The “About Us” section is often the most overlooked aspect of a company’s website. Often all the focus is put on your services or products, as these are the pages which most often affect your search engine results. However, sometimes in the pursuit of SEO, we overlook the user’s experience. This commonly occurs on the “About Us” page because it is a more content heavy page of a website. Even if your “About Us” section isn’t stuffed with keywords, that doesn’t mean the information provided on this page isn’t useful. This page exists to answer questions visitors may have about who you are as a dealership and if they want to do business with you.   

If you are just slapping up a picture of your team and rewriting your company’s mission statement, you are underutilizing an important page on your website. The “About Us” section can effectively communicate your team’s values and how they may align with a potential customer’s goals. The overall purpose of a website is to provide enough useful information to convert a web visitor into a potential lead or customer, and the “About Us” section is often the best place to make this happen! We have put together three suggestions to make your “About Us” page more effective.

Answer the essential questions: Who, why, what, when, and (most importantly) how!

The primary purpose of the page is to answer questions about your business- hence the self-explanatory title. Visitors are coming to this page to gain confidence in your business, that you have the products or services they need, and an effective team standing behind your business. Try to avoid generic messaging and focus on how your business can help a potential visitor. This should be clearly communicated and include at least one call to action (CTA). The CTA can be as simple as a link to the product or services page on your website, to an actual contact form built into the page. Whatever CTA you choose to include, make sure that it fits naturally with the content on the page and the visitor’s journey as they interact with your content. Instead of just placing a contact form at the bottom of the “About Us” section, try to lead into the conversion. Take this example:

“At Commercial Web Services, we work with each of our customers to understand their business’s unique value and how we can build that value online through their website and other online marketing avenues. Start a conversation with us about your dealership by filling out this contact form and one of our Digital Marketing Advisors will contact you to get the conversation started.”

This CTA starts with a value proposition and natural lead into the contact form, as well as an explanation of what the visitor can expect from filling out that form. With a clear explanation of your business and an effective CTA, you are one step closer to a fully optimized “About Us” page.

Share your unique identity.

The “About Us” page is the perfect place to express your business’s unique identity. While your other pages are dedicated to your products and services, this page is all about what makes your business special. Avoid business babble and try to eliminate common jargon. Take control of this section with an authentic voice to describe what you do. The more this page reads as friendly and real, the more effective it will be in connecting with visitors.

If you find yourself struggling to establish this unique tone, try interviewing your coworkers and supervisors. Listen to the ways they describe the business and your team and then try to communicate these personal examples on your “About Us” page. This should help in building your business’s unique identity. For example, with this redesign, we’re making it a point to outline our 4 core values, including:

“A Desire to Develop Partnerships. We want to develop a partnership, not just a business transaction. This means that we evaluate your needs, determine if we are a good fit, and recommend services that help you meet your goals as a business. When you succeed, we succeed.”

Tell your story.

Every business has a story to tell, but it is through effective storytelling that potential customers come closer to your business. Your company’s story plays an important role in attracting attention and building trust. Your story should cover how the business was founded, who the key players are, the beliefs and principles that shaped the business, and details about your team. Tell this story with descriptive and emotive copy. To really enhance this story, include creative graphics or even video. Soon you will have an “About Us” page that will greatly further a visitor’s connection to your business. For example, our story includes context about our parent company Dominion Enterprises:

“Our story is one of innovation and dedication. In 2006, our parent company, Dominion Enterprises, recognized that the future of doing business was shifting away from print to an online presence. Because of this shift, Commercial Web Services was formed and emerged as the industry leader in online marketing for the equipment, material handling, agriculture, and truck industries.”

By incorporating all three of these aspects into your “About Us” page, you will be able to transform an often overlooked page, to an engaging, and hopefully lead generating, page on your website.