Your About Page is one of the most visited pages on your real estate website. Don’t make the mistake of not having one!
Let’s say someone visits your website because they’re looking to sell their house. Maybe they found you through a google search, on Facebook, through word of mouth, or from your other marketing efforts; and now they’re on your website. They see you are offering the services they’re looking for.
Next, they look for your About Page to learn more about who you are and, if you check all their boxes, how to contact you. They click into the “About Page” you put up for the sake of having the page, and find nothing compelling. They click that dreaded back button and continue their search elsewhere.
Just like that, you lose a lead, a subscriber, a potential client.
An About Page is a crucial element for any website, and its importance isn’t just limited to user experience. In fact, Google’s search algorithms favor websites that demonstrate expertise and are clear in their identity. In other words, Google’s search quality criteria weighs a page’s quality through the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (which Google refers to with the acronym E-A-T), especially for pages that deal with YMYL – “your money or your life.”
Maybe you don’t know what to write about yourself, or you want to avoid the About Page altogether because it feels cliché and self-pandering — But it is more important than ever to have clear and credible copy on your website.
“What should I write for my About Page?” is something I hear all the time. While the answer should be authentically your’s, here is some advice to get you past the writer’s block and onto a better website:
5 Tips for Writing A Better About Page
So you have the page created for your About Me, but you’re not so confident in your ability to write the content of your page well. You are not alone.
Taking a few minutes to consider the following tips and tricks can significantly improve your About Page content, user experience, and overall influence on your website’s SEO and ranking.
1) List your About Page clearly in your site menu:
Maybe you have an About Page but have named it something else in the effort of making it seem less cliché. The problem with doing this is two-fold
- Readers are looking for clear and concise information. If they are looking for your About Page and can’t find it easily within the site menu or header because it’s called something else, they might decide they don’t know enough about your company or how to contact you that they leave off your site. This ups your bounce rate and lowers your conversion. Stick with “About,” “About Me,” “About Us,” etc…
- Google’s algorithms might not find an “About Page” for site indexing. This is important for helping to establish your ranking and getting your “About Page” featured within a rich result, giving you additional visibility on search pages. Here’s how AllTheLeads.com shows in search results::
Search visibility favors user experience, and the ability of your visitors to find the information they need about your company impacts how search engines rank your site. Having your About Page easily indexed in your site menu plays an important role in traffic, conversion, and user-friendliness.
2) Use an engaging headline for your About Page
Your About Page should now be clearly labeled in your site menu as “About ______.” Your visitor will know where they are going when they click into your About Page from your menu, and we can utilize the headline/title of the page to capture their attention. Don’t waste space by making your headline say “About” again!
Use this as an opportunity to make a short value pitch – Think of a slogan or one-sentence purpose statement. This will be much more compelling than “About Me” and give you some framework to expand on who you are below.
3) Address your reader’s intent.
In the beginning of the copy for your About Page, you want to touch on why your reader may have found you.
Think of the problem that might bring someone to your page. Relate to that problem and paint a mental picture of how great life will be when that problem is solved. If you have a real story that explains why you do what you do, tell it!
Don’t deter readers with a self-centered resume. We know you’re great, but we’re reading your webpage to find out how you can make ourproblems better! This part is especially about the reader, so speak directly to them.
4) Write from a personal perspective.
Avoid the temptation to write from a third-person perspective. You are looking to resonate and relate to your reader, not create distance. Especially as the world shifts increasingly towards digital interactions, it’s increasingly possible to kickstart relationships with clients through conversational website copy.
In sharing your story, it is ok to speak with a first-person perspective, and you should! Academia has made people shy away from using “I” in their writing, but copywriting for your website should be personal! Even if you are representing a team or large company as you write an About Page, you can include personal voice through a Letter From the Editor, a Founder’s Note, or a short piece from the co-owners or partners about their story and why they came together to form this business.
Give people the impression they are working with real people who know what it’s like to be in their shoes.
5) Include friendly calls-to-action.
The ultimate goal is getting your readers excited to have found the right place and direct them on where to go next.
This can be accomplished in a number of ways that are less salesy than you might expect from a call to action:
- Newsletter Sign Up Forms
- Offers – Your visitor is probably excited about what you do if they’ve made it to the end of your About Page. Presenting them with an offer will increase their motivation to seal the deal.
- Contact Information (Click-to-Call/Click-to-Message buttons are great to include!)
- Links to Further Reading – In a way, this is an offer because you are providing your reader with valuable educational information. It also keeps them on your site longer, where they will see more calls to action – and Google will see your site is worth staying on!
- A map of your location – This is helpful for local customers who might want to stop into your office, to establish yourself as a legitimate business with a physical presence somewhere, and for increasing your visibility through google searches off your site.
- Contact Request Form or Appointment Scheduler: Not everybody has the time or will-power to pick up the phone and call you right here, right now. If someone is interested but can’t/won’t call you right this second, they probably tell themselves “I’ll call them later.” I’m guilty of doing this, so take it from me: If I can book an appointment for whatever my “later” is, now I feel a commitment to make that conversation happen; but if I don’t have that option, it’s up to me to remember, eventually, to go back to your website, grab your number, call you, and hope you answer when I do. The latter scenario is much less likely to result in us working together. Give people an option to request contact instead of relying on them to pick up the phone.
You can include more than one of these elements on your About Page, so choose what you feel is most relevant for you and get creative!
Put It Into Practice!
You’re on your way to a better About Page! Block off two 30 minute sessions this week – one to write a draft, another to revise and improve. Your About Page is too important to treat as a placeholder, and even the smallest improvements can have a big impact. Remember, doing is better than perfect.
