In the previous blog post, we talked about how to tweak your core website pages for better conversions.

I know most of you were a bit confused about the part where I said that the ‘About’ page on your site shouldn’t be about YOU.

So in an effort to clear things up, this post will explain exactly what it is that your about page should actually be about. Use this article as a step by step guide to creating the perfect, high-converting ‘About’ page for your blog.

You may or may not already have an about page on your site, but the truth is that most bloggers, while they realize the need for an about page, they have no idea how to make it effective for conversions.

Your about page is one of the most important pages on your blog, and this article is going to outline some of the core strategies that you can use to create an effective about page.

There is nothing wrong with writing a bio of yourself on your about page, as long as it helps in achieving the main goal of the page.

And what is that goal, you ask?

Your ‘About’ Page Should Be a Sales Page

It’s a sales page for both you and your blog, and so you need to treat it accordingly.

I know you’re probably wondering how it can be a sales page when you’re not trying to convince anyone to buy anything, but you have to try to think a little bigger.

While that page may not be selling something for money, it’s still selling YOU.

It’s selling your readers on WHY they should care about you and your blog or business. And like all sales pages, it obviously needs a call to action. After all, if you’ve managed to convince someone to pay attention to you, wouldn’t the next natural step be to get them to opt-in to your list?

Your about page is one of the best locations for list building on your blog and it also happens to be one of the most visited pages for those who are coming to your blog for the first time.

This means that it’s one of the core site pages that you cannot afford to neglect. So, with that in mind, let’s dive into exactly what it’s going to take to create an about page that truly makes an impact.

1. Just Call The Page ‘About’

Make sure that this page is easily found in the top navigation of your site and label it with a simple and predictable title like ‘About’.

If you give your page some funny title it might get glossed over.

If you want to, you can give it a different title on the actual page. Also, don’t display the about page information in a sidebar widget either because it just won’t get as much notice as it would on your top navigation menu.

2. Answer The Question of Why The Reader Should Care As Quickly As Possible

As soon as the reader gets to your about page, they should find the information to answer their question – Why should I care? – right at the top of the page.

They need to immediately know that they are in the right place. A great way to achieve this is by using a bold headline designed to grab their attention by telling them what your site is going to do for them and why they should care.

However, this is only what you should put at the beginning of your about page.

Now is not the time to jump right into you and your bio, but rather, you have to make it all about them and the benefits that they will get on your site.

3. Immediately Establish Credibility

What is it in your background that qualifies you to talk about the things you discuss on your blog?

In previous posts, we talked about how to ‘borrow’ credibility if you don’t feel that you can establish it on your own at this point.

But whether the credibility is real or established indirectly by association with some known sources of credibility, it still works to make your about page more effective for conversions. There are easy ways of borrowing credibility such as using quotes about your niche from the media.

This establishes the importance of the work you are doing and indirectly props up your credibility.

Yet another easy way of establishing credibility is by using pictures of yourself with well-known credible sources. For instance, if you’re at a conference and end up meeting some of these credible people, make sure you get a photo taken with them.

4. Use Photos Of Yourself

The majority of people are very visual in nature, and since we bond with people and not blogs, it’s a great idea to show yourself on your blog’s about page.

You should also put some thought into the picture that you use because it’s going to have an impact on your branding. For instance, you could use a simple profile shot, but those can sometimes come off looking a bit stuffy.

Of course, if the brand that you want to portray is ‘corporate’ then that’s alright.

But, you can also use a picture of you doing what you speak about on the blog, or a photo of you relaxing with your family or friends – basically, anything that shows some personality will do here.

This will help ensure that your readers grow to know you, and (hopefully) like you, and ultimately trust you.

5. Tell Them Your Story

This part comes naturally for a lot of us, and as I’ve previously mentioned, a lot of bloggers are good at giving long backgrounds about themselves on their blog.

While this is fine, there are ways of making your story more interesting and memorable and ensuring that it serves your cause in a much more effective way. How do you do that? Through storytelling.

Here are some tips to help you with that:

• What sort of life events led you to start your blog?
• What dramatic turns of events took place?
• Have you experienced any interesting things within the context of your niche?
• Are there any unexpected twists that happened to you which, if they hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t be where you are right now (as a blogger)
• Can you bring all of this together as a cohesive backstory for who you are?

