What Your Website's About Page Should Actually Say
Most About pages read like they were written for a job application, not for the person deciding whether to trust you with their money. The visitor doesn't care about your full history — they care about one thing: is this business right for me? Here's how to write an About page that actually answers that. 💖
What most businesses get wrong
- Writing it like a company history — founding dates and milestones nobody outside the business cares about.
- Third-person stiffness — "[Business Name] was established to provide..." reads like it was translated from another language.
- Burying who you actually help — the visitor should know within one sentence if this page is for them.
- No photo, no personality — a page with zero human face on it does the opposite of building trust.
- Ending with nothing — no next step, so the visitor reads it, nods, and leaves.
The fill-in-the-blank formula
This structure covers everything a good About page needs to do, in the order it needs to do it:
Five moves: who, why, different, proof, next. Here's what that looks like once it's filled in.
Three real examples
Why this order actually works
People decide whether to trust a business in seconds, and they do it in a predictable order: first "is this relevant to me," then "why should I believe you," then "what happens if I go with you." The formula follows that exact sequence instead of fighting it — which is why a page that opens with your founding story instead of who you help loses people before they get to the part that would've convinced them.
Mistakes to avoid
- Writing for other business owners, not customers — awards and industry jargon impress peers, not the person hiring you.
- Skipping the photo — a page with no faces reads as less trustworthy, even for B2B.
- Copying a competitor's About page structure word for word — it flattens the one thing that should make you different.
- Forgetting the CTA at the end — someone who's read this far is your warmest visitor on the whole site; give them something to do next.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an About page be?
Long enough to cover all five moves properly, short enough that nobody skims past it — usually 150 to 300 words plus a photo. A page that's all one paragraph with no proof feels thin; a page that's three screens of history loses people halfway down.
Should I write in first person or third person?
For a solo operator, first person almost always reads warmer and truer. For a small team, either can work — first person plural ("we") if there's a consistent team voice, or a founder-led first-person story if one person is clearly the face of the business. There's a real trade-off either way: first person feels more personal but can feel odd if the founder isn't who clients actually deal with day to day.
Do I need a professional photo?
A decent, well-lit photo beats no photo every time, but it doesn't need to be a $500 studio shoot. A clear, current photo of you or your team doing the actual work usually builds more trust than a stiff corporate headshot anyway.
What if my "why we started" story isn't very interesting?
It doesn't need to be dramatic — it needs to be true and specific. "I got tired of doing this the slow way for someone else's business" is a completely fine reason, as long as it's actually yours and not a generic line borrowed from a template.
Keep reading 🤍
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