We've become pretty savvy at HRmarketer.com when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). In addition to our own first-page Google, Yahoo! and MSN rankings for the keywords important to us, we've helped many HR suppliers achieve the same success. We'd like to share some of our knowledge on the subject as it relates to About Us statements and SEO - what they have in common and why jargon has no place in either.
An effective About Us statement will answer the following questions in 3 - 5 sentences: Who are we? What do we do? Why is it important? Why are we unique? and Why are we credible? A well written About Us statement will be written in language everyone understands - "street speak". In a previous posting, Industry Speak versus Street Speak, we discussed the differences between "street speak" and "industry speak".
"...Industry Speak includes a lot of jargon and it has a place when talking shop with company peers or other industry insiders. But it should not be used when talking with customers or the media. For these interactions, use street speak. Street speak is the language and tone you use in everyday social and business interactions. In other words, it is how we talk with one another....".
It's also the language people tend to use when searching for information on the Internet.
Street speak should be the language you use in your About us statement (elevator pitch). It is also important that your About Us statement include the keywords and phrases that your buyers are likely to use when searching for solutions like yours on the Internet. The reason is that your "marketing PR" press releases that you send out each month (you are doing this, right?) will include this About Us statement and have the keywords hyperlinked back to your site. Over time, this helps your SEO. And this is the relationship between About Us statements and SEO.
Too often, there is a disconnect between what many suppliers think are the keywords their buyers are using to find their products and what keywords the buyers actually use. And because of this, many vendors are using street speak (jargon) in their About Us statements and SEO keywords.
A good example of this in the recruitment and staffing space is the phrase "recruitment process outsourcing". A quick search on Google shows me that a number of suppliers are using this phrase in their About Us statements and in their META tags on their web site. And a search on Google for "recruitment process outsourcing" shows over 20 companies placing pay-per-click ads based on this phrase. Yet, when I do a trend history on Google for this phrase, I get "Your terms - Recruitment Process Outsourcing - do not have enough search volume to show graphs."
The problem with this jargon, I mean phrase, is that few buyers search for solutions using "recruitment process outsourcing". This can be validated by using Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery and a host of other similar keyword research tools.
It's easy to get caught up in using jargon, which are terms usually coined by industry analysts and other industry insiders - see a related posting on this titled ASP, Online, Hosted, Web-Based, On-Demand HR “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” Applications. But doing some basic research on keywords including (a) using keyword research tools, (b) studying your web analytics and (c) talking to your buyers and customers and asking them what phrases they use when looking for solutions like yours, will help you select the right keywords.
Good About US statements and SEO start with understanding the keywords your buyers use to find the solutions you provide.
Good luck.