Because people scan web copy your company history needs to be chunked into simple paragraphs of six sentences or less by topic, event, or key dates. Your audience will follow the path laid out if the story is compelling and the navigation is well organized. Always include information that is useful from the customer’s point of view.

Include the date of the company’s founding, the founder name (when appropriate) and why the company was formed.

The Hershey Company History page begins: “Our company originated with candy-manufacturer Milton Hershey’s decision in 1894 to produce sweet chocolate as a coating for his caramels.”

Delcam’s first line reads: “In 1965 Donald Welbourn, Director in Industrial Co-operation at Cambridge University, had the vision to see the possibility of using computers to assist pattern makers to solve the problems of modeling difficult 3D shapes.”

What makes the Hershey content more appealing? It is shorter, begins with the personal word “Our” and reveals that the chocolate was an afterthought used to supplement the caramel.

Hershey’s history is told in chunks consisting of just a few sentences each using this clever navigation system.

Software solutions company SAS shows visitors an opening Overview when the Company History menu item is selected. How many people do you think are enticed to click on the years tabs (below) after reading the Overview?

Tab titles that describe their story – Leaders, Roots, Global Frontiers might work better. If a visitor does click on one of the years tabs, icons appear below that are clickable. This is a nice navigation technique for chunking more information with just a few sentences. Each click through paragraph needs to be self-contained. In the paragraph above a project is mentioned but we don’t know what project they are referring to.

Google lists its chronological history of events on a single page by year this way:

1997

• Larry and Sergey decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name. After some brainstorming, they go with Google—a play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

As long as the reader is learning something new about the company and its products the History page is working. It creates a closer connection with your visitors.

Finally, your company history is worth celebrating. Find a way to let your customers celebrate with you by offering special discounts or trivia contests with a prize going to the winner.

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