One of the most text-heavy pages on your site is your About page, where you should shoot for roughly the same goal (200-400 words). For many of us this is the hardest page to write. I’m sure some people would write a novel about themselves if they could, but most of us hate talking about ourselves. The good news is that your About page isn’t really about you — it's about your business. Including relevant details and showing off your personality here is great! But make sure that what you’re writing is relevant to your photography business. People aren’t on your site to hear about the red bicycle you owned when you were six years old and living in the foothills of eastern Tennessee. They don’t care how fabulous your annual vacation to Hershey Park is. They want to know if you take the kind of photos they're looking for, what your approach is, how your sessions work, and if you are a good match for them. Mention the geographic area you serve, the types of photography you shoot, the philosophy you use to approach sessions, any other relevant information about your studio, and what you’re looking for in a client. That doesn’t mean your About text has to be dry and boring — feel free to get creative, this is your space to stand out! So just remember, there are loads of things you could talk about on your About page that have nothing at all to do with you as a person.
Unless you have a pretty specific need, your Home and About pages will probably be the most text-heavy pieces of writing on your website. And if you get stuck on these, I recommend starting with an outline. This can help you decide what you want to say, at which point it’s a lot easier to figure out how you want to say it.
When I’m writing, I like to start out with a simple bulleted list. I write down all the points I want to make, then organize them into an order that makes sense. Give it a try! Once you’ve done that, fleshing the thoughts out into complete sentences should be easier than starting from a blank page. An outline for an About page might start out looking something like:
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I do headshots, portraits, and graduation photos
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If I’m mentioning graduation photos, I should mention local colleges for SEO
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I graduated from UNC Greensboro, and talking about that might help me connect with leads
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I live in Greensboro but will travel anywhere in the Piedmont Triad for shoots
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I don’t have my own studio space or lighting equipment because I’m just starting out
You can see that I start with three bullet points, going over the things that I know I need to say. Then I build off of each one, coming up with a creative way to phrase it or brainstorming a way to expand on it so I can flesh things out. Once I have those bullets, I’ve got a path laid out in front of me, and it makes it way easier to come up with the rest of what I want to say. In fact, the outline alone is already 119 words, which means I only need to come up with about 100-200 more before I have a good length for my bio!