Nora Brown Design

Revisit your About page

I read a decent article recently outlining some guidelines for writing a good About page. I will relate some of the most helpful tips here, along with some of my own.

Have an About page

This one may seem fundamental, but it is easy to overlook when building your blog or website, and writing about yourself can be difficult. However, it’s important to have at least a brief About page so first-time visitors can see what you and your site are all about.

Answer the basic questions in the first paragraph

Many of the people visiting your About page will be first-time users, simply looking to see if they are on a website that is truly for them. The article I mentioned above lists 5 questions you should answer right away:

• Who are you?
• What do you or your website do?
• When did you start?
• Where in the world are you?
• How do you do what you do?

I don’t think all of these are absolutely necessary, it may depend on the purpose of your site. The “How” seems like a more in-depth question that may be better answered a little further down the page.

Include information on further engagement

If the user decides she is interested in your website or the service you’re offering, give her a route from your About page to further engagement. This may include:

• A newsletter sign-up form
• A contact form
• Links to your RSS feed or email subscriptions
• Links to Twitter, Facebook, or other “social media”
• Possibly, links to other websites you run (if they are relevant to the current site’s target audience)
• If applicable, how to advertise on your site

A picture says…well, a lot

Another article I read recently discusses the power of photography, specifically photographs of humans, to engage users. Your About page is the perfect place to take advantage of this, as a photo of yourself or the people in your company immediately answers the “Who are you?” question. So, you should have a photo on your About page. I also recommend including it on your Contact page.

How does my About page hold up?

It answers the five questions succinctly:

I am a freelance web and graphic designer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2005 I’ve been creating custom websites for writers, artists, businesses, and non-profits. I strive to build websites which project my clients’ personalities or brand identities and effectively promote their work and services. I enjoy the broad range of skills I employ as a freelancer: from layout and typography to semantics and usability to coding and search engine optimization.

However, I don’t have a photo, and I don’t even provide a link to my contact form, or a way to sign up for my newsletter. I guess I know what I’ll be working on this weekend!