How to Write an About Page People Actually Read

Nobody Cares About Your Company Timeline

Here's the truth about About pages: most of them read like a résumé nobody asked for.

"Founded in 2015, our company has been committed to providing quality service and exceeding customer expectations." Sound familiar? That sentence says absolutely nothing. It could belong to a plumbing company, a law firm, or a taco truck. And your visitors know it.

Folks don't land on your About page because they want your origin story. They land there because they're trying to answer one question: "Can I trust these people?"

That's it. That's the whole job of the page.

So when you fill it with vague mission statements and a timeline of corporate milestones, you're answering a question nobody asked while ignoring the one they did. A CPA firm in Tyler doesn't need to tell visitors what year they got their license. They need to tell a stressed-out small business owner, "We handle your tax prep and bookkeeping so you can stop losing sleep over it."

The same goes for every industry. A medical practice doesn't need three paragraphs about their "commitment to wellness." They need to say who their doctors are, what they treat, and how to book an appointment. A law firm doesn't need a stock photo of a gavel. They need attorney bios that make a potential client think, "Okay, this person actually knows family law."

Stop writing your About page for yourself. Write it for the person reading it.

What Actually Belongs on Your About Page

Good news — this isn't complicated. Your About page needs to answer a short list of questions, and it needs to answer them fast.

Here's what to include:

**Who you are.** Not your LLC filing date. Your name. Your face. A real photo — you, at your desk, in your shop, on a job site. People buy from people, and a real photo does more trust-building than any paragraph you'll ever write. If you're a solo accountant, show your face. If you're a team, show the team. Real photos only.

**Who you help.** Be specific. "We serve small businesses" is too broad. "We help East Texas small businesses that don't have a marketing department" — that's a sentence that makes someone think, "Oh, that's me." Name your people. Describe their problems. Make them feel seen.

**What you actually do.** Not in jargon. Not in buzzwords. Plain English. If you're a lawyer, list your practice areas like a human would describe them: "We handle divorces, custody agreements, and business disputes." If you're a medical practice, say what kind of patients you see and what services you offer. Spell it out.

**Why you and not the other option.** This is the part most businesses skip entirely. What makes you different? Maybe you answer your own phone. Maybe you specialize in something narrow. Maybe you just give a damn in a way your competitors don't. Whatever it is, say it plainly. Don't say you're "passionate" — show what that passion looks like in practice.

**How to take the next step.** Your About page should have a clear call to action. A contact form. A phone number. A "book a consultation" button. Don't make someone hunt for it. They just decided they might trust you — give them a way to act on that feeling before it fades.

That's the whole list. Five things. You could write this page in an afternoon.

What to Leave Off (Please)

Some things actively hurt your About page. Cut them.

**Generic mission statements.** "We are committed to delivering quality results with integrity and professionalism." Delete that. It means nothing. Every business on earth claims quality and integrity. If you can swap your company name for any competitor's and the sentence still works, it's not saying anything.

**Walls of text with no personality.** If your About page reads like it was written by a committee — or worse, copied from a template — it's working against you. People can smell corporate filler. Write like you talk. Short sentences are fine. Fragments too.

**Fake team photos.** You know the ones. Four people in suits shaking hands around a conference table, all of them grinning at nothing. Everyone knows those aren't your employees. Using them tells visitors, "We couldn't be bothered to take a real photo." That's not the message you want.

**Industry jargon your customers don't use.** Your customers don't care about your "proprietary methodology" or your "full-service solutions." They care about whether you can fix their problem. Talk like they talk.

**TMI origin stories.** "It all started when our founder had a dream..." — no. Save the autobiography. A sentence or two about why you started the business is fine if it's relevant. But your About page isn't a memoir. Get to the point.

The pattern here is simple: if it's about you and not about the reader, it probably doesn't belong. Your About page is the one place on your site where you talk about yourself — but even there, the best version is still focused on the person reading it.

A Simple Structure That Works

You don't need to overthink the layout. Here's a structure that works for just about any small business:

**Opening line or two:** Say what you do and who you do it for. No buildup. No throat-clearing. Just say it.

**A few short paragraphs:** Cover your background, your approach, and what makes you different. Keep each paragraph to three or four sentences max. Break things up. White space is your friend.

**A real photo:** Of you. Of your team. Of your office or workspace. Something that proves you're a real human in a real place.

**A call to action:** Tell them what to do next. "Give us a call." "Fill out this form." "Schedule a free consultation." Make it obvious.

That's a one-scroll page. Maybe 300 to 500 words total. You don't need more than that.

And here's something people forget — your About page isn't a "set it and forget it" thing. Your business changes. Your services shift. You add team members. Go back and update it once or twice a year. If your About page still describes your business the way it looked two years ago, it's lying to your visitors.

One more thing: read it out loud. Seriously. If you stumble over a sentence, rewrite it. If something sounds like a brochure, kill it. Your About page should sound like you'd sound if someone walked into your office and asked, "So what do you do?" That version — the casual, honest, human version — is always better than the polished corporate version.

If writing isn't your thing, that's fine. East Texas Online offers content writing for businesses that know what they want to say but need help saying it well. But whether you write it yourself or get help, the principles are the same: be real, be specific, and put your reader first.