Your About Page is Failing You: Here’s How to Fix It

The About page is one of the most important pages of every site. It’s where a visitor goes to find out just exactly what you do, what you’re about, and – more importantly – whether they like and can trust your brand. For some customers, the About page can be the deciding factor that determines whether they buy from you, or from one of your competitors.

It’s also, all too often, one of the most neglected pages on a website.

Even the Huffington Post, one of the world’s biggest digital news sources, has reduced their About Us page to nothing more than a list of editorial staff.

Why is this so bad?

First, the page answers almost zero questions about who the Huffington Post are, what they do, and why we should care about them.

It also reads like the rolling credits of a film – except without the music and the potential for a post-credits scene, making it infinitely less interesting.

Don’t get me wrong: I like and respect the Huffington Post, but the presentation, execution, and general oversight seen in this page is awful. It’s an excellent example of what not to do with your About page – especially since it comes from a brand that should know better.

But, let’s step away from the negativity for a minute. Instead, let’s take a look at what an About Us page should achieve. It should…

• Show who you are
• Explain your core values and what you stand for
• Demonstrate what makes you different

Can you honestly say your About page achieves these three things? If not, read on. We’re going to take a look at some of the most common reasons your About page is failing you and what you can do differently to fix it.

It’s all about you

Does your About page sound something like this:

Notice the frequent use of the words “we” and “our”. If you ask me, this is very much about Citi themselves, rather than their clients.

This failure is really, really common, and I get why. In fact, just now, I said “show who you are, “explain why you’re”, and “demonstrate what makes you different.”

I completely understand how this kind of advice could mislead companies into believing an About page should be all about them, and I apologize if I might have misled you.

So let’s get something straight: an About page isn’t really about you. It’s about your customers. Or, at least, what you can do for them.

Anything that’s too “me, me, me” (both in business and life generally) is a turn off. Ever had a conversation with someone that just went on, and on (and on) about themselves? Unless they had some really interesting stories to tell, chances are you didn’t stay tuned-in to what they had to say for long. A conversation has to go two ways – it needs to benefit (and interest) both parties.

This is as true online (and on an About page) as it is in real life.

To quickly establish how “me” focused your content is, use a tool like the Customer Focus Calculator (it’s not foolproof, but it’s a decent starting indicator).

I tried it out myself on a couple of pages, and the results were pretty much as I expected. The Citi example I gave above gets a score of 96.67% self-focused, and just 3.3% customer-focused.

I also took a look at two pages from Cultivated Wit:

While their excellent “About” page failed the test (it’s still an awesome page – as above, the test isn’t perfect), their homepage, which tells their story and serves as an extension of the About page, scored an impressive 62.59% for “customer focus”.

Think you’re guilty of this mistake? You’ll be pleased to hear that the fix doesn’t have to entail rewriting and redesigning your whole page – you may simply need to rephrase some of your sentences.

For example, instead of saying the passive (and impersonal) sentence, “we protect people’s savings and help them make the purchases that improve the quality of their lives” say, “we protect your savings and help you to make the purchases that will improve the quality of your life”.

It’s too impersonal

Some visitors will go to your About page because they want to feel a connection with your brand – they want to learn more about the people behind the company, your history, and what you stand for.

An About page that feels corporate or clinical – that just exists to tick a box rather than offer real value and insights into the firm – is therefore going to let you down. A lot.

Now, don’t think I’m backtracking on what I said about designing an About page that’s about your customer, rather than your company. You should still use the page to demonstrate how your mission, history, and values benefit your customer. You should just give the customer a real, genuine insight into your company while you’re doing it.

This means…

Stating your mission. Keep this short and sweet, as seen here on Help Scout’s About page:

Injecting some of your personality. Whether it’s through text, imagery, presentation, or all three, use your About page to help portray your company in the light you want to be seen in.

Moz wants to be seen as a fun, young, and hard-working company that always strives to get awesome results – all things which (in my opinion, at least) they articulate perfectly in the opening section of their About page:

Showing who works for you. This one should be obvious, but it’s amazing how many companies don’t bother to include staff details anywhere on their website (let alone on their About page).

There’s really no excuse for this – even companies with thousands of employees should still include details (and ideally, pictures) of the guys and girls up top.

I took a look around and as far as I can see Starbucks doesn’t do this.

Neither does Pottery Barn.

Or Krispy Kreme (despite telling their story with a pretty nifty timeline).

