As an experienced SEO Agency, we were recently asked, “how should you optimize your About Us page for search engines?”
Your About page is pretty darn important! Our About page is the most viewed page of our website (after our homepage); I’m sure your About page is one of the most popular pages of your site as well. That being said, the content on this page needs to accurately convey how you want your business to be seen by potential customers.
I want to start off by addressing the purpose of your company’s About page. Your About page is actually about your visitor, not your company! It should include content relevant to your visitor, answering their questions like “What problems can this company solve for me?” and “How can this company solve my problems?” Additional information you may consider adding to your About page is when your company was established, information about your founders, your mission statement and vision, and company values. Just remember, it should be chock full of compelling content that makes the reader want to explore the other pages of your site, and ultimately fill out your contact form or place an order. Pay special attention to the bounce rate on your About page; that will tell you if your page’s content needs to be tweaked.
How Do I Optimize My About Page for Search Engines?
1. Optimize For The User
First of all, the entire purpose of SEO from the view of the search engines is to place the best pages for users at the top of search results. If your page is already optimized for the user, search engines will pick it up!
2. Manage Your SEO Settings
The Title Tag and Description is what shows up on the SERP, like this:
Search engines measure titles and descriptions by pixels. The estimated character length for the title is 70 characters and 150 characters for the description. You can include a keyword you are focusing on ranking for in your title tag—for example, “Atlanta Internet Marketing”. However, do not make the title tag all keywords. Instead, integrate your branded keywords and name the page for what it is. You should use the word “About Us” in the title like we have done.
3. Make Your Images Readable for Crawlers
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Your visitors love seeing pictures; I guarantee it. Who wants to read a page of just text? No one! That’s not compelling at all! Remember, you have to make them want to read, so include images (and even video if it is relevant). However, search engine crawlers can’t see images. Instead, they read the image titles and alternate text, so make sure you have input this information for each image.
4. Add Schema Markup
Schema is a language that is used by all the major search engines in helping with identification. Basically, it’s code that you add to your HTML to help direct search engines through your page, helping improve your company’s display in search results.
For example, if you’ve included your physical address on your About Us page, you can use schema text to help search engines crawl your page and easily read that address.
Schema text uses specific tags such as “postalCode” and “addressCountry” to easily direct search engine crawlers through your page.
Visit schema.org for “a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex rely on this markup to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages.”
These four things will make your page search engine friendly and increase your visibility on SERPS.
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