Most About pages are written backwards. They start with when the business was founded, then list the owner’s qualifications, then a paragraph about how customer service is important to them. That’s interesting to the owner and irrelevant to the customer. A customer reading your About page has one question: can I trust this person with my problem?
It’s a trust mechanism
By the time someone clicks About, they’re considering hiring you. They’re looking for reasons to say yes — or reasons to back out. Your job is to answer the trust question before they have to ask it. That means proof that you’ve done this before, evidence that you’re a real person (not a faceless company), and a clear sense of who you work with best. You have maybe ninety seconds to do it.
Three things that make an About page work
Specificity over vagueness
“We’ve been fixing air conditioning in Brisbane’s bayside suburbs since 2017” is more credible than “We have over a decade of industry experience.” Specific claims are believable. Generic ones aren’t. Numbers, locations, and dates work. So do percentages. “We retain 94% of clients year-on-year” tells you something. “We’re committed to excellence” tells you nothing.
A real person
Owner-operated businesses win trust by showing the owner. A photo and two sentences about why you started the business does more than three paragraphs of corporate biography. People buy from people. Your face and your story matter more than your diplomas. If you’re camera-shy, you’ll need to work harder in other ways — but don’t skip the personal angle entirely.
Who you serve
The best About pages say who their best customer is. “We work with small trades businesses who are too busy to manage their own digital presence” is more compelling than “we work with businesses of all sizes.” Specificity attracts the right clients and filters out the wrong ones. It also tells you what not to say yes to, which saves everyone time.
What to avoid
The phrase “passionate about customer service” — every business claims it. Any claim that includes “industry-leading,” “cutting-edge,” or “synergistic.” A list of qualifications without context. More than one reference to your founding date in the first paragraph. A team section with stock photos. These things make you sound like everyone else.
One hour well spent
Your About page is usually one of the five most visited pages on your site. It’s worth spending an hour on. If you’re not sure whether yours is working, book a free discovery call with us and we’ll take a look. We do this for every client before we start any content work.
Written by Benjamin — Benjamin is the founder of Local Business Accelerator, a Brisbane digital agency helping local businesses grow their online presence through websites, SEO, and Google Ads.