Displaying the faces behind your brand helps to humanize you. In a day and age when so many brands are trying to “be more social” and make themselves more approachable, this is a pretty critical element of every site and About page.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of examples of companies getting this right.

Adidas manages it (yep, it all looks a bit corporate and it’s not the most exciting of pages, but credit to them for at least including the information).

As does Distilled:

While Nerdery manage to include every one of their 470 employees on their people page:

You’re not being authentic

It’s not uncommon for businesses that want to portray themselves as ethical and trustworthy (most businesses, then) to fall into the trap of using formal language.

This is fine, if you’re operating in a traditionally formal industry, and “formal” is genuinely the kind of image you want to portray.

Increasing numbers of companies, however, are moving away from the “suited and booted” image. Even firms from some of the most traditionally “dry” industries are making changes to try and shake off the formalities and make themselves more approachable – presumably to attract not just new customers but new, brilliant employees.

Take a look at the About page for American Express:

Is it perfect? No. But for a financial company (which are often guilty of being Sahara Desert dry), it does a pretty good job of portraying the brand as fun, successful, and aspirational.

For a little perspective, here’s the About page for a very similar company: Capital One.

Two words: Corporate. Boring.

The page actually has nine mentions of the word “corporate”. Seeing that Capital One serves consumers as much as businesses, I’m not sure why this page is so business-focused.

Let’s hone in on specifically what each of these pages say about the brand.

Capital One:

American Express:

Again, neither of these blurbs are perfect. However American Express sums themselves up in a few words and demonstrates the value they offer to their customers. As for Capital One? I’ll leave you to figure that one out for yourselves…

The key here is pretty simple: use language that reflects the way you want your brand to be seen. For example…

Fun (from Innocent Drinks):

Fearless (from LessFilms):

Innovative (from Apptopia):

Bonus Tip: Remember that whatever style of language you use on your About page (and on your site in general), always avoid using industry jargon.

Whether the language you use is formal, fun, or flowery, it should (more importantly than anything) always be easy to understand.

It doesn’t show how great you are

Your company’s great, right? Of course it is. You know that. You just need to make sure your visitors know it, too.

Remember that a lot of visitors to your About page will be looking for reassurance. They want to know that you’re a good company with a great product (or service) that they can feel confident in providing with their personal details and trust to deliver on their promises.

However, don’t just say why you’re so great: prove it.

This might mean featuring quotes or testimonials, or embedding (or linking to) snippets from press articles.

The lovely couple that runs Eight Hour Day summarizes the recognition they’ve received from clients in the corner of their “About” page, then link to a complete index of where they’ve been featured and who’s been talking about them (no-one ever said your “About” page actually had to be a single page).

While designer and developer Elliot Swan links to a bunch of places that have featured his work:

And Prime Visibility showcases their very impressive client list:

It’s boring

This one’s pretty simple to wrap your head around: a successful About page has to be interesting. This means the information you include, the story you tell, and – of course – its presentation.

This is the About page from Walmart:

The information here might actually be really interesting. I can’t tell you because I simply don’t want to read it. Pictures please, Walmart!

How about Toys’R’Us? A brand that sell toys is bound to have a really cool About page, right? Wrong.

Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom: the main page for Whole Foods About section is much, much better:

Hopefully they can keep it up – let’s take a look at their history:

Oh.

Is anyone getting this right? Thankfully, yes.

Target has split their company information into a number of short, easy-to-digest sections, each of which is illustrated with either an image or a video.

Chipotle’s main About page is short and sweet. Sure, it could contain more information, but at least it didn’t put me to sleep!

What really stands out for these guys, though, is their “food with integrity” page – check it out here.

Oddly, it seems that the bigger the brand, the more boring the About page (I assume they don’t feel the need to invest in it…)

So let’s take a look at the About pages of some smaller brands…

Fiftythree begins their About page with a company description written using two different font sizes, in both upper and lower case letters. It probably shouldn’t work, but it does.

H-Art uses icons to represent what makes them great:

Pulp Fingers expresses their creativity with some very awesome (and subtly moving) illustrations:

And since we’re on the subject of very cool About pages, it would be rude (and frankly, wrong) not to mention Innocent and their timeline:

You never update it

Most businesses are constantly evolving; staff come and go and every so often, another chapter gets added to your story. So if you’re never updating your About page to reflect the changing faces of your company, it’s going to lose its value.

