Key Takeaways
- An About page should help a prospective customer understand who is behind the business and whether you are suitable for the work.
- Use specific people, relevant experience, working methods and approved examples instead of broad claims about excellence.
- Include a founder story only where it explains something useful about the service you provide today.
- Check names, dates, qualifications, quotations, permissions and images before publishing.
- Give the reader a relevant next step without turning the whole page into another sales pitch.
To write an About Us page that builds trust, answer the questions a buyer is likely to ask before contacting you. Who does the work? What do they understand about my situation? How will the project be handled? What can I check before taking the next step?
Your company history may help answer those questions, but it doesn't need to lead every page. A visitor comparing suppliers is unlikely to need a chronological account of each office move before learning what your team does.
Start with the information that helps them assess the business. Then bring in the story and personality that make the facts easier to understand. The result should sound like people you could have a useful conversation with.
Give the page a clear job
Choose what the reader should understand after visiting. A small consultancy might need to explain the founder's specialist role and how external collaborators join projects. A manufacturer might need to show the team, facilities and approach to quality. A local service business may need to explain who arrives, who manages the job and how the area is covered.
Those are different page briefs. Copying an attractive About page from an unrelated company can give you a structure that doesn't answer your customers' questions.
Write a one-sentence purpose for your own page. For example: “Help a prospective client understand the people responsible for the work, the experience relevant to their project and the way we manage delivery.” Use it to judge what belongs on the page.
If the underlying position is unclear, settle that through brand strategy before writing a longer origin story. Readers need a coherent business description to make sense of the details.
Build an evidence list before the first draft
Gather the facts you can publish. Include current names and roles, relevant experience, qualifications where applicable, approved project examples, working methods and contact details. Mark anything that is private, unverified or awaiting permission.
Separate the age of the company from the experience of the people. A new business can have an experienced founder without pretending the company has traded for the same number of years. Likewise, adding several people's careers together can create a misleading impression if the wording is unclear.
For each proposed claim, write down the supporting record and who can confirm it. If the business says it specialises in a sector, identify the work or expertise that supports that description. If a badge or membership is shown, check that it is current and used correctly.
You don't have to publish the entire evidence folder. You do need enough detail on the page for the statement to mean something, plus suitable records behind claims that require them.
Use a buyer-led page structure
The following wireframe is a starting point, not a rule that every business must follow. Change the order when your audience needs something different.
| Section | Reader question | Useful material |
|---|---|---|
| Clear introduction | What kind of business is this? | What you do, who you help and where relevant |
| People and responsibilities | Who will do or oversee the work? | Real names, roles and accurate short biographies |
| Relevant experience | Why might this team suit my job? | Specific background, skills and linked work |
| Working approach | What would dealing with them be like? | Concrete stages, responsibilities and communication |
| Proof | What can I verify? | Approved examples, genuine quotations and relevant credentials |
| Next step | What should I do now? | Appropriate service, project or enquiry link |
Keep sections proportionate. A two-person business doesn't need to fill a large team grid. A detailed founder biography may work better on its own linked page, leaving the main About page easier to scan.
Write an introduction somebody can repeat
Begin with a factual description in normal language. A fictional furniture-repair business, Willow Workshop, might start: “We repair and refinish wooden furniture for homes and small workplaces. The workshop team assesses each piece before agreeing the work.”
This is an illustrative writing example, not a real client statement. It identifies the work and one aspect of the process without inventing awards, results or a long trading history.
Compare it with “We are a passionate team committed to exceptional craftsmanship and customer satisfaction.” That could belong to almost any business. It gives the reader less information and leaves the useful questions unanswered.
You can add warmth through details that are true: why the founder chose the field, what the team enjoys repairing or how a familiar customer problem shaped the service. Keep the description accurate before trying to make it memorable. A brand messaging framework helps keep that introduction consistent with the offer and evidence on your service pages.
Show who is responsible for the work
Give people their real names and roles, with their permission. Explain responsibilities in terms the customer understands. “Project lead” becomes more useful when you add that this is the person who coordinates the brief, schedule and client reviews.
Be transparent about the team structure. A founder-led business can explain when specialist collaborators join a project. You don't need to make a small team appear larger by presenting unnamed stock-photo people as staff. For a founder-led example, MattDarm's own About page explains why the business was started and how the small team works with clients.
Google's people-first content guidance encourages accurate information about who creates content and their background. It also warns against deceptive author profiles. An About page can support clarity about the business, but adding biographies is not a guaranteed ranking improvement.
