Your About Page Is Not Your Autobiography

If you're a small business owner writing your own About page, this is for you.

Your About page is not where you unload your entire life story onto an unsuspecting stranger.

Nobody needs Chapter One: Born With a Passion for Customer Service.

Your visitor wants to know one thing:

Why does your story matter to me?

If you started your business because you kept seeing the same problem, say that.

If 20 years of experience taught you what not to do, tell them.

If something happened that changed how you treat customers, that's worth including.

Your story needs a job

Every line on the page has to be earning its spot, the same way your homepage hero has to earn its keep in the first few seconds. Here's the difference between a fact and a fact with a job.

Bad:

"I've been in this industry for 18 years."

Better:

"After 18 years, I know where businesses usually waste money, and I built my company specifically to avoid it."

Same fact.

Now the customer knows why they should care.

The delete test

Try this:

Delete a personal detail from your About page.

Does anything important change for the customer?

No?

It may belong in your family Christmas letter instead.

Keep the personality. Keep the weird reason you started. Keep the mistake that changed how you work.

Just connect it back to the person deciding whether to hire you.

Your About page is about you.

But it isn't for you.

A simple About page template

You don't need to fill in six little marketing boxes.

Just tell the story in this order:

1. Start with who you help. "I work with [type of customer] who are tired of dealing with [problem]."
2. Tell them why you care about it. "I started doing this because I kept seeing [problem] happen over and over."
3. Explain what your experience taught you. "Over the years, I learned that [useful lesson]."
4. Tell them how that changed the way you work. "So now I [what you do differently]."
5. Add one small personal detail. "When I'm not working, I'm usually [something true about you]."
6. Then tell them what to do next. "If you need help with [result], here's where to start."

That's enough.

You are introducing yourself.

Not pitching Netflix a six-part documentary.

Why a real person on the page matters more than it used to

That one small personal detail in step five is doing more work than it looks. Google's helpful-content guidance now warns against fabricated creator profiles, so a real name, a real photo and a true sentence about yourself are a trust signal, not filler. The About page is where that person lives on your site. Ours says "Yes, it's actually me" for exactly this reason.

It's also the page that keeps the rest of the site from reading like competent content nobody finishes. A visitor who gets to About is already interested. Give them a reason, then a next step.

The About page is one piece of the same job the whole site has: make sense fast, then point somewhere. The rest of that anatomy is in how to fix a small business homepage before it costs you customers. If your current About page reads like a memoir and you'd rather hand the rewrite off, the Fix path starts with an audit before anything else. If the page doesn't exist yet, the Build path writes it in from day one.

FAQ

What should a small business About page include?

Who you help, why you started, what experience taught you, how that changed the way you work, one personal detail, and a clear next step. Each item should connect back to the customer's decision to hire you.

How long should an About page be?

Long enough to answer "why does your story matter to me?" and no longer. For most small businesses that is a few short paragraphs, not a timeline. If a detail doesn't change anything for the customer, cut it.

Should I write my About page in first person or third person?

First person, if you are the business. "I" or "we" reads like a human introducing themselves. Third person ("[Name] founded the company in…") reads like a press release and puts distance between you and the person deciding whether to call.

Should I put personal details on my About page?

One or two, if they're true. A real detail shows there is a person behind the site, which matters more now that Google's guidance flags fabricated author profiles. Run each one through the delete test: if removing it changes nothing for the customer, it probably belongs somewhere else.

Does the About page matter for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Yes. Search engines and AI answer tools use it to confirm who is behind a business and whether the site is trustworthy. A clear, specific page with a real person on it supports that; a vague one or an obviously generated one does not.

Should my About page have a call to action?

One. The last thing on the page should tell an interested visitor where to go next: a contact page, a booking link, or your main service page. Without it, the most motivated reader on your site is left to wander.