If this proves to be hard or if your life doesn’t seem to have been that interesting up to this point, don’t worry.

It doesn’t all have to be about the excitement. Life isn’t necessarily like that for all of us.

Just do your best to inject some emotion into your backstory and bring it to life as vividly as you can. Whatever your story is, I’ll bet you anything that someone out there will find it inspiring to them.

In the Internet marketing industry, there’s always the typical ‘guru’ story that you see all the time.

You’ve probably come across it a few times yourself.

It’s where the individual lost everything and was homeless or in debt and then they came across some ‘secret’ that helped them become a millionaire, and now, out of the goodness of their heart, they’re going to share that secret with you for only $497…

Don’t be that guy!

In our niche, people think that to be successful you’ve got to have some magical powers.

Few people actually want to believe that simple, consistent, hard, strike that – SMART work can get you where you want to be. So don’t think that your story has to read like a resume or a Wikipedia entry.

It’s your story – It’s unique – Tell it!

6. Tell Them Your ‘Why’

Now it’s time to tell your readers what you believe.

Use a section of your about page to share with your readers why you started your blog or why you started your online business.

Most people don’t do that, so why did you do it?

This is the time to explain all that to them. What do you believe in?

What’s driving the work that you are doing on your blog?

Answer these questions in that part of your about page, and you will draw to you all those people who resonate with your beliefs.

Once they know that you believe as they do, they will be more willing to listen to everything else you have to say.

7. Time to Funnel Their Attention

When your readers’ attention is scattered all over the show, it’s hard to get them to take any one particular action.

So if you want your visitors to convert on your about page, then make sure that you funnel their attention toward the outcome that you want by giving them a call to action.

If they have come to this page and read through it, they now know a little about you and why they should care about your blog, which means that this is the perfect opportunity to ask them to take an action.

What this action will be is up to you.

You can even have multiple calls to action, each of them providing your readers with a different way to connect or learn.

Examples of potential ‘Next Steps’ for your about page:

• Get them to opt-in for one of your best converting lead magnets and join your email list
• Get them to connect with you on your social media platforms
• Get them to sign up for a webinar or to subscribe to your podcast (if you have either)
• Get them to take the first step toward the transformation that your particular business provides (for instance, you could get them to click on the ‘getting started’ page).

You get the idea.

The point here is that your blog’s about page is an extremely valuable space that can be used to boost conversions and you should not waste it.

Make Your About Page Eye-Catching

You could put all this information together perfectly, but it still needs to look great on the page in order to entice people to scroll down and read through it.

Unfortunately, a lot of themes don’t provide ways of making pages look unique which means that without a ton of custom code, you may be stuck with a generic looking about page.

So what’s the solution for those of us who don’t know how to hack our themes?

The best way to get beautiful pages without the use of any HTML coding is by using designated tools such as Thrive Themes, LeadPages, OptimizePress, or any other such page builders.

These tools will allow you to create custom about pages quickly and easily.

So, depending on your skill level, you have a choice of either creating the page yourself using the current theme that you are using, or you could use one of the tools mentioned above.

Whatever you choose, make sure that your page has a beautiful layout and lots of white space.

In Conclusion

Now it’s your turn. If you don’t put the strategies that are outlined in this post to use, then writing this post was just a giant waste of time on my part!

Okay, that’s not entirely true.

But it would definitely mean you’ve just wasted a whole lot of your own time if you’ve read this far. So, here’s what you should do now…

Take a look at your blog’s about page and identify a few things (maybe three or four) that could be improved about it – and make it happen.

If you are anything like the rest of us, you’re going to worry about trying to make it perfect.

But don’t get caught up in that endless cycle of tweaking. Also, while making those changes to your site’s about page, don’t be shy to model what others in your niche are doing.

Of course, I’m not saying that you should go out there and copy anything, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with using other sites in your niche for ideas and inspiration.

Feel free to post your comment below.  An email address is required but it will not be shared with anyone, put on any list, or used for any kind of marketing, just to alert you if there are any replies. Thanks and happy hunting!

PlanetBizOp.com

->Steven

Updated: Originally published July 28th 2018