An about page that works

Who reads it and why

Somebody who has decided you might be able to do the job and is now checking whether you are a real business with real people. That is the whole purpose and it is a short list of questions.

They want to know who they will deal with, whether the business has been doing this a while, and whether anything about it would make them uncomfortable.

It is frequently the last page read before a call, which makes it one of the highest-value pages on a small business site and one of the most neglected.

It is also the page most likely to be read by somebody checking you are still trading. A page with no recent detail on it reads as a business that may have stopped, which is an avoidable impression.

Name the people

Real names, real photographs, real backgrounds. A business with a face on the about page is measurably easier to trust than one describing itself entirely in the plural.

Say what each person actually does and what they did before. Specific experience persuades; a list of values does not, because every competitor lists the same ones.

Our page on author and about pages covers the trust side, including why a named person with a checkable background matters to an answer engine too.

Use photographs of the actual people at work rather than posed portraits where you can. A picture of somebody doing the job says more about competence than any studio shot of the same person.

Say what you actually do

Restate the work plainly on this page rather than assuming the visitor arrived from a service page. Many arrive here first, from a search for the business name.

Include what you do not do. A business that names its limits reads as confident and saves everybody the enquiry that ends in a referral elsewhere.

And say where you work. Coverage is one of the most common reasons somebody leaves a site, and an about page is a reasonable place to answer it again.

What an about page should contain

The list below is what a cautious customer is checking. A page answering all seven in a few hundred words does more than a thousand words of company narrative.

• Who runs the business, named, with a photograph
• What they did before this
• How long the business has operated
• What it does and what it does not do
• Where it works
• Any credential, with the issuing body
• How to get in touch from this page

History, in proportion

A sentence or two, where it says something. Founded in a garage is a detail people remember; a paragraph about a journey of growth is one they skip.

Where the history is genuinely the selling point, such as a long-established family business, give it room. That is the exception rather than the default.

Otherwise, the past matters only where it explains present competence. Everything else is writing the business enjoys more than the customer does.

Claims and credentials

This page attracts overstatement more than any other. Awards from a decade ago, memberships that lapsed and descriptions of scale that no longer apply all accumulate here quietly.

Date anything time-sensitive and check it annually. Our page on honest claims covers the general rules, and an about page is where they are broken most casually.

Where you hold a credential, name the issuing body and the number. Our page on credentials covers the wording. Nothing here is legal advice.

Ending it properly

Finish with a route onward rather than with a sentiment. Somebody who read to the end of your about page is close to making contact, and the page should recognize that.

A short line and a contact route is enough. The persuasion has already happened, and what is needed is the absence of friction rather than another argument.

On this page the wording should be quiet and obvious rather than emphatic, because the persuasion has already happened.

Say what happens after they get in touch as well. Somebody at the end of an about page is close to contact, and knowing what the next step looks like removes the last hesitation.