Here’s Why a Great About Me Page is Important
Your website’s About Me page is a crucial page to convert leads and move them along your personal brand journey.
In fact, an About Me page can make or break whether or not a visitor continues to engage with you.
Maybe your leads are website followers who are compelled to follow you on social media. Or, maybe they’re people who click over to your Services page to check out what you offer. They may even find you by Googling your name to learn more about you, leading them to fill out your “free consultation” form.
No matter how people find you and your personal brand, your About Me page holds major currency in terms of what people do next once they find you and your services.
Creating an About Me page can be daunting. You may have decades of experience having achieved amazing things. How do you know what to highlight? How do your distill and expertise within a few sentences and images?
And if you’re not a professional writer, should you hire a copywriter to make your copy compelling? Is an About Me page important enough to hire a copywriter?
We’ll answer questions like these, as we go over six tips for creating the best About Me page possible for your personal brand.
1. Begin with the End Goal in Mind When Crafting Your About Me Page
First, you need to identify your goal with your About Me page.
If you’re using your personal brand website to promote a freelance video editing service, for example, you might not need to mention that your degree was in biology. You’d be better off highlighting the video programs you’ve mastered and the results you’ve brought your clients.
This isn’t a holistic description of your life. Describe yourself with direct relevance to your services, product and brand mission.
Just like outlines can help when you’re writing a longform article, an outline can also help you organize your About Me page. Write out what you want to accomplish with your About Me page first. Then break down that goal into specific things you can highlight to help you accomplish that goal.
Your goal should also help you align your content with your audience. If your goal is to engage a certain consumer or specific generation, you’ll want to tailor your content to resonate with that audience. Think about how you can show that you are the person they should work with to solve their pain points.
2. Don’t Bury the Lead
People are busy. Even when they come to your About Me page to learn about you, web visitors are skimming content and want you to get to the point…quickly.
Nielsen Norman Group confirms people spend 80 percent of their time looking at content “above the fold, ”which is the content they see before they scroll down. So you want to lead with an attention-grabbing opening and state why people should care about you right away.
It may be tempting to start writing with a creative story, then get to the point later sine you’ve hooked the reader. But web reading doesn’t work like that. You may only have a few seconds to grab and keep attention (since Cision reports the average attention span in only 8 seconds today), so make sure you’re featuring the important content early on.
3. Use Keywords
Your About Me page is a branded web page that can help you pop up in relevant search results.
That being said, sounding natural and like ‘you’ is vital.
In other words, your About Me page should be an encapsulation of the organic, authentic you, rich with keywords to support ranking and search engine optimization.
If you’re a private chef, that phrase will be more beneficial to include than you writing, “I help people’s taste buds do a happy dance when I cook at their abodes.”
You want your About Me page to show off your personality, but you also want to be practical and use it as a tool that benefits your search engine optimization (SEO).
Include local tags, like the city where you tend to work (if that’s relevant), too. And don’t forget to include your first and last name in your description, even if you’re writing it in first-person.
You might write your About Me page first, and then look at your list of keywords you want to rank for and see how you can naturally integrate them.
You can also include keywords in image tags to help boost your SEO.
There are tons of options for boosting SEO, integrating keywords, all while retaining and bolstering the integrity of your personal brand using the About Me page!
4. Highlight What Makes You Unique on Your About Me Page
Thousands of people can have the same job title, but what makes you unique?
Your About Me page should consider the standout benefits of working with you, not someone with the same XYZ title. Try leveraging your elevator pitch , to capture your distinct qualities and value proposition.
Think about what drives your passion for what you do. Maybe it’s a personal experience others might relate to, or an emotionally compelling story that brought you to where you are today.
According to Inc., the most important component millennials (which is the largest consumer group) and younger generations like Gen Z expect from brands is engaging experiences.
They want to build relationships with those they shop from. They want to hear about your experiences, and they want to be a part of your experiences. Take them along the ride!
Apply that sentiment and value-set to your personal brand. If you want to move visitors along your personal brand journey, you want to include some information about why you’re relatable to your target audience.
5. Include Visuals on Your About Me Page
Information retention increases exponentially when words are paired with images. Be memorable. Get visual on your About Me page.
HubSpot reports that when people hear information, they’re likely to remember 10 percent of it 3 days later. If the same information is paired with an image, they’ll retain 65 percent 3 days later.
The same goes for web visitors reading your About Me page.
If there’s a smiling headshot of you accompanying your text, then:
- Readers can put a face to the words.
- Your copy becomes humanized.
- Visitors can form an emotional connection with your personal brand.
A headshot is great, but you might also consider adding some photos of you in action, too, if they’re relevant. If you have a nonprofit, for example, you should show some photos of your work.
You might also consider filming a video where you’re talking directly to your audience. You still want a typed-out About Me page for SEO purposes, but a video provides benefits like:
- You can upload it to YouTube and link back to your website, which strengthens your personal brand.
- Web visitors get a better idea of who you are and how you present yourself.
- You can deepen that emotional connection you make with web visitors.
Again, make sure photos you feature and videos you create align with your goal and speak to your target audience.
With these multimedia components, your About Me page will be a compilation of the dynamic ‘you’, and a multifaceted introduction to your personal brand.
6. Hire a Professional
Your About Me page should showcase what’s uniquely you, but it’s ultimately a way to strengthen your personal brand and achieve certain goals.
To make it an effective lead-generating tool, you really should consider working with a professional writer, editor or both.
Reasons to do this include:
- You can prevent spelling and grammar errors from appearing on your page, which is important because those could turn people off.
- You can get a professional’s view on how to tell your story in a compelling way, pursuing an approach you may not have even thought of on your own.
- You can make sure your About Me page is optimized for search and aligns with your goals.
You should also work with your web host to make sure your website and About Me page is on a secure, encrypted HTTPS website connection, since that’s a ranking signal for Google.
If you want to pause on hiring creatives to support you with your About Me page, check out this resource on crafting your personal brand statement.
Also, make sure your About Me page features an easy way to get in touch with you (like your email address, opt-in form to receive your emails, and/or a fill form), as well as social media icons visitors can click on to connect with you there.
Let Your About Me Page Amplify Your Personal Brand
Think of your About Me page as a way to introduce yourself to others in the digital world. You want to make a first impression that drives future engagement and makes the visitor want to get to know you more. You can do that by writing interesting copy, featuring a photo and a video, and by highlighting your unique qualities.
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to join our private, Personal Brand Builders Community to stay up-to-date on the latest tools, strategies, and best practices for building your personal brand. It’s free… and awesome!
We hope you enjoyed this article, thanks for reading! Also, follow us on Facebook, and Twitter for updates every time we publish!
