Quick question: when did you last actually read your own About page? For most small business owners the honest answer sits somewhere between “never” and “the day the website went live”. And yet, after your home page, your About page is often the most visited page on the whole site. People click it because they want to know who they are dealing with before they part with their money, and a good one turns that flicker of curiosity into real confidence. A weak one, all corporate waffle and tired stock phrases, quietly sends them back to Google to find someone who feels a bit more human. We say this to clients all the time: your About page is not really about you, it is about whether they can trust you.

Your About page is really a trust page

The name is a little misleading, because the best About pages spend surprisingly little time listing achievements and a lot of time answering the question buzzing quietly in the reader’s head: can I trust these people with my problem? Someone lands there because they are weighing you up, comparing you with two or three others, and looking for a reason to feel safe choosing you. Your job is to give them that reason in a warm, believable way.

That means an About page is part story, part reassurance, and part gentle nudge towards getting in touch. It is where your personality earns its keep, where a customer decides you are the sort of business they would enjoy dealing with. Get it right and it does a quiet, tireless job of selling long after you have gone home for the night.

Why a strong About page quietly wins you customers

It is easy to dismiss the About page as a formality, a box to tick before you get on with the “real” pages. In practice it pulls more weight than most owners realise, and here is why it deserves a proper hour of your attention.

• It builds trust fast: a genuine, human page reassures a nervous first-time visitor that there are real, capable people behind the logo.
• It sets you apart: your story and your way of doing things are the one part of your business no competitor can copy.
• It supports your other pages: people often read About before they enquire, so a strong page tips a hesitant browser into a paying customer.
• It helps you be found: a well-written page, with your location and what you do woven in naturally, gives search engines helpful clues too.

How to write an About page step by step

You do not need to be a copywriter to do this well; you need honesty, a little structure, and a willingness to sound like yourself. Work through these steps in order and you will end up with something far better than the usual mission-statement mush.

Open with the customer, not your history

Resist the urge to start with “Founded in 2012”. Open with the person reading and the problem they have, something like “If you are tired of chasing a designer who never replies, you are in the right place”. It signals immediately that you understand them, which matters far more than your founding date.

Tell your story, but keep it relevant

Share how and why you started, but only the parts that help the reader trust you. A sentence on the frustration that made you set up, or the belief that drives how you work, is worth a hundred words of dry company timeline. Keep it human and keep it moving.

Show that you understand their problem

Spend a few lines proving you get what your customers struggle with. When people feel understood, they relax, and a relaxed reader is a reader who is far more likely to get in touch. This is the emotional heart of the page, so do not rush past it.

Introduce the people and the proof

Add a friendly photo, a few real names, and any credible proof such as awards, qualifications, or a short customer quote. Faces and evidence do a huge amount of quiet reassurance that words alone cannot manage.

Finish with a clear next step

Never let an About page trail off into nothing. End with a warm, obvious invitation, whether that is to book a call, send a message, or browse your services. You have earned their attention, so tell them exactly what to do with it.

What a great About page includes, and what to leave out

It is just as useful to know what to cut as what to keep. Here is a quick guide to the ingredients that pull their weight and the ones that clutter the page.

• Keep, a customer-focused opening: lead with their problem and your understanding of it, not your birthday.
• Keep, a genuine human story: the why behind your business, told briefly and warmly.
• Keep, real faces and proof: photos, names, awards, and a short testimonial or two.
• Keep, a clear call to action: one obvious next step at the end.
• Leave out, corporate jargon: phrases like “synergistic solutions” make eyes glaze and trust evaporate.
• Leave out, a wall of history: nobody needs every milestone since 2012; keep only what builds trust.

