The about page is one of the most visited pages on many small business websites, and one of the worst written. It tends to be either a single line (“Family run since 2004”) or a CV-length history nobody asked for. Neither does its real job.
That job is simple. People visit the about page when they are close to deciding and want to check the business is real, competent and the kind of people they would be happy dealing with. Knowing how to write an about us page means writing for that moment of checking.
What people are looking for on an about page
When someone clicks “About”, they are usually trying to answer one of these questions:
- Is this a real business with real people behind it?
- Who will actually turn up, answer the phone or do the work?
- Are they qualified, insured, registered or accredited?
- Have they done this kind of work before, for people like me?
- Do they seem like people I would get on with?
- Are they local, or at least clear about where they operate?
A structure you can copy
| Section | What to write | Example line |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Who you are and who you help, in one or two sentences | We are a husband-and-wife team fitting kitchens across Somerset since 2011 |
| The people | Names, roles, real photos, a line of personality | Sam does the design visits; Jo runs the fitting team and still fits most worktops herself |
| Why you do it | The honest reason the business exists | We started after one too many customers told us about fitters who never came back |
| How you work | Your approach, standards and what customers can expect | Fixed written quotes, daily tidy-ups, a named contact for the whole job |
| Credentials | Qualifications, registrations, insurance, memberships | Registered with [scheme], fully insured, members of [body] |
| Proof | A short story, example or review that shows the above | A review about a job that went wrong and how you fixed it |
| Next step | A clear invitation to get in touch | Book a free design visit |
Show real people, with real photos
Real photos of the owner and team outperform polished stock images for trust, because they cannot be faked by the business down the road. They do not need to be professional portraits. A clear, well-lit phone photo of you at work, in branded clothing or in your shop, is better than a model in a hard hat.
Use names. “Our team” is faceless; “Priya, practice manager, will be the one who calls you back” is someone the customer can picture. For a sole trader, writing in the first person (“I”) is honest and often more persuasive than pretending to be a bigger firm. Customers who hire one person want to know that person.
Credentials: be specific and checkable
Name qualifications and registrations exactly, and only list those you genuinely hold. If you are on a public register, such as Gas Safe, the HCPC, the SRA or a trade scheme, link to your entry or give your number so people can check. That single link does more for trust than a paragraph of adjectives.
Insurance is worth mentioning for any business that works in people’s homes or handles their property. Years of experience are worth stating if they are meaningful, but pair them with something concrete: “twelve years, mostly Victorian terraces” says more than “over a decade of experience”.
Be careful with superlatives. Under the CAP Code, which covers marketing claims on your own website, you should be able to back up objective claims such as “Exeter’s most trusted” or “award-winning”. Name the award and the year, or leave it out.
How the about page differs by business
- Sole traders: write in the first person, show your face, explain why you went independent and what that means for the customer, such as dealing with the same person throughout.
- Family businesses: the generations and continuity are a real selling point; show who does what today, not just the founder’s story.
- Clinics and health practices: lead with qualifications, registrations and approach to care; patients want to know who they will see.
- Restaurants, cafés and shops: the story of the food, suppliers or products matters more than the owners’ CVs; show the place and the people.
- Professional firms: short profiles of each key person with specialisms, plus how the firm handles fees and communication.
- Larger companies: history, scale and accreditations matter, but still put a human face on the teams customers will deal with.
Mistakes that make about pages useless
- Starting with the year you were founded, and nothing else.
- Writing about “our values” in words any business could use: integrity, passion, excellence.
- Using stock photos of people who do not work for you.
- Hiding the owner behind “we” when the business is one person.
- Listing credentials you cannot link to or prove.
- Ending without a way to get in touch.
- Forgetting to update it when staff, services or areas change.
Turning your story into something customers care about
Most owners find the “why” section hardest, because the honest answer feels ordinary: “I was good at it and wanted to work for myself.” That is fine, as long as you connect it to what the customer gets. A self-employed electrician who left a large contractor because jobs were rushed can say so, and then say what that means now: time to explain the test results, no subcontracting, the same person from quote to certificate.
The same trick works for any business. A bakery that started because the owner could not find proper sourdough locally can talk about long fermentation and local flour. A small accountancy practice set up by someone who hated seeing clients pass between juniors can promise a named accountant. Take the reason you started, and translate it into a promise a customer can hold you to.
A quick about page checklist
The about page is where a website stops being generic, which is why it is the page we spend the longest on in the first conversation with a Nerdsharks client. You know the story; the job is picking the parts a customer needs to hear.
- First two sentences say who you are and who you help.
- Real names and real photos of the people customers will deal with.
- An honest reason the business exists or does things the way it does.
- Specific, checkable credentials, with links where possible.
- At least one story, example or review that shows your approach in action.
- Location and area served stated clearly.
- A clear call to action at the end.