An about page should answer the visitor's questions: who you are, who you work for, why they can trust you and who they will deal with. Keep the history short and further down.

Founded in 1992

Most about pages open the same way: a founding year, a founder with a plan, a first truck or a first client, and a steady climb to the present day.

Then come a mission statement about excellence, a row of association logos, and perhaps a photograph of the founder shaking somebody's hand.

Read it again looking for the customer. Who the business works for, what it is like to deal with, who answers the phone. On many pages, none of it appears.

The page answers a question the visitor did not ask, and skips the ones they did.

What a visitor is checking

The fourth is the one most about pages miss entirely. A founder's biography says who started the business; the visitor wants to know who will answer the phone and who will turn up.

Why about pages get written this way

The about page is usually written by the owner at the end of a site build, when everybody is tired of writing. The history is the part they know best and are proudest of, so it comes out first.

Sometimes it is lifted from an old brochure, written for a different purpose years ago. Sometimes it was written for the bank or an award application.

And the word about invites a business to talk about itself. Visitors open the page for a different reason.

When visitors open it

A visitor reads the about page after the services and before the call. They have decided you probably do what they need; now they are deciding whether to trust you with it.

That puts it right beside the decision, and it is one of the pages least often revised.

Whatever the page says, it is being read for one thing: whether this is somebody the visitor wants to deal with.

Who you work for

Say it in the first lines: the kinds of customers, the kinds of jobs, the area you cover. A family planning a kitchen and a property manager with twelve units to repaint are very different visitors.

Being specific lets the right visitors recognise themselves straight away. It also lets the wrong ones leave early, which saves everybody a phone call.

If most of your work comes from one kind of customer, say so. A page written for everybody reads as if it were written for nobody in particular.

A worked example

A family-run plumbing company with four vans had an about page that began with the founder's first service call in 1988, in a borrowed van, and continued through three paragraphs of history.

Below that sat a mission statement about service excellence and a photograph of the founder beside the first van.

The office, meanwhile, fielded the same questions every week: whether the plumbers were certified and on staff or subcontracted, whether they were insured, who would come to the house, and who to call if something went wrong afterwards.

People letting strangers into their homes wanted to know about the strangers. The page told them about 1988.

The rewrite opened with who the company works for: homeowners, landlords and small businesses across the region. The plumbers appeared by name, with photographs and how long each had been with the company.

A plain paragraph said the plumbers were certified employees, described the insurance, and named the person to call if anything went wrong after a visit. The history shrank to a short paragraph at the bottom, beside the old van.

Evidence instead of adjectives

Quality, integrity and excellent service appear on almost every about page, which is why they persuade nobody.

Replace them with things a stranger can check: years in business, the number of people on staff, insurance and licences held, memberships that mean something in your trade, warranties, and how long your people have stayed.

Real reviews belong nearby, with a link to where the rest can be read. Evidence is believed; adjectives are skimmed.

The people, by name

For most small businesses, the people are a large part of what is being bought. Name the ones a customer will actually meet: who answers the phone, who comes to quote, who does the work.

Use real photographs taken at work rather than stock images of smiling strangers. Visitors can usually tell, and a stock photograph on an about page undoes the point of the page.

If staff change often, name the roles and the people who have stayed. A changing team is no reason to show nobody.

Where the history still belongs

None of this means deleting the story. History is evidence too, when it is tied to the customer.

Thirty years in business means the company has survived thirty years of customers. Family ownership means the person who quoted the job is likely to be there to stand behind it.

Keep it to a paragraph or two, lower on the page, and finish the page with the next step: how to get in touch and what happens when they do.

The counter-case

Sometimes the founder is the service.

A sole practitioner, a designer, a chef or a counsellor is hired largely for who they are, and their background is genuinely what the visitor wants. Even then, it reads better written around what that background means for the client.

A business that works almost entirely by referral has visitors who arrive already trusting it, and its about page carries less weight.

For most businesses, though, the page should be written around the visitor's questions, with the history in a supporting role.

Rewriting it

  1. Read the current page as a stranger would.
  2. Count the sentences about the customer.
  3. Open with who you work for.
  4. Name the people customers will deal with.
  5. Replace adjectives with things a stranger can check.
  6. Shorten the history to a paragraph or two.
  7. End with the next step.

Step four changes the feel of the whole page. A name and a photograph of the person who will answer the phone turns a company into people, which is what the visitor came to check.

Rewriting an old page for the person deciding whether to call follows the same logic as keyword stuffing left over from an old site.

Frequently asked questions

What should an about page actually say?

Who you are in a sentence, who you work for, why a stranger can trust you, who they will deal with, and what happens when they get in touch.

Why do most about pages focus on history?

Because the owner writes the part they know best and are proudest of, usually at the end of a site build. History says who started the business, not what visitors are checking.

How do I show trustworthiness without adjectives?

Use things a stranger can check: years in business, staff numbers, insurance and licences, memberships that mean something, warranties, how long your people have stayed, and real reviews.

Should staff names and photos be on the page?

Yes, for the people customers will actually deal with. A name and a real photograph of whoever answers the phone or turns up at the door is what visitors came to check.

Is the company history worth keeping at all?

Yes, cut to a paragraph or two lower on the page and tied to the customer: decades in business or family ownership are evidence the company will stand behind its work.

When should a founder's biography come first?

When the founder is the service, as with a sole practitioner, a designer or a chef. Even then, write it around what that background means for the client.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

About page that starts with a founding year?

Send us the link. We will rewrite it around the questions your visitors are actually asking before they call.

Start a Conversation