How to write an 'About' page people actually read

Open your website analytics and have a look at which pages people visit most. For most small businesses, the About page is right up near the top — usually second only to the homepage. Then read what's actually on it. Nine times out of ten it's a lonely paragraph starting "Founded in 2014, we are a passionate team dedicated to excellence…" and trailing off into nothing.

That gap — most-visited, least-loved — is one of the easiest wins on your whole site. People land on your About page at the exact moment they're deciding whether to trust you. Give them a reason, and an enquiry follows. Give them corporate wallpaper, and they close the tab. Here's how to write one that does the first thing.

Why the About page pulls more weight than you think

Nobody reads an About page for fun. They read it because they're weighing you up. They've seen your prices or your work, they're mildly interested, and now they want to know: are these people any good, and are they the sort I'd want to deal with?

That makes the About page a trust page in disguise. It's where a hesitant visitor becomes a warm lead — or doesn't. Treat it like the sales conversation it actually is, not the afterthought it usually gets treated as.

Your About page isn't about your history. It's the page where a stranger decides whether to hand you their money — write it for that moment.

Start with them, not your founding story

The biggest mistake is opening with a timeline. "We started in a garage in 2014…" Lovely, but the reader doesn't care yet — they've no reason to. They care about their own problem, and whether you're the one to fix it.

So open with them. A single line that shows you understand what they're dealing with does more than three paragraphs of your backstory. Something like: "If you've been quoted three wildly different prices and you're not sure who to believe, you're in the right place." Now they're reading. Now you can earn the right to tell them who you are.

This is the same move that separates a website that converts from one that just sits there looking nice — leading with the reader's problem instead of your own introduction. We dug into it properly in what makes a small business website actually convert.

What to keep, and what to cut

A good About page is short and does a few specific jobs. Most bad ones are long and do none of them. Here's the honest split:

Keep	Cut
A clear line on what you do and who for	"Passionate," "dedicated," "excellence," "solutions"
A bit of real story — why you started, what you care about	A dry founding-date timeline nobody asked for
Proof: reviews, results, years, faces	Vague claims of being "the best" with nothing behind them
A photo of the actual humans involved	Stock images of strangers shaking hands
One obvious next step	A dead end with no call to action

If a sentence is there to sound impressive rather than tell the reader something useful, it's costing you. Cut it.

Write it the way you'd say it

Read your current About page out loud. If you'd never say those words to a customer standing in front of you, don't make them read it either. Real businesses are run by real people, and the About page is where that should show most.

The trick is to sound like yourself — warm if you're warm, dry if you're dry, plain-spoken if that's you. That consistency is what people remember, and it's worth pinning down properly. If you've never nailed down how your business should sound, spend an afternoon on it: our guide to finding your brand voice walks through exactly that.

Show proof instead of claiming it

"We pride ourselves on quality" is a claim. A five-star Google review quoted in full is proof. One of those changes minds; the other gets skimmed past. Whenever you're tempted to describe how good you are, find a way to show it instead:

• Drop in a real customer quote — with a first name and suburb, it lands harder.
• Name a concrete result: a number, a timeframe, a job you're proud of.
• Say how long you've been doing this, and for how many local businesses.
• Show your face. A genuine photo of you beats any amount of polished copy.

Remember that a brand isn't the words you use about yourself — it's the reputation those proof points build up over time. We made that case in what a brand actually is (it's not your logo), and the About page is where a lot of it gets earned.

Finish with an obvious next step

Here's the one nearly everyone forgets. Someone has read your whole About page. They like you. They're ready. And the page just… ends. No button, no phone number, no nudge. You've done the hard part of winning them over and then left them standing at a closed door.

Every About page needs a clear next step at the bottom: "Get a quote," "Book a chat," "See our work." Whatever the natural move is for your business, make it impossible to miss. The whole point of the page was to turn a curious stranger into an enquiry — don't drop them at the finish line.

The five-minute test

Before you call it done, hand your About page to someone who doesn't know your business and ask them one question: "Would you trust these people with the job?" If they hesitate, you've found what to fix. An About page that earns a confident yes is doing more for your business than most of the marketing you'll ever pay for — and it costs you nothing but an honest afternoon of writing.