Construction managers—they are trained professionals who ensure that various construction projects are completed successfully. And just like construction managers have to construct a working building, webmasters must construct a working website. But one of the most overlooked principles of a functional website is its foundation—the About Me Page.
The Importance of About Me Pages
Some sites with particularly high quality content lack well written “About” or “About Me” pages. For some sites that already have a lot of credibility, they might argue that they don’t need an incredible “About” page to attract readers or promoters, but I disagree. Even if you have a successful site that circulates tons of traffic, you could always be tweaking your content to attract an even larger audience. Having an impressive “About” page does this in a number of ways:
Builds Credibility – Whether you are a self-made blogger or business, people are going to be skeptical of your opinions or products. Anyone who isn’t completely convinced by the content they see on the front page of your site might look to your “About” page to see what your credentials are. If this page is horribly written, why would they read the rest of your blog?
- Confirms Purpose – When a new reader stumbles upon a new site, it can sometimes take quite a few scans of article titles before they even have an idea of what the blog or business is about. A good “About” page should clear this up immediately.
- Builds Your Reputation – While I don’t advocate using your “About” page as a huge pedestal to boast about your achievements, this is a great way to take credit for your work on your site and your work in your career field. Not only are you building credibility for your site, you are also building your online presence which will (if it hasn’t already) expand past this site.
Ways to Boost Your “About” Page to New Levels
Your “About” page should read something like a statement of purpose to a highly selective graduate program (except minus all the academic jargon and sense of formality); it should read as a passionate introduction to the topic of your site and the topic’s role in your life. It should also appear as though you wrote, edited, and rewrote this section for a solid month. Some good rules and considerations to keep in mind are the following:
- Make It Personal – Even if you are writing an “About” page for a business or online service, people clicked on this page hoping to discover that actual people run the business and maintain the website. For blogs, this is even more important. Try to include things about your life that aren’t even related to your blog. The more you seem to resemble an actual human being, the more people will identify with and trust your site and your writing.
- Make It Fun – Far too many blogs and business sites take themselves way too seriously. I know, I know; you are going for a “professional look” and want to appear as a “credible, authoritative” source of information or products. But you end up sounding either incredibly boring or full or stiff. I recommend using a conversational tone, perhaps even adding in bits of humor here and there. And for the love of all things good, please don’t write about yourself in the third person.
- Make It Short – As much as I advocate adding personal information about yourself on your “About” page, be sure to keep it short and sweet. Many people here are trying to get a good idea of what your site is about rather than read your life story. You have to find the perfect balance of informative and engaging on this page.
- Keep It Organized – If you feel like you have a lot to say in your “About” page, the least you can do is keep it well organized. Good paragraph structure is a start, but I suggest going even further by using bullet points and sub-headlines so that people can find the information that they’re looking for easily. These are all of the types of things you should be doing in your regular blog posts too, by the way.
Byline:
This is a guest post by Kristie Lewis from construction management degree. You can reach her at: Kristie.Lewis81 @ gmail. Com.
(Image Credit: Image: xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Hi Praveen, Great post by Kristie. I’m afraid I’m guilty of quite a few of these no-no’s in my About page. I will definitely give it another look!
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Carolyn recently posted…You Don’t Have to Be Patient with ZocDoc!
Hi Carolyn – Thanks for stopping by. I am also finding my About Me page a little too shabby and I have to confess that I have never re-visited the page since the time I first started my blog!!!
Time for some clean-up and re-design i suppose.
Praveen Rajarao recently posted…How to Make a Legitimate About Me Page