Let’s Ban the “About Us” Page on Websites

B.L. Ochman

You have an "About Us" page on your website, right? And you always put one on client sites you build, right? I've always done that too. But no more. Let's ban about us pages!

Because if visitors need to go to a special page beyond a site's homepage, the homepage isn't doing its job. You should know from the very first screen, exactly what a site is about.

Jakob Nielsen, the storied web usability guru recently completed a study of 63 sites run by entities ranging from large and small companies to government and non-profit sites to determine the quality of their "About us" information. He determined that "companies and organizations still can't explain what they do in one paragraph."

I say we should be able to define what we do in a single sentence. And that it's even better to be able to explain what we do in a phrase.

Nielsen lists a bunch of reasons why an About Us page should be included on a site. But I think a tagline that explains what the company does, and a well-organized homepage with clear menu options should be able to eliminate the About Us page.

Those who want to drill down to specific details should be able to find them easily in FAQs, Fact Sheets, or executive team bios.

Just don't make us go to a separate page to find out what you do.

B.L. Ochman
Internet marketer, internationally known blogger, blog strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies including IBM and Cendant, B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She publishes the internationally respected What's Next Blog, and the Ethics Crisis blog.