Best practices that make your About page feel human

The difference between a forgettable page and a persuasive one usually comes down to warmth and clarity. Write the way you would speak to a customer across the counter, using “you” far more often than “we”, because a page that keeps talking about itself feels a bit like a dinner guest who never asks a question. Break the text into short paragraphs with clear headings so it is easy to skim, since most people scan before they read. Use a real photo rather than a faceless stock image, and read the whole thing aloud before you publish; if a sentence makes you wince or run out of breath, rewrite it until it sounds like you.

Common About page mistakes that cost you customers

Most weak About pages share the same handful of flaws, and the good news is that every one of them is fixable in an afternoon. Watch out for these in particular.

• Making it all about you: a page that never mentions the reader’s needs feels self-absorbed and forgettable.
• Hiding behind jargon: vague corporate language signals that you have nothing specific or human to say.
• No photo or proof: without faces and evidence, a nervous visitor has nothing solid to trust.
• Forgetting the call to action: a page that ends without inviting the next step wastes all the trust it just built.

Where About pages are heading

The direction of travel is firmly towards the personal and the genuine. As more of the web fills up with bland, machine-generated copy, the pages that sound unmistakably human are the ones that stand out and get remembered. Short video is creeping onto About pages too, with owners recording a friendly thirty-second hello that does more for trust than any paragraph, because seeing and hearing a real person is instantly reassuring.

Expect authenticity to keep winning. Customers are getting sharper at spotting hollow, templated language, and they reward businesses that are honest about who they are, flaws and quirks included. The safest long-term strategy for your About page is simply to sound like a real, likeable business run by real, likeable people.

How long should an About page be?

Long enough to build trust and no longer, which usually lands somewhere between three hundred and eight hundred words for a small business. The exact count matters far less than whether every line earns its place; if a sentence is not building trust or moving the reader towards getting in touch, it can go. Aim for something a busy person could happily read in a couple of minutes.

Should I write my About page in first or third person?

For most small businesses, first person feels warmer and more honest, so “I” for a sole trader or “we” for a small team tends to work best. Third person, referring to yourself by name throughout, can feel oddly formal and distant on a small site. Write it the way you would speak to a customer, and the natural choice usually becomes obvious.

Do I need a photo on my About page?

Ideally, yes. A genuine photo of you or your team does an enormous amount of quiet reassurance, because people trust faces far more than logos. It does not need to be a glossy studio shot; a clear, friendly, well-lit picture that looks like the real you is exactly right, and it beats a polished stock image every single time.

A quick before-and-after to show the difference

It helps to see the shift in action, so here is the sort of opening we see far too often, followed by a warmer rewrite. The “before” reads: “Established in 2014, our company provides a comprehensive range of high-quality solutions delivered by an experienced team committed to excellence and customer satisfaction.” It is grammatically fine and completely forgettable; it could belong to anyone selling anything, and it tells the reader nothing about whether they can trust you.

Now the “after”: “If you have ever felt let down by a builder who went quiet halfway through the job, we get it, and we built our company in 2014 precisely to be the opposite. We turn up when we say we will, explain things in plain English, and treat your home like our own.” Same business, same facts, but the second version speaks to a real worry, sounds like a human being, and quietly makes a promise. That is the whole game; you are not inventing anything, you are simply choosing words that make the reader feel seen. Do that across your page and it stops being a formality and starts being a salesperson who never sleeps.

Your About page checklist

Keep this beside you while you write, and tick each item off before you hit publish.

• Open with the reader and their problem.
• Tell your story briefly and warmly.
• Show you understand what customers struggle with.
• Add real faces, names, and a piece of proof.
• Use “you” more than “we”.
• Cut every scrap of jargon.
• Finish with one clear call to action.

Ready to write an About page that works?

A great About page is one of the simplest, highest-value upgrades you can make to your website, because it turns polite curiosity into genuine trust and trust into customers. Lead with the reader, sound like yourself, and always point them towards the next step. If writing about your own business makes your brain freeze, you are far from alone, and it is exactly the sort of thing we love to help with. Contact Us today and we will help you craft an About page that finally does your business justice.