpse into what inspires and drives you as you create content for them. It helps them get to know you better and form a connection with your blog. When writing about yourself, be authentic.
Target Audience Definition
As mentioned above, your mission statement should encompass your core audience. You can also take it a step further and expand on this by sharing more about why you have chosen your target audience. Your target audience definition should answer the following questions: Who do you create content for? Who are your key readers? Who do you intend to reach with your message? Your target audience should also be narrowed down to an age range and demographic. Your target age and demographic does not have to be front-facing unless it is crucial to your blog’s messaging.
Social Media Handles
Include links to your social media pages. You can also embed a social media account on the page using several plugin options. Ensure that your social links always open into a new tab. If you have a large following, this is the place to highlight it.
Press Mentions
Have you been featured in a magazine, been a podcast guest, or mentioned in the press? You should put this information on your About page. Sharing the press opportunities you’ve had gives you social proof and shows that you have a significant presence in your industry.
Media Kit
You can include your media kit directly on the page or as a downloadable PDF. It is important to share information that will grab the attention of sponsorship partners and a media kit is the best way to do that. Your media kit should show your audience demographics, social media stats, reach, and past sponsorship partnerships. Many factors come into play when it comes to including your pricing in your media kit. Unless you are fully sure of your pricing, have done market research, and have been selling sponsorship packages for a while, it’s best to not include your prices. If you are unsure, it’s best to leave it out and instead showcase in other ways the types and tiers of sponsorships you are open to. When you start to talk with a potential sponsor, then you can share your prices.
Author Bios and Team Members
If you have contributing authors, employees, and team members, your About page is the best place to showcase them. Some websites have a large team and they showcase them on a separate page. However, if you have a small team, you should include their names and photos on the About page. Highlight your writers by including their photos, bios, and a description of their role.
Photos
Your About page should showcase a professionally taken photo of yourself. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that holds in this case. Include photos of the founder, team photos, and any photos or videos that help communicate what you do. Your photos should be professional looking but that doesn’t mean they have to be stiff or boring. Include photos that show your personality or show you in action. For example, if you’re a food blogger, include a photo of you in an apron, in the kitchen, or with one of your creations.
Contact Information
Some people prefer to have a separate page with your contact information and that is fine. Regardless of if you have a separate contact page or not, you MUST include your contact information on your About page. This is a key factor in making your blog user-friendly and making it easy for potential partners and advertisers to contact you.
What Makes a Good About page
A good About page should contain just the right amount of information about you, your blog, and your business. It shouldn’t have too much information or too little. Keep the following factors in mind when creating your About page.
Don’t Bury the Lead
It takes only a few seconds to grab the attention and interest of a site visitor. At the top of your About page, you should state in a few clear sentences what your blog is about. When a reader visits, they should be able to tell in a few seconds what your website is about. You can have a long description but these few sentences (which should be your mission statement or your blogging goals) should be at the top of your About page. You can make them bold text, and put them in a unique design that pops out and grabs the reader’s attention. A site visitor shouldn’t be left wondering what your blog is about even after visiting your About page. Make your message succinct, clear, and straight to the point.
Clearly Show Who Runs the Website
Include your name, photo, location, email address, and location on the About page. If you have a registered business, include your business name and registration number, etc. If you have a team, include their names, photos, and bio as well.
Emphasize Key Points
Just as you highlight your site’s mission you should also emphasize the key points about you and your blog. State clearly who you intend to reach with your message, what city are you located, what types of partnerships are you open to etc. These key points should be highlighted and should be easy to find.
Hyperlink and Navigation
The information on the About page should all be one page and make sure the hyperlink is straightforward. Use any of these hyperlink structures
website/ about-us OR about(insert website name) OR about-me OR about-page .com/
Secondly, make sure the About page is easy to navigate to from any page on your website. Include it in the overhead menu right below or above your masthead. You can also include it in your footer menu but it MUST also be in your overhead menu.
Keywords
Your primary keyword should be directly related to what your website is about. It’s best to choose one or two keywords and place them strategically on the About page. When choosing your keyword, make it as descriptive and niche as possible. Place the keyword within the text and if possible, include it in an H1 or H2 header. Don’t keyword stuff as that will backfire. We recommend using keywords 8-10 times for every 1000 words. Your About page should probably not contain up to 1000 words of the text so use your primary keyword 4-6 times within the page. Also, make sure your mission statement or website goal contains this keyword or a variation of it. For example, if your blog is about homeschooling kids, then your keyword should be something that describes this like “ homeschooling tips for parents” or “homeschooling tips for moms”.
Concluding Tips
As you build and update your About page, keep these important things in mind:
Avoid spelling and grammar errors.
Make it easy for site visitors to find the information they need.
Show them how to interact with your blog. Give them some article suggestions to get started. You can include a “start here” link or include a must-read article.
Be personable, interesting, and authentic.
Don’t stuff the About page with too much information.
Show why you’re different from the competitor.
Put the About page in the Header menu and ensure site visitors can navigate to it from any page on the website.