Web Copywriting
How to Write an About Page That Builds Trust
The About page is often the second most visited page on a site and the least thought about. It is usually read by someone deciding whether to trust you.
The About page tends to be written last, by whoever has time, and treated as a formality. It is frequently the second most visited page on a small business site, and the people reading it are rarely browsing. They are checking whether you are real before they contact you.
What the Reader Is Checking
Nobody arrives on an About page wanting the company history. They arrive with a specific suspicion to confirm or dismiss: whether this is a real business, whether it will still exist in six months, and whether the people behind it know what they are doing.
Every part of the page either answers one of those or wastes the visit.
The Founding Story Problem
Most About pages open with a founding story. Some of them earn it — the story explains why the business works differently, and that difference is the reason to choose it.
Most do not. "Founded in 2015 with a passion for excellence" tells a reader nothing they can use, and it occupies the space where the answer to their actual question should be.
If the story does not explain something about how you work today, it belongs further down the page or nowhere on it.
What to Include Instead
- Who does the work: Names, faces and backgrounds. A team page with real people beats any claim about expertise.
- How you work: The actual process, including the unglamorous parts. Specifics read as true because they are.
- What you will not do: Boundaries build more trust than promises. Businesses hiding something never name their limits.
- Evidence: Clients, projects, numbers, years. Something checkable rather than something claimed.
- Where you are: A real location and a real way to reach a person, especially for a small business.
Write It in Your Own Voice
About pages attract corporate language more than any other page, and it works against them. A reader trying to decide whether you are a real business is not reassured by a page that reads as though a committee wrote it.
Write the way you would explain the business to someone at a dinner. That version is almost always clearer, shorter and more convincing than the one that ends up published.
Watch for stock photography of people who do not work there. Visitors recognise it immediately, and it undoes exactly the trust the page was written to build.
End Somewhere Useful
Someone who has read your About page to the bottom is interested. Leaving them with nothing to do is a wasted opportunity — and so is a hard sell, which does not suit the page.
A link to the service they are most likely considering, or a simple way to ask a question, fits the moment better than a demand.
If your About page has not been touched since launch, it is usually one of the quickest wins available. It is part of what our web copywriting service covers.