What Should Go On Your About Page

Just a few days ago, I put out the reminder to check over your about page to make sure all of the information is up to date. However, I noticed at least one person ask, “What should go on our about page”?

By no means is there a complete guide on what should absolutely be presented on the about page but keep this in mind. If a visitor comes across your blog and their first impression doesn’t tell them what the blog is about, they will head straight to the page that provides more information. Here is my non-concrete guide of suggestions to what I think should be on your about page.

Short And Sweet – Right at the top of the about page, you should be short and concise as to what the blog is about and the information that is covered. There is no need to provide a mile long description of why the site exists because you can provide that further down the page.

Personalize – Let me tell you, going to a blog conference and not being able to match your favorite blogger with a face is pretty weird. To keep that from happening, place a picture of yourself on the page. This gives the overall blog a human touch and also enables your fanbase to recognize you out in the real world.

Detailed Information – As far as detailed information is concerned, depending on the type of blog this is, you can add your real name, occupation, hometown, education, etc. As for myself, I treat my About Page as part of my resume and so, most of what you would see on a resume is published on my about page. This gives prospecting employers information that they would otherwise have to contact me for.

Contact Information – At some point within the page, you should either link to your contact page, publish your email address, or provide a means for contacting you. Having an about page or doing anything online is almost worthless if there is no means in getting in touch with you.

All About The Details – After providing pertinent information about yourself, now would be a good time to tell your audience just how the blog came to be. At this point, you can dive into the history surrounding the site to give your audience an overall look at the big picture.

Where To Follow You – Again, depending upon the type of blog you have, you can also list the places for which you have worked/written for on the web. I do this on my own page because it acts as my resume place holder. It also gives my audience a chance to follow me across the web as I move from place to place.

Conclusion:

In a nutshell, that is pretty much the basis of what should be in your about page. Of course, depending on what kind of site/blog it is will determine the type of information presented within. Keep in mind that a good way not to have anyone write about you or your blog when introducing it to their audience is to either have little to no information on the page or no about page at all. If you happen to be one of those bloggers with no about page, thanks for contributing to blogging frustration.

If you need more ideas on what to put into your about page, check out this post on Problogger from 2005 which interestingly enough, is still relevant today.