But try to find basic information about the company and you may be up a communications creek without a paddle. More than half the time, I've found myself defaulting to Wikipedia, where the company page has been far more useful. Dangerous, of course, because that's a crowd-sourced document out of marketers' control.
It wouldn't be hard for most companies to instantly fix this issue.
ONE. Be obvious "About Us". This is accepted terminology; don't get creative. Get this label in an obvious place, at home page level or one click below, and link all your company overview material to this spot. Don't be clever and differentiate with artistic headlines. Don't hide it because you assume visitors already know about you. This is the most basic type of information that any job hunter, investor, journalist … and most prospective customers … will look for. Who ARE you? Yet the number of companies who bury these basics, or don't have them at all, is shocking.
TWO. Think like a journalist, not a salesman. Often, when I get to the corporate overviews, they're written as an extension of current marketing spin rather than the pragmatic details I need. Anyone seeking a basic overview is going to be looking for details like ownership, size, locations, history, share listings and prices, etc. Most Wikipedia entries are actually brilliant at this, because they've grown out of the needs of people looking for the basics. If you have a Wikipedia entry, look there and reverse-engineer to your website. Test it on someone who knows nothing about your company or your industry. (Mothers tend to be excellent for this!)
THREE. Keep the language simple. Once again, following a basic journalistic model here saves everyone time, and gets your facts across. I've been shocked by the amount of corporate jargon, passive voice and lightweight marketing spin I've encountered in an area that should be a basic factual report. Once again, driving me to Wikipedia for something in clear English. Keep it simple, direct, fact-filled and lively to keep readers on a page you control.
Kudos to Vodafone (screen grab shown above), who's offered the best practice model of all the sites I've skimmed in the past fortnight. I won't name and shame the worst. Sadly, there are too many of them.
