Is your ‘About’ page delivering your big promise?

By Vishal Khandelwal on May 19, 2011 15 Comments / 1895 views

Hi,

What do you do first on you arrival to a new country? You pick up a tour guide, right?

This is because you want to know ‘about’ the country before getting deeper into it. A tour guide is like your compass into this unknown place.

For a website, its tour guide is the ‘About Us’ page.

This is the page where a new visitor visits when he arrives at a website for the first time. He wants to know about:

The people/team running the website/company

Why it exists in the first place, and most importantly

What’s in it for him

So it is important to have an ‘About Us’ page that acts as a compass and guide for new visitors, instead of leaving them to fend for themselves.

The ‘About Us’ page must deliver your big promise to the visitor – the reason he should come again to your website – either to read what you write, or better still to buy your products or services.

But if your think your ‘About Us’ page lacks that zing, and isn’t delivering the benefit to the new visitor, don’t worry!

Now you have help at hand!
To help you out with a killer ‘About Us’ page that delivers your big promise in an excellent way to your visitors, here is what I propose.

I will write a 250-words ‘About Us’ page for you, if you want…right now, and at zero cost to you.

If you are interested in getting your ‘About Us’ page redone, kindly visit this page and send me the required information, and I’ll take it forward from there on.

With respect,

Vishal

Comments

Vishal Khandelwal

15 Comments

Mahesh Khambadkone May 21, 2011, 4:15 pm

The Home / Landing page needs to convey the big promise.

IMHO the About Us page is read much later, by investors to find out who’s in the team, by consumers to understand credibility, etc. That page needs to be the most factual and least ‘packaged’.
Nayana Somaratna May 21, 2011, 4:24 pm

@Mahesh – Going on a tangent – what do you think is important to put in an ‘investor relations’ page ?
Mahesh Khambadkone May 21, 2011, 4:56 pm

Names of people running the company. Chronological listing of relevant experience.

My point in my reply was that, if you’re offering to help a site get their message across, you shouldn’t focus on the About Us page, but offer to help the messaging used on the site in general.
Vishal Khandelwal May 22, 2011, 6:50 am

When you meet someone you have never met earlier, you don’t go so much by how he looks (the home page) but by what he is, what’s his background, and will having a relationship with him be beneficial for you (that’s the way customers think…it’s never about ‘me’, the website owner but ‘you’, the customer).

The ‘About Us’ page does this very job. It gives a human face to your website. It tells a story and gives a reassurance to the visitor that he has come to the right place. That’s the reason it’s the most visited page after the home page.

I offer to help people get the messaging right on their website in general. But this discussion was about the ‘About Us’ page specifically, for which the rules of writing are much clearer than the rules of writing on the home page (that depends a lot on what you have to offer etc).

By the way, it is ironical how much time people spend on getting their home page right and how less attention they give to their ‘About Us’ page!
Nayana Somaratna May 22, 2011, 10:52 am

@Vishal – Not quite sure if I agree with you there.

The moment I visit a website, I make a split second decision whether to view the website or not, mainly based on the appearance of the web page.

What I’d do next would depend on the type of the website – for a content website (i.e. Wikipedia), I’d start browsing the content. For a functional website (i.e. basecamp), I’d dive in and try out the functionality.

I might visit the about page later on – but honestly, if the rest of the website is great, I would not care what is in it.

For example, if Wikipedia’s ‘about’ page read ‘This website was created by the biker mice from mars’ – I would not care (incidentally, how many people have ever looked at Wikipedia’s ‘about’ page ?)

BTW, even for people – it is the first 15 to 30 seconds of interaction which makes you decide whether you like / dislike that person and whether you’d like to continue conversing with them !
Vishal Khandelwal May 22, 2011, 2:32 pm

I wish every website was Wikipedia. But that isn’t the case, right?

You see, Amitabh Bachchan’s website won’t have an ‘About Me’ page. But Ram Kishen’s would have. Wikipedia is like AB. The story is well known and that’s why it doesn’t need to have a page to tell it again.

But for all businesses that are just trying to tell their story – their big promise – they need to have an ‘About Us’ page just to tell their story…just to tell their visitorsthat they are not dealing with bots but real people.

As far as the first 15 seconds of a personal interaction is concerned, assume the first 5 seconds as the home page and the next 10 seconds as the ‘About Us’…that’s when you decide whether you’d like to continue conversing with him.

I just want to clarify…I have nothing against the home page and also that I ain’t saying that the ‘About’ page is the most important page. But for anyone trying to tell his story to the world, it’s a very important page. And that is where I am offering my help through this offer 🙂
Vivek Kundnani May 23, 2011, 10:58 am

Thanks for the offer Vishal. I’m gonna take you up on it. We need to rework our About Us page. Rgds Vivek
Vishal Khandelwal May 23, 2011, 11:11 am

Hey Vivek,

I’ll be happy to help!

Regards,

Vishal
Vivek Kundnani May 23, 2011, 11:24 am

Thanks Vishal. I have filled out the form.
Nayana Somaratna May 23, 2011, 11:33 am

@Vishal – I still think that it is the merits of the website (i.e. great content / great functionality) which will make people decide whether to use it or not.

But I definitely agree that a good ‘About’ page adds to your site 🙂 Perhaps I’ll take you up on your offer 😉
Vishal Khandelwal May 23, 2011, 11:51 am

Thanks Nayana,

I’m looking at your website at this point 🙂

Regards,

Vishal
Aditya Babbar May 23, 2011, 12:27 pm

Excellent Initiative Vishal

I have sent you 2 requests, which you would have to look at.

If there is anything you would require in terms of electronic payment processing, please feel free to write/speak to me.

Regards,

Aditya
Nayana Somaratna May 23, 2011, 2:51 pm

Thanks Vishal 🙂
Vishal Khandelwal May 23, 2011, 3:09 pm

Thanks Aditya!

I’ve received your mails…will soon get back to you on this.

With respect,

Vishal.
Tanz April 2, 2015, 8:18 pm

Hey Vishal,
We pulled off a fresh take on the Importance of About Us pages. Do let us know your thoughts 🙂

https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/how-your-online-store-s-about-us-page-can-help-you-get-more-sales