Writing about your company seems easy. You know your customers, your products and your employees better than anyone, so you are in a better position than most to write about them. People want to buy from people, not faceless corporations, so an About Us section tells them who is responsible for the business and adds a human touch. However, the key to successful web content is keeping your readers’ attention. After all, you are still trying to sell something to them.

Keep It Relevant, Snappy and Original

Keep your readers in mind: who are they, what do they want to know? Many companies start this section with something like ‘[Company Name] was founded in [Year]’, but often this is not very interesting to the reader.

Keep the first few lines short and snappy. More often than not, people won’t read past the first paragraph so everything you say in the first few lines should sum up your company and give the reader a good overview of the business. If you would like to include basic facts like the history of the company, you can always include these in bullet points further down the page.

Your Tone of Voice

About Us sections vary dramatically from site to site. A creative company may choose to be more original and personal because they are in the business of selling ideas. However, a larger corporation may be more serious as they need to appear powerful and appeal to a wider audience. Consider the image you are trying to portray in the rest of the site and use your About Us section to support this.

Telling a Story

Everything you say in your About Us section should be relevant to the reader. If you tell them about how your processes and procedures, you should also demonstrate how this has a positive impact on your customers’ experience. Turn everything round to be an example of how your business has beaten the odds or how your values affect the day-to-day running of your company. Most people only ‘scan’ web content so it is important to use every last bit of space to give your readers a positive impression of the way you run your company.

Choose an Appropriate Position

Once you have your content, you are ready to decide where to put it. Some companies have this content on the front page, whereas others prefer to place it within the sub-pages of the site. If you choose to put the About Us section within the sub-pages, it is important to consider where in the navigation it should go. Do you want to put a link in the footer, or have it as the first link in the main navigation? Consider how important this section is to your readers, and place it accordingly.