Are You Neglecting The Most Important Page On Your Blog?

Take a look at the above screen capture. This a shot of my blog’s four most popular pages in the last 30 days.

The most visited page is of course the home page. The second and third most visited pages are two posts that attracted a bit of social media attention (and therefore direct traffic).

The fourth most visited page is my about page. Believe it or not, this innocuous little corner of your blog holds a huge amount of power.

The About Page? Really?

Let me put it into perspective for you. Visitors were hitting the top three most visited pages on my blog from external sources. But my About page is barely linked to from external sites. Do you realize what that means? Out of all of the pages on my site, the one that gets the most clicks once a visitor has arrived is my About page (by a very long way, I should add).

I’ll put it another way by giving you a hypothetical (but not at all unrealistic) situation. A visitor hits your blog’s front page. She looks around, probably for 3-7 seconds. She sees your About page. She clicks. It’s what happens next that controls the success of your site. Whether that visitor sticks or twists.

Your About page is vitally important to the success of your blog.

How To Make Your About Page ‘Sticky’

I hope I have now convinced you as to how important your About page is. The next step is to make it sticky! You want visitors to stick to it like glue. But how do you go about doing that? You need to make sure that they are enraptured by both the story of your blog, and of you.

Wait…What?

I want hands up for those who took a double take there. Shouldn’t the About page be all about you? Isn’t that the whole point of it?

That is certainly the opinion of many, but in my opinion, they are both (a) wrong, and (b) missing out on a big opportunity to engage with their audience.

Let me refer to a little psychology 101 here. I don’t mean to burst any bubbles, but people are far more interested in themselves than they are in you. So when they come to your About page, the content should be geared primarily towards what you can do for them.

That doesn’t mean that you should talk solely about them. After all, they have clicked on your “About” page for a reason. And often, you can cater to their needs by talking about yourself (for instance, if they can see themselves in you). But you need to focus on how what you are all about can benefit them.

Take a look at the About page on my blog, for instance. Now I am not trying to claim for a second that my approach is perfect (far from it), but my analytics tell me that it performs pretty well:

Why does my About page perform well?

1. I engage directly with my target audience (there’s no point trying to appeal to anyone else but your target audience) and tell them that they are in the right place
2. I summarize what my blog can do for them (i.e. I tell them “about” my blog)
3. I follow up with a little bit of information about me
4. I wrap it up with a reminder of what they are there for

Engage, summarize, follow up, and wrap it up. If we were feeling corporate and wanted to come up with a clever acronym, we would be presented with the suitably ridiculous ESFW. Remember that acronym – it’s gonna be huge.

The About Page Is Where The Magic Happens

I also spread a few signup boxes throughout my About page, because ultimately, I want my visitors to sign up to my newsletter.

Consider what the key aim of your blog is. Do you want newsletter subscribers? Do you want them to buy your product or service? Or do you simply want them to stick around and read more?

Your About page’s sole focus should be catering to that key aim, and nothing more. That is why I have removed the sidebar from my About page – I am cutting down the options for my visitors. They’ve clicked on the About page because they are interested in what I have to offer, and now I want to take that opportunity to convert them into a subscriber. If you wanted to get them to read more of your posts, then you might include a little list of your ‘greatest hits’ in your About page, or even link to a “Start Here” page (more on that in another article soon).

It doesn’t matter if you have 10 visitors a day or 10,000 – your About page has the power to define how ‘sticky’ your blog is. And it’s all about the stickiness – trust me.

Over To You

What are your thoughts on the above? Do you agree, or do you think that the About page should be different? What is your about page like? Feel free to give me your thoughts, and don’t forget to link to your About page in the comments section below!

Creative commons photos courtesy of Will Fuller and Kyknoord

Tags:

• analytics
• social media