The About page is often the second most visited page on a business website — and one of the most frequently written badly. A guide to getting it right.
When a visitor is considering doing business with you, they want to know who they are dealing with. The About page is where they look. Research consistently shows it to be among the most visited pages on a business website — particularly for service businesses where the decision to hire someone is as much about trust as it is about capability.
A well-written About page builds a connection. It answers the visitor's unspoken question — "Can I trust this business?" — before they have had to ask it. Done well, it moves a visitor from considering to contacting. Done badly, it either says nothing useful or, worse, actively undermines credibility with hollow, corporate-sounding language that feels like it was written for nobody in particular.
Name the people involved. For a sole trader or small team, this means real names and real roles. Anonymity breeds suspicion — people want to know they are dealing with an actual person.
Longevity is a trust signal. If your business has been trading for a number of years, say so clearly. Use a fixed year rather than a running count — "Trading since 2008" not "16 years in business."
For local businesses especially, stating your location clearly on the About page reinforces your connection to the area and helps with local search visibility.
Not a list of generic claims, but a genuine explanation of your approach, your values, or the specific experience you bring. What would your best customers say about working with you?
Relevant qualifications, trade memberships, and professional accreditations belong on the About page. They are independent endorsements of your competence and legitimacy.
The About page often prompts a visitor to make contact. Make it easy — include or link directly to your contact details from this page rather than leaving visitors to hunt for them.
The most common mistake on About pages is defaulting to formal, corporate language that sounds as though it was written by a committee. Phrases like "we are a dynamic, customer-focused solutions provider" communicate nothing and convince nobody. Write the way you would speak to a prospective customer in person.
"We are a passionate team of dedicated professionals committed to delivering excellence and exceeding client expectations through innovative, tailored solutions."
"We are a small plumbing business based in Bristol, run by James and his team of four. We have been doing this since 2009, and most of our customers come back to us because we turn up when we say we will."
The second example is specific, honest, and human. It tells the visitor something real about the business. The first example could apply to any company in any industry and says nothing of value.
Long enough to answer the questions a prospective customer would have, and no longer. For most small businesses, three to five well-written paragraphs is sufficient. There is no benefit to padding an About page with additional text if that text does not add information — and a shorter, genuinely informative page is always more effective than a long, repetitive one.
The best test of an About page is to ask someone unfamiliar with your business to read it and then tell you what they learned. If they can accurately describe who you are, what you do, where you are based, and why they might choose you — the page is doing its job. If they cannot, it needs more work.
