About Page – What Should Be Included

It's important to have a church about us page on  your website. Why? Because people want to know more about you and that is probably the first place they will look. When I go to a website, I very often look at the about page to get a sense of who owns the website. It can build credibility.

This is especially true when it comes to a church. People want to know how the church came to be and other information about them. It will go a long way in building trust.

What to Include on Your Church About Us Page

History

Not all about pages need a history section, but if you have a 100 year old church, you should tell about the history. People love to read about a church's roots and how it all got started. But if your church has only existed for a few years, it may not have much of a history, so this may not be a good option in that case.

If you are a non-profit, how did the organization get started? What prompted its beginnings? This would be a great thing to write about.

We did a website for a local church that is over 200 years old. Here's their history page for an example

Your Vision

What's your church or non-profit's vision? This is a great place to tell about it. You can take a look at our church's vision page for ideas. They have a separate page for their vision, which you can do, or you can include it on the about page. It depends on whether it fits in with the rest of the content on that page and how long the vision statement is.

Statement of Faith

I have seen some church websites include their statement of faith on their about page. This is an option, although may be better presented in a dropdown menu under "About Us." Regardless, people will want to read this so it should be included somewhere on the site.

What to Expect

You may also want to include information for a new visitor on your about page. Details about the service, how to dress, where to park, and what you offer for their children would be of interest to most visitors. Again, this can be a separate page or you can include it on the about page. If you choose to have it as its own page, consider including a link to it from the About Us page. It helps your web visitors to have clear paths to follow to gather the information they want to know.

Times and Location

We always recommend you put your service times and location on the homepage, however, you can repeat it on the about page if you want. That way, if someone misses it on the homepage, they can easily find it under about us. You can even include a map on the page to help your new visitors find you.

Welcome or Invitation

This can get forgotten when you are trying to decide what to put on your about page, but is an important piece. You want your website visitors to feel welcomed to come and visit your church. How will they know they are? Invite them! We invite people to come to our house, and  we should do the same thing with our church. Let them know you would be happy to meet them and have them visit.

You may want to consider including a video on this page of the pastor and other leaders/members inviting people to your church. It adds a personal touch when someone can hear and see the pastor talking to them.

Video can be incorporated into this page telling about the history or vision of the church also. It breaks up the written text as well as adding interest and professionalism (as long as the video is well done!)

Other Content

We have seen some church about us pages include information on their leaders or ministries. While this can work at times, we recommend creating separate pages for your leaders and ministries. These are popular pages among those who visit church websites, and it's best to have them clearly labeled so people can quickly find exactly what they are looking for.

Who is the Page For?

One thing worth mentioning is that your church About Us page is more for your visitors rather than your congregation. The people who attend your church already know about you, but visitors will want to find out who you are, so write your page with them in mind. What would you want to know about a church if you were attending for the first time? Or in the case of a non-profit, what would be helpful for you to know before deciding whether you want to get involved?

As I mentioned before, you can include the information right on your About page, or you can use "About" as a heading and include dropdowns for history, vision, etc. It's best not to have a mile long page, so it depends on how much information you have to share.

You can see you have a lot of options when writing your about page. Think about what makes sense to your church or non-profit, and write it in a way that people will find interesting and informative.

Here's a screenshot to one of our church AboutUs pages plus a link so you can see the page in its entirety.