Use real photographs for genuine team profiles. If an image is an illustration, label it accordingly and don't let it impersonate an employee. Our website photography brief helps plan useful portraits and working scenes without filling the page with generic meeting pictures.
Keep the founder story connected to the service
A story earns space when it explains a choice the customer experiences today. Perhaps the founder started the company after seeing how difficult small projects were to place with larger suppliers. The useful next detail is how the business now handles those projects.
Avoid forcing drama into an ordinary history. You don't need a life-changing revelation to explain why you enjoy the work or decided to start a company. A clear account of the circumstances can feel more credible than a polished origin myth.
Keep dates and turning points accurate. If the company changed ownership, trading name or service focus, explain the relevant distinction rather than smoothing everything into one uninterrupted story.
When a story doesn't help the buyer assess the business, shorten it or move it elsewhere. The page should leave enough space for the people, process and evidence that support today's offer.
Turn values into observable behaviour
Words such as honest, collaborative and reliable need an explanation. Show what the customer can expect because of each value.
For example, transparent pricing might mean the proposal separates included work from optional extras. Collaboration might mean the client reviews an early prototype before development. Reliability might be described through a documented support process rather than an unsupported claim of perfect performance.
Only include behaviours that the business actually follows. A statement about regular updates becomes a commitment a customer may rely on. Ask the delivery team to check that it matches the normal service.
For Willow Workshop, an illustrative behaviour might be explaining visible damage and proposed repair options before a customer approves the work. That detail tells the reader more than a value card labelled “integrity”.
Choose proof that supports the point
Link a small number of relevant examples rather than displaying every logo the business has ever encountered. Explain what your role was and use client names or assets only with appropriate permission. You can browse our projects by service to see the distinction between identity, website and marketing work.
If project numbers are confidential, show approved work and the decisions behind it. Our guide to case studies without public performance figures explains how to do this without inventing outcomes.
Treat testimonials carefully. The ASA's guidance on testimonial claims explains that objective claims inside quotations still need suitable support. Genuine praise is useful context, but it doesn't automatically prove a general claim about results.
Keep quotations faithful and attribution approved. Avoid cropping a sentence so that a comment about one part of a project appears to endorse a different service or the whole company. Our guide to social proof, reviews and testimonials covers how to place evidence where it answers a buyer's question.
Make the page easy to read and maintain
Use clear section headings, short biographies and descriptive links. Pair an image with information it helps explain. A visitor should be able to find the team and working process without scrolling through several screens of decorative statements.
Review the phone layout with real copy. Names, roles and long biographies can behave differently from placeholder text. Check that the main next step remains visible and that images have appropriate text alternatives.
A custom website design should give the content a workable structure, while brand identity design helps the page feel like the same business as the rest of the site. Neither replaces the factual review.
Assign an owner to update staff details, service descriptions and proof. An old role, expired qualification or departed team member can undermine a page that was accurate when it launched.
Run a final trust check
Ask someone outside the project to read the page and explain who they would be dealing with, what the business does and what evidence helped them judge it. Note unanswered questions rather than asking only whether they liked the wording.
Then check the facts, permissions, links and mobile layout. Mark anything still awaiting confirmation and leave it out until it is ready. A shorter accurate page is preferable to filling a gap with invented history or a generic claim. Read how consistent branding builds trust if the About page feels disconnected from the rest of the site.
For your first draft, write the introduction, two or three factual biographies and one paragraph explaining how work is handled. Add the strongest approved evidence beside the claims it supports. That gives you a useful page to review before deciding how much more story it needs.
If you would like a second opinion on your About page, get in touch with the page address and the three questions a buyer should be able to answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an About Us page include?
Include a clear business description, the people responsible for the work, relevant experience, working methods, suitable proof and a next step. Choose details that help a prospective customer assess the business rather than filling a standard template.
How long should an About Us page be?
There is no required word count. Use enough space to answer the buyer's questions clearly, and move detailed biographies or project stories to linked pages if they make the main page difficult to scan.
Can a new business write a credible About page?
Yes. Describe the team's real background, the service and the way work is managed. Distinguish personal experience from the company's trading history, and don't invent client work, testimonials or results to make the business seem older.
Should we use stock or AI-generated team photographs?
Don't present invented people as genuine staff. Use real, approved team photographs for profiles. Illustrations can support a page when clearly identified, but they shouldn't misrepresent who works at the business.
Will a better About page improve Google rankings?
It can give readers useful context about the business and its expertise, but there is no guaranteed ranking result. Prioritise accurate identity, relevant evidence and a helpful experience, then assess search and enquiry data without assuming one page caused every change.