Implement a system for updating your staff details when a new employee joins or somebody leaves. Beyond that, set a recurring reminder to revisit the page every so often. About every six months should do – more often if the company’s changing very quickly, less often if not.

You’re hiding the page

If your About page is getting fewer visitors than a Christmas store in July, ask yourself one quick question: how easy is it to find?

If you’re hiding it away in your site’s footer, or worse, not linking to it all, are you really surprised so few people are managing to get to it?

Be proud of your About page and link to it in your main navigation where no one will miss it!

It doesn’t have a clear CTA

If someone’s made it to the bottom of your About page, it’s safe to assume that they’re pretty engaged with your brand and are pretty likely to become a customer. It makes sense then, to monetize this opportunity by ending your About page with a clear call-to-action.

This might mean including a simple contact form, as you can see here on Molecube (which, by the way, is a pretty awesome About page overall – you should definitely check it out).

Neil Patel allows comments on his About page, so naturally, he includes a call-to-action for them (which has worked – that page has a lot of comments!)

Of course, the obvious choice is to try and get your visitors to buy. Basecamp does this (and very politely, too!)

Alternatively, you might want to offer your visitors a couple of options: finding out more, or getting started with their purchase, for instance. We can see this strategy in action on Manpacks:

That’s it for the ways your About page might be failing you, but before we wrap up, here’s a handy summary of all the above points. Use it to help you figure out exactly where you’re going wrong with your About page and how to fix it.

Cover the basics:

At a minimum, every About page should:

• Show who you are
• Explain your core values and what you stand for
• Demonstrate what makes you different

Be less self-absorbed:

At its heart, an About page isn’t really about you – it’s about what you can do for your customers. Yes, you should use it to tell your story, and yes, it should give your customers a thorough insight into the life, mind, and mission of your company, but above all that, it should demonstrate to your customer how all of this is going to benefit them.

Key Takeaway: Perform a close analysis of the language on your About page (and site, generally). If it’s packed with self-focused words like “we” and “our”, try rephrasing the text to use more customer-focused words like “you” and “your”.

Be more personal:

No, this isn’t a contradiction with the section above: an About page is about what you can do for your customers, but part of this entails giving your customers a sneak peak inside the inner workings of your company. Use this page to demonstrate what your brand’s really all about.

Key Takeaway: Reflect your brand’s personality through the language, imagery, and presentation you use, and don’t forget to include staff profiles and a clear mission statement (to summarize what you’re all about and what you stand for).

Be authentic:

Unless you want your brand to be seen as formal and, well, a little bit stuffy, don’t hide behind formal language and corporate jargon.

Key Takeaway: Just be yourself. Use the same style of language on your About page as you use to communicate internally (just keep it clean!).

Show off:

You’re a cool company, right? You’ve achieved some awesome things and worked with some great people – so use your About page to show off about it. Customers often visit this page because they’re looking for reassurances that you’re a company they want to do business with. Provide them with the info and testimonials they need to give them that confidence.

Key Takeaway: Include testimonials, press cuttings, client logos, or links to (positive!) features about you.

Don’t be boring:

If you want people to read your About page, it needs to look like something worth reading. A page that’s filled with text does not (look worth reading, that is). It looks tedious and boring.

Key Takeaway: Play around with the design and layout of your page – images are almost always better than text, and don’t be afraid to use different fonts and sizes. If you’re able to incorporate any moving or interactive elements into the page – even better.

Update it regularly:

Most businesses are changing all the time, so chances are, an About page you created 12 months ago will be much less relevant today.

Key Takeaway: Implement a system to ensure your staff profiles get updated every time a staff member starts or leaves, and set a reminder to review the rest of the information on the page every six months or so.

Make it (really) visible:

An About page will only perform properly if your visitors are able to find it.

Key Takeaway: If possible, include a link to your About page in your main navigation.

Include a clear CTA:

If someone has visited your About page and is engaged enough to read it to the end, then they’re pretty likely to convert. Ensure you’re capitalizing on this engagement by including a clear CTA that guides the visitor to what you’d like them to do next.

Key Takeaway: Encourage engaged visitors to stay on your site and eventually convert by ending your About page with a contact form, a link to more information, or a link to where they can begin their purchase.

Thanks everyone for reading this far. Have another great About page (or your own, if you like) to share? Leave a link directly to the page in the comments below, along with a note on what you do (and don’t) like about it: