Many of us struggle with our about pages…it feels odd to write about yourself, but we do want to make a great first impression and give people a chance to learn more. I think people who offer very personal services are most likely to feel pressure around this area of their website – I know that I care a lot about people’s about page and read it carefully before I commit to work with someone. My theme on here tells me that I edited my own about page 14 times this year. Ahem. Anyway, let’s all give it our best shot – I have written my best tips down for you:
Getting clear on what you want to communicate
As a first step, with any aspect of a web design project, I recommend that you ask yourself what exactly you would like to achieve and how you want your visitors to feel when they read your about page. Do you think it’s important to share what your professional credentials are? How much of your private self and your story do you want to share? How long do you want your about page to be?
Taking the pressure of your about page
Let’s be real: not everyone will read your about page and that’s okay. It is important that you give people the chance to understand who you are and what you are offering right away – within the first two seconds they spend on your homepage (and ideally also through the sidebar of your blog posts in case that is where they land first). This can be achieved through things like your url and logo, your tagline and a short intro paragraph on your homepage under the main header image. It is also a great idea to keep in mind that not everyone who clicks on your about page will have time to read the whole thing, so make sure that the first paragraph is a punchy introduction containing all the relevant essentials about you.
Bearing your reader in mind
What would you like to know about you if you met yourself online? And how can you make all that juicy information more digestible by working with coloured headers, images and a bit of breathing space between paragraphs? While working with the layout of your page, make sure it looks great on mobile as well!
Making it personal and working with images
How much of your story you want to share is of course totally your choice. Factors that might influence that decision could be the nature of what you are offering or writing about, the climate in your industry, professional standards in your field and the preferences of the target audience you want to reach. I would recommend to research a little to find about pages that really speak to you and to think about all the things that make you special and unique.
Head shots are of course an important part of your about page, but I think it`s totally fine if you can’t access a professional photographer at this point. Make sure you wear colours that harmonise with your branding, have a think about your body language and wear your best smile and it will be fine! I also like about pages that are illustrated with personal images (you can see my dog on mine), but I understand that might not be appropriate for all industries.
