What should a business About page actually say?
It should answer the visitor's real question, which is not 'tell me about yourself' but 'why should I trust you with my problem?' The most effective About pages: explain who you serve and what specific problem you solve, establish your credibility to solve it (experience, approach, track record), and make the visitor feel that you genuinely understand their situation. An About page that reads like a CV or an autobiography — without connecting to the visitor's perspective — doesn't convert.
Should an About page be about the business or the founder?
Both, but in the right order. Start with the business — what you do, who you serve, what you stand for — before the personal story. Visitors arrive wondering if this business can help them; they don't arrive wanting a biography. Once they understand what the business does and why it exists, the founder story adds warmth, credibility, and differentiation. Personal-first About pages often lose the visitor before they learn why the business matters.
How long should an About page be?
300–600 words for most service businesses. Long enough to establish genuine credibility and personality; short enough to respect the visitor's time. The most common About page failure is too long — multiple paragraphs of founder biography that don't connect to the visitor's problem. Every sentence should answer 'does this make me more likely to trust this business with my project?' If it doesn't, cut it.
Most About pages are written for the wrong audience — for the business owner, not the visitor.
They describe the founder's career in detail. They list every company worked at, every qualification earned, every value believed in. They tell the story of how the business started as if the visitor has been waiting for it.
The visitor hasn't. They're on the About page for one reason: to decide whether to trust this business enough to enquire.
An About page that answers that question converts. One that tells an autobiography instead doesn't.
What Visitors Actually Want From an About Page
Research on how visitors use About pages shows a consistent pattern: they're looking for two things.
1. Credibility signals. Evidence that this business has the experience, expertise, or track record to handle their problem. Not general competence — specific credibility related to their need.
2. Human recognition. A sense of who they'll be working with. Not a corporate entity, but a specific person or team with a discernible perspective and approach.
The About pages that convert well answer both. The ones that don't usually focus on the founder's personal journey at the expense of the visitor's question.
The About Page Structure That Works
Opening: What You Do and Who For
The first paragraph of an About page should clarify what the business does and who it serves — before any personal narrative. Visitors who arrive on an About page often haven't fully understood the service scope yet; reinforcing the positioning here keeps them oriented.
Example: "Evoke Studio is a brand design and web development studio for founders and small businesses that need to look and perform professionally from day one. We build visual identities, websites, and brand systems — the things that make a business credible to clients, investors, and partners."
This tells the visitor: "You're in the right place if you're a founder who needs a professional visual presence."
Why This Exists: The Mission or Origin
Now the personal element — but connected to the visitor's experience, not just the founder's biography.
The most effective framing: what gap or problem did you see in the market that led you to build this? What do you believe about your industry that shapes how you work?
What doesn't work: "I've always been passionate about design. After graduating from art school, I worked at several agencies before deciding to go out on my own..."
What works: "Most small businesses and startups can't access the quality of brand design that larger companies take for granted. Either the good studios are too expensive, or the affordable options produce generic results. We built Evoke to close that gap — professional brand design and development at a price point that works for founders building real businesses."
The second version tells the visitor why this business exists in a way that connects directly to their situation.
Credibility: Experience, Approach, or Track Record
This is where you earn trust. Options depending on your stage:
Track record (established businesses):
- Number of clients or projects delivered
- Years in business
- Specific types of businesses served
- Named outcomes or metrics
Approach (works for any stage):
- How you do the work differently from others
- Specific technical expertise or specialisation
- What you believe about quality, process, or client relationships
Social proof:
- 2–3 specific client testimonials, placed within the About page
- A client logo strip (particularly powerful for B2B businesses)
For early-stage businesses with limited track record, read How to Look Established as a Startup for credibility strategies that work before you have years of history.
The Team (If Relevant)
For solopreneurs: a brief note about your background that's relevant to client trust. Not every job you've had — the experience that makes you qualified to solve the specific problem your clients hire you for.
For small teams: photos and one-sentence descriptions of key people. Keep it relevant to the work, not a LinkedIn summary.
For larger businesses: a brief description of the team's collective experience and how it benefits the client.
The CTA
About pages are trust-building pages. The logical next step after "I trust this business" is "I should contact them." Place a CTA at the end of the page — and optionally one mid-page if the content is long.
Not "Contact Us." Something connecting back to what they read: "Ready to start your project? We respond within 24 hours." or "Want to work with us? [Tell us about your project.]"
About Page Mistakes That Undermine Credibility
Writing in the third person about yourself. "John is a passionate designer with 10 years of experience..." when you're clearly writing about yourself. It reads as detached and odd for a solo practice or small studio. First person is more direct and human.
No specifics. "We have worked with businesses of all sizes across many industries." What sizes? What industries? Specificity builds credibility; vagueness undermines it.
No photos. For service businesses where the person is the product, a real photo of the founder or team converts better than a stock image or no image. Clients are making a relationship decision — they want to see who they'll be working with.
Mission statements that say nothing. "We are committed to delivering excellence through innovation and collaboration." This sentence works for literally any business in any industry. If your About page contains it, replace it with a specific claim about what makes your work distinctive.
Too much detail about the wrong things. A web design studio's About page doesn't need to describe the founder's childhood. That might be interesting in a long-form profile; on a business website it's noise that obscures the credibility signals the visitor actually needs.
About Page Copy That Earns Trust
The principle across all of this: write for the visitor who is deciding whether to trust you, not for yourself.
Every sentence on the About page should pass this test: "Does this make a qualified visitor more likely to enquire?"
The founder's journey matters if it explains why they do the work well. Their credentials matter if they're relevant to the client's need. Their values matter if they describe how the client experience will feel.
Everything else is for a personal blog.
Read How to Write Your Website Homepage Copy for the same principle applied to homepage copy — the framework for visitor-first writing applies across every page.
Website copy that's not working — including your About page?
Evoke Studio writes and designs websites where every page, including the About page, is built to convert. Brand + website packages from $1,500.
Yes — selectively. Personal information that's relevant to your credibility (studied design at X, spent 7 years building brands for tech companies before launching my own studio) or your approach (I started Evoke because I saw too many founders get overcharged for mediocre work) builds connection without losing the client-facing purpose of the page. Personal information that isn't relevant to the visitor's decision (hobbies, family, personal history unconnected to the work) is best left out.
Lead with your approach and values rather than your track record. What do you believe about how this work should be done? What gap are you filling? Why will clients be better served by you than by alternatives? For a new business with limited history, the credibility comes from clarity of positioning and conviction of approach — not years in business. See [How to Look Established as a Startup](/blog/how-to-look-established-as-a-startup) for more on this.
Cautiously. Links that take visitors off your website to social media platforms can be a conversion distraction — someone who clicks through to LinkedIn and then gets caught in the feed has left your conversion funnel. If you link to social, use a subtle link (not a prominent CTA) and use target=_blank to keep your site open. For B2B businesses where LinkedIn validates professional credibility, a LinkedIn link near the founder bio can reinforce trust.
When something significant changes: you pivot your positioning, your client focus shifts, your team grows substantially, or your track record reaches a milestone worth featuring (100 projects, 5 years in business). Minor updates (changing the photo, refreshing a testimonial) can happen whenever. Don't let the About page go years without review — outdated information undermines the very credibility it's supposed to build.
It can and should rank for brand queries ('Evoke Studio about', '[founder name]') and potentially for positioning keywords ('brand design studio for startups'). But the About page is primarily a trust conversion page for visitors who are already on your site — SEO is secondary. Write for the visitor who has found you and is deciding whether to enquire. The SEO will follow the good writing.