Four Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

This doesn’t make any sense in my mind, as the About page is one of the most important brand assets, and unlike link building and social media marketing, it doesn’t require any ongoing effort or investment.

An About page is often part of a buying journey. It can drive people to your site and help convince them to trust your brand.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

It is often an entry page

Whether you’re a business owner or blogger, your About page tends to rank incredibly well for brand-driven search queries (those that contain your name or your brand name). If nothing else, it shows up in your sitelinks:

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your potential customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

Let’s not forget that branded queries have high intent because people typing your brand name in the search box already know you or have heard about your products. Failing to meet their needs equals a missed opportunity.

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

We don’t know exactly how Google decides whether a site can be considered a brand, but we have well-educated theories, so we can help Google in making this decision. The About page is a perfect entity optimization asset.

First, what we know: An About page is mentioned in Google’s human rating guidelines as one of the ways to determine the “experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness,” or E-E-A-T, of any page.

Human raters don’t have a direct impact on search results, but their assessments are used to teach Google’s algorithm to better rank pages. So, if the About page comes up in their guidelines, it’s likely they use it as an (indirect) ranking signal in some way or another.

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

This step is not unique to this particular type of content, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

Treat your About page as a business card: People should be willing to learn more as soon as they see it. Your page should be eye-catching, and memorable, and it should grab attention at first sight without the need to scroll down.

The most important purposes of the About page:

• For humans

For example, Convert starts with the tagline and then follows with customers’ stories and the company’s values:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

Telling your brand’s story is a great way to make your About page more memorable and relatable. Moz tells its story on the About page, and A2 Hosting does that using a visual timeline:

Google needs links to:

• Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

• Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g., brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within its knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

• Your company’s professional awards

• Your featured mentions

• Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

To start, “Shorty Awards” is Google’s recognized entity. When I was nominated, I linked to that announcement from my blog, so Google connected me to the entity and generated a branded Knowledge Graph.

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

Don’t forget to link to your official social media channels, too. This will help you control your branded search better because those links will push your social media channels higher in rankings whenever anyone searches for your business name.

• Link to all social media channels you have set up

• If you have external landing pages set up (like social media landing pages or digital business cards), include them here as well.

Organization structured markup is an official Google recommendation as they use this information to generate your knowledge graph, including your logo, social media profiles, and support methods available.

Google uses varied sources to create knowledge panels, but Organization schema helps it connect all the dots.

This schema markup also helps Google find the right site name to show in Google organic results, which could impact your organic click-through rate.

Point Google to your organization’s details (the date it was founded, founder’s name, type of company, etc.) as well as some more details, including official social media channels, awards, associated books, and more.

• Here’s a helpful Organization schema generator for you to save time.

• For WordPress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Given the page's role in the buying journey (customers may be entering your site through it or using it as a final research touchpoint), it is very important to help them proceed down your conversion channel.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

• Request a personal demo

• Contact you

• Check out your catalog

• Talk to your chatbot

• Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from and continue your journey through the site. These include:

• Breadcrumb navigation

• “Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Whatever you do, start treating your About page as a commercial landing page, not just a resource for information about your business. Turn it into a conversion funnel, and keep an eye on that funnel performance using Google Analytics (now GA 4) or other web analytics solutions.

Like any other top- and middle-of-the-funnel pages, you’re welcome to reinforce your CTA by using social proof (recent reviews, testimonials, featured case studies, etc.). Here are a few ideas for placing testimonials or, better yet, your customers’ stories.

Creating and optimizing your About page is a fairly low-effort initiative, especially if you compare it with other marketing tasks. Yet it can bring about several positive changes, like more trust in your brand and better conversion rates.

You should treat this page as a business card: It needs to create a very good impression in an instant. Put something attention-grabbing and engaging in the above-the-fold area — for example, a quick video intro, a tagline, or a photo.

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities and put it into its knowledge base.

Add CTAs (and experiment with different kinds of CTAs) to prompt your page visitors to follow your conversion funnel. An About page is often an underestimated yet significant part of your customers’ buying journeys, so make sure it’s clear where you want them to proceed.