Importance of the “About Us” page on SEO for a website
When I start the Search Engine Optimisation for websites, one of the first things I check as part of the sanity check is, whether they have an “About Us” page on their website. And many clients raise their eyebrows when I ask them to include a professionally authored “About Us” page on their website as one of the first things. And some clients even worry that I am giving such suggestions only because I don’t have any other major SEO recommendations to give.
Before I explain how an “About Us” page can help on improving the search engine ranking of your website, let’s take a look at this from the search engine’s perspective and the user’s view.
Search Engines are automated systems and they cannot instantly locate the “About Us” page to read out whether the website is owned by some trusted people or a bunch of people hidden behind the Himalayas. In the olden days, search engines used to rank each page individually and used to look at very higher level elements like the number of keywords used in the page, the number of backlinks to it etc. But the modern search engines have evolved a lot and are very intelligent systems.
Search engines look at hundreds of factors before judging the content of a webpage. The credibility of the website is a significant factor in the search engine ranking. Now, a well-written About Us page plays a serious role in it. Search engines don’t just read the text in the About Us page. Instead, several indirect factors help in this regard.
1. When you have a well-written About Us page for your website, your visitors will tend to trust your site better and will keep coming back for more reading.
2. Many webmasters would look at the About Us page of your website before linking to your content. So, having a good About Us page will attract more backlinks to your website and indirectly help on SEO and help on improving the search engine ranking.
3. Even though search engines may not read the plain text on your About page to understand the people behind it, you can use “Structured Data” to tell the search engine about the people or entities behind the website. Structured Data elements allow you to specify several entities including the contact point, address, telephone number, legalName etc. You can even define the organization using the structured data. Search engines will use such information to display such information when people search for such details.
For example, check the structured data element below that can be used in the About Page of a website:
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “http://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Organization”,
“url”: “http://www.spiderworks.in”,
“name”: “SpiderWorks Technologies Pvt Ltd”,
“contactPoint”: {
“@type”: “ContactPoint”,
“telephone”: “+91-9495559690”,
“contactType”: “Customer service”
}
}
</script>
The presence of above element in the About Us page of a website clearly tells Google about the organisation managing the website. While the direct impact of such elements in SEO is very minimal, every such aspect helps on its own on improving the search engine ranking of a website.
Best practices for “About Us” page for the best SEO results
Here are some best practices and tips to improve your website’s “About” page to help improve its SEO and search engine ranking:
1. Clearly define who runs the website. If it is run by an individual, then include the name, address, photo of the owner and some sort of contact details. You may hide your personal address and contact details but try to provide a business address and business contact details. If the website is operated by a registered business, include the registered business name, registration number, office address and contact details for customer support, business enquiries etc.
2. Use structured data to markup the address, contact details, phone number etc.
3. Use “keywords” wherever possible. For example, if your business is providing digital marketing services, use a title like this: “About SpiderWorks Technologies – The leading digital marketing agency in India”.
4. Nobody wants to read an essay about you (unless they are investors who want to acquire your business, but such people have better ways to find about you). Make your About Us page crisp, clear and talk to the point. Use the page to tell who you are in the minimum number of words.
5. If your company has a story to tell, include your story as short as possible. (If you don’t have one, make one!!). Include answers to questions like who started your company, why did they start it, what business your company is involved in and so on. These details may not help with SEO but will definitely help in various other aspects of making your website attractive to your audience.
6. Don’t use the “About Us” page as a placeholder. Use it as an opportunity to tell the audience about you. The only people who come to the About page are the people who want to know who you are. This page is your best opportunity to tell who you are to your readers.
7. If your company has a small team, include your team in the page. If you have hundreds of employees, at least include the top officials.
8. If you have a lot to tell about your business in the form of passion, vision, mission, history, team etc, then nothing wrong with splitting your About page into multiple pages. Remember every page is a content opportunity and a chance to get noticed on search engines.
9. Last but not least, remember to use keywords. As I described above, mention our primary service in the title and main headings. For example, if you provide SEO services, then you may use headings like “About SpiderWorks, the SEO Service Company”.
Hope you enjoyed reading my article about the importance of About Us page on SEO and ranking of a website on search engines. I am sure I haven’t covered every possible reason to have an About Us page on a website. If you have a recommendation on how a well-written About page can help on SEO, please suggest them below as a comment. I will be happy to include them in my article with due credits to you and your website.
