Your About Page Is the Most Important Page You've Never Thought About

Someone lands on your website. They like what they see. They want to know more before they pick up the phone or fill in the form.

So they click About.

And they're greeted with: "We are a passionate team of dedicated professionals committed to delivering exceptional results for our clients."

And just like that, you've lost them.

The About page is consistently one of the most visited pages on any business website. Studies regularly show it's the second page people navigate to after the homepage. People are actively looking for it… and most small businesses treat it like a legal obligation rather than a sales asset.

That's a problem worth fixing.

Why do people actually visit your About page?

They're not there to read your mission statement. They're doing due diligence.

They want to know who's behind the business, whether those people seem competent and human, and whether this feels like somewhere they'd be comfortable spending money. That's it. One question: can I trust these people?

And a generic "we're passionate about what we do" paragraph answers none of those questions. It raises more of them.

When someone reads your About page and feels nothing, they don't call you. They go back to Google and try the next result. It's that simple.

What's actually on most About pages?

Usually, not much worth reading.

The typical small business About page has a stock photo of a handshake or an office nobody works in, a paragraph that reads like it was written by someone who'd never met the business owner, and a list of values that could apply to literally any company on the planet. Integrity. Quality. Passion. Innovation.

Nobody reads past the third sentence.

Some businesses go the other way and write a wall of text explaining the entire history of the company since founding, year by year, including a detail about moving offices in 2014 that no customer cares about.

Neither approach works. The first is too vague to mean anything. The second is too long for anyone to actually get through. What both have in common is that they're written for the business, not for the person reading it.

What does a good About page actually do?

It makes a real person feel like they're dealing with a real person.

That sounds obvious. It isn't, because most business owners find it genuinely uncomfortable to write about themselves. So they default to corporate language as a form of self-protection. It feels safer. More professional. Less exposed.

The problem is that "professional" in this context reads as "could be anyone." And "could be anyone" is not a reason to choose you over the next result.

A good About page does three things. It shows who you are, why you do what you do, and why that matters to the person reading it. Not in a formal company-history way. In a way that sounds like a person talking.

If you build websites for London businesses, say something about what you've noticed working with London businesses. If you've been doing this for fifteen years, say what you know now that you didn't know then. If you started your business because you were fed up with something, say what it was. That's the interesting bit. That's the bit someone remembers.

The web design industry has a specific problem here… a lot of agency About pages are basically identical. Same structure, same language, same emphasis on "tailored solutions." The ones that actually get remembered are the ones where you can hear an actual voice in the copy… something like what it actually feels like to do this work, rather than a polished description of it.

What should actually be on your About page?

Less than you think. But more specific than what's there now.

A photo of an actual human who works there. Not a logo. Not a stock image. A person.

A sentence or two about who you are that would survive a pub conversation. Not "I am a results-driven marketing professional." Something a normal person would actually say.

A reason why you do what you do. This doesn't need to be deep. "I got frustrated with bad web design costing good businesses money, so I started doing it properly" is plenty. It tells a story. It implies expertise. It makes you a person rather than a service category.

Some evidence that you know what you're doing. Past clients, notable projects, a specific result. Not a list of logos with no context. Something concrete.

A clear next step. This is the bit most About pages completely forget. Someone's just spent two minutes reading about you and they're interested. What do they do now? If there's no CTA, no link to services, no "here's how to get in touch," they'll figure it out themselves… but a lot of them won't bother.

Does the photo on your About page actually matter?

More than most people think. Enough to be worth its own mention.

Research consistently shows that real human faces on a website build trust faster than almost anything else. Not stock images of people who don't work there. Actual photographs of the actual humans someone will deal with.

For solo operators and small studios this is an even bigger deal, because the person reading your About page is essentially auditioning you. They want to know if they'll like working with you. A real photo, even a casual one, answers that question in a way that ten paragraphs of copy can't.

If your About page photo is from 2015 or is of your logo, that's worth fixing this week. It costs nothing and it matters more than you'd think. It's part of the same trust problem as the quiet signals that stop London businesses converting.

How long should your About page actually be?

Long enough to answer "should I trust these people?" Short enough that someone actually reads it.

For most small businesses that's somewhere between 250 and 500 words. Enough to feel substantive, not enough to feel like homework.

If you're a larger agency or you have a meaningful story to tell, you can go longer. But the length should come from having more genuinely interesting things to say, not from padding things out with industry buzzwords and company values.

A test that works: read it back out loud. If it sounds like a human being talking, it's probably fine. If it sounds like a company brochure from 2009, rewrite it.

What does a bad About page actually cost you?

More than you'd think. And it's invisible, which is why most people never fix it.

You don't get a notification when someone reads your About page and clicks away. You don't see the enquiry you didn't get. You just have a slightly lower conversion rate than you should, and no obvious reason why.

The fix is usually a morning's work. A decent photo, an honest paragraph about who you are and why you do it, some real evidence of your work, and a clear next step. That's it. Nothing complicated. Nothing expensive.

It's just the thing most businesses haven't got around to yet. And if your competitors haven't either, you've got a very easy win sitting right there.

Key takeaways

• The About page is consistently the second most visited page on a small business website. People go there deliberately… treat it like one.
• Visitors aren't reading your mission statement. They're asking one question: can I trust these people? Your About page needs to answer that.
• Generic values, stock photos, and corporate language answer nothing. They just make you look like everyone else.
• A real photo of a real person builds trust faster than any amount of copy. If yours is outdated or missing, fix that first.
• Tell people who you are, why you do what you do, and what that means for them. That's it. Keep it short enough to actually read.
• Add a clear next step. Someone who's just read your About page and likes what they see needs to know where to go. Don't make them guess.