The Importance of an About us page

Posted by System | Friday, November 21, 2008

If you had to explain exactly what your business provided in one paragraph could you state exactly what you do?

From experience the 'about us' page is one of the hardest pages of a website to write, after all explaining a company's purpose and why the web site actually exists, is essential for providing the support of the web sites main goals and objectives.

When writing an 'about us' page you should offer four pieces of information:

• 1. Tag line - A few words describing what your business does
• 2. Summary - One to two paragraphs about the companies ambitions and accomplishments
• 3. Fact Sheet - To follow the summery elaborate any key points or facts about your business
• 4. Detailed information - Links to further page that will provide more detail about your business and services.

The tag line will help users to understand what the web site is all about and its purpose for being present. So this is why this is the most important piece of information displayed on the page.

E-commerce sites especially need to place special importance on their 'about us' page as users will often wonder who is behind the business selling them products, in this case the page builds up a trust and recognition for the company. For example can you trust the company to ship the package? and can they be contacted if something goes wrong?

Trust and credibility are major issues on the web now a days, it really does matter when explaining who you are and where you come from especially if you are in a competitive industry. Even simple things such as providing photos and biographies can help.

You also need to bear in mind that the 'about us' page should be easily found within your web site design this is usually recommended in the navigation bar either above the page or to the left of the page.

Overall in getting this page correct will determine that you have an understanding for your own business, which in turn helps your customers understand your site and business as a whole. This page will act as the catalyst to bring your site content together.