Your About Us Page is Not Just a Placeholder - An About Us Page is a Sonnet
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No, I don't mean that you should write your "About Us" page in rhyme. A sonnet is a pretty specific poetic form, but the writer has complete freedom within the form to say what he wants to say. In the same way, visitors expect an "About Us" page to follow a certain form and convey certain information. But how you say it is up to you.
I'm going to take Google as my example again. If you look at the search engine's "About Us" page, you can see that it's really gone above and beyond as far as how neatly organized it is and how much information you can reach easily - not really surprising, given the size of the company. I'm going to focus in on the parts that I think are the most important, or at least the easiest to generalize to other companies. Here's a screen shot of those sections:
Okay, let's start with the third item on the left: Corporate Info. By any other name, that's your company description. When was it founded? Who owns it? Provide an overview. Yes, talk about your product and service offerings too.
Some think the mission statement should be separate from the company description. If it is, you can use it to explain your long-term vision for the company's future. You might think people are cynical, but if they're going to be dealing with your company they certainly want to know what it stands for!
The investor relations section is where you'd usually find biographies of the management team. Even if you don't have lots of investors, you should still post biographies for your important personnel. And you should include their pictures. These people are the human face of your company. They help visitors feel like they're getting to know you better, and that they can trust your company. You can keep the main bios short and link to longer versions if you wish.
You must have a "Contact Us" page. Whole articles have been written about how to compose one. Basically, it's a good idea to give your customers as many ways to get in touch with you as possible, and don't make them all electronic. Some of us prefer telephones; others are still archaic enough to send real letters through the postal service on real paper!
Next: More Items You Should Include >>
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