How to Write Your Website's About Page (That People Actually Read)

Whether you sell to homeowners or to other businesses, your About page is probably one of the most visited pages on your site. It's also probably one of the worst-written.

It's the page everyone postpones. Then, when the website's nearly ready to launch, it gets knocked out in twenty minutes - usually opening with something like "We are a passionate team committed to delivering excellence..."

Nobody reads that. Or rather, they read the first line, decide it sounds like every other About page on the internet, and click back to Google.

This post is a practical structure for an About page that actually works - whether your customers are people booking a plumber or procurement managers vetting a supplier.

Why Your About Page Matters More Than You Think

The About page is often the second-most-visited page on a small business website, right after the homepage. The visitors who reach it are warm leads. They've already seen what you do. Now they want to know who you are.

For B2C businesses, that means homeowners deciding whether you're someone they'd let into their house, or somewhere they'd happily spend their money. They're checking for trust signals fast.

For B2B businesses, the About page is where decision-makers vet your credibility before recommending you to colleagues. It's often the page they screenshot and share internally before any meeting takes place.

Either way, it's also where Google looks to understand who's behind the site. That matters for your search rankings, particularly under what Google calls E-E-A-T - Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.

In other words, this page is doing real work. Most About pages aren't.

The 5 Mistakes Most About Pages Make

We audit a lot of small business websites, and the same mistakes come up almost every time:

• Written in the third person when it's a one-person business. "James Carter founded the firm with a passion for excellence." James, you're the only person there. Just write "I". It costs nothing and it sounds like you mean it.
• Opens with a mission statement nobody asked for. Most About pages we audit open with a sentence the visitor didn't request. "Our mission is to deliver excellence through innovation." Nobody clicked About to read that. They clicked because they want to know who you are and whether they can trust you. Start with that.
• Talks about "we" instead of "you and your business." The page is supposed to make the visitor feel something about you, but a wall of "we" reads like a press release.
• Stock photos instead of real ones. A handshake, a city skyline, a generic team huddle - the kind of images that scream "I bought this on a stock site for 4 pounds."
• No clear next step. The visitor reaches the bottom of the page, gets to the end of your story, and has nowhere to go. So they leave.

We had a B2B client who lost a six-figure contract because the procurement team screenshotted his About page and circulated it internally. It opened with three paragraphs of mission statement and didn't mention his name once. The buyer had no one to put their faith in, so they went with the competitor who did.

What to Actually Include on Your About Page

A structure that works for both B2C and B2B small businesses:

• Who you are. Your name, your role, and a real photo. Yes, even for B2B - buyers want to see the people they might be working with.
• What you do and who for. Be specific. Not "we serve a wide range of clients" - name the industries, the project types, or the customer types you actually work with.
• Why you do it. Short, genuine, no mission-statement language. A sentence or two about what got you into this work.
• Why people should trust you. This is where B2C and B2B diverge slightly. For B2C: years of experience, certifications, recognisable local clients, Google reviews. For B2B: case studies, named clients (with permission), industry-specific results, professional credentials.
• What happens next. A clear, obvious next step - book a call, request a quote, download something, get in touch.

A homeowner deciding whether to let you into their house doesn't want to read "we serve the local area." They want to know if you cover their postcode, how long you've been doing this, and whether their neighbour might know you. The more specific your About page, the easier it is for them to say yes.

We worked with a service business whose About page had no photo, no name, and no founder story. Just three paragraphs of "we." When we asked why, the owner said he didn't want to look small. The truth is, on a small business website, looking small is a feature, not a bug. Customers want to know exactly who they're dealing with.

And we see this constantly: the client paid good money for accreditations, certifications, and professional memberships - and then buried them on the About page below a wall of generic copy. If a credential matters to your customers' decision, it should be the second thing they see, not the last.

Write It Like You'd Talk to a Customer

There's a myth that B2B buyers want corporate language. They don't. A procurement manager reads dozens of vendor sites a week - the one that sounds like a human being is the one they remember. We've seen B2B clients double their enquiries by stripping out half the jargon and writing the way they actually speak in meetings.

It's the same for B2C. The "if we were having a coffee" test works whether you're talking to a homeowner or a buying committee. If you wouldn't say it out loud to a real customer, don't put it on the page.

A few simple rules that fix most About pages:

• Use first person. "I" or "we" - whichever is honest. Third person on a small business site is almost always a mistake.
• Short sentences. Plain words. No "leveraging," no "synergies," no "value-added solutions."
• Read it out loud. If a sentence makes you wince when you say it, your visitor is wincing too.

And one more thing on the "we" question: "we" is fine when there are actually multiple people. But we audit a lot of pages where "we" means one person trying to sound bigger. It always reads as a hedge. If it's just you, say so. Customers respect honesty far more than they respect the appearance of size.

Photos, Proof, and the Things That Build Trust

The visuals on your About page do as much work as the words. Sometimes more.

If your About page has a stock photo of two people in suits shaking hands, the visitor knows. Stock photography is one of the loudest signals that a business doesn't want to be known - the same instinct that leads people to cheap, generic website templates. A slightly imperfect photo of you at your desk, with a client, or on a job, will outperform any polished generic image - every time.

For B2C: a photo of your work, your van, your shop, your space. Something that shows the real thing. For B2B: a photo of you with clients (with permission), at events, in your office, or doing the work. Real beats polished, in both worlds.

Beyond photos, two things matter most.

A common pattern we see: the entire page reads like marketing, then a wall of testimonials gets dumped at the bottom. Testimonials work much harder when they're placed next to the claim they back up. Said you've worked with finance teams for ten years? Put a finance director's quote right there, not 800 words later.

The same goes for the B2B logo strip. Most "trusted by" sections are too small to recognise, drained of colour, and floating with no context. A logo strip only works if a buyer can recognise the names - and ideally if there's a sentence next to it explaining what you actually did for them.

A Simple About Page Template You Can Steal

Use this as a starting point and edit it to fit your business and customers:

1. One-line summary of what you do and who for. "I help homeowners in Bristol with kitchen extensions." Or: "We help SaaS founders launch faster with strategic web design."
2. A short paragraph on how you got here. Why this work, why now. Honest, not heroic.
3. What makes your approach different. One or two specific things - not a list of buzzwords.
4. Proof. A testimonial, a named client, or a short case example placed next to the claim it backs up.
5. A clear call to action. One next step. Make it obvious what to do.

That's it. Five sections. Most small businesses can write this in an afternoon if they stop trying to sound impressive and start trying to sound like themselves.

Wrapping Up

Whether your customers are families looking for a tradesperson or finance directors vetting a supplier, an honest, specific, human About page beats a polished corporate one every time. The goal isn't to impress - it's to make the visitor feel like they already know you a little, and trust you enough to take the next step.

If your About page hasn't been touched since the day your site went live, it's almost certainly costing you customers. The good news is, fixing it is one of the highest-leverage things you can do this month.