Your About page is probably the most honest page on your site. It is also probably the dullest.
Here is how to fix that this week. Seven steps, one checklist, no rewriting your whole website.
Why does your About page matter more than you think?
Think about how people use it. Someone finds you through search or a referral, likes what they see, and then hesitates. Before they call, they click About. They are not looking for your founding year. They are asking one question: is this a person or a business I can trust?
That is a decision page. Treat it like one.
Most small business About pages fail the same way. They open with "Founded in," march through a timeline, and end with a vague line about passion. The visitor learns when you started and nothing about what happens if they hire you.
A good About page does three jobs:
- It shows the visitor you understand their situation.
- It gives them reasons to believe you.
- It tells them what to do next.
Step 1: Decide who the page is for
Pick one reader. Not "our customers." One person, in one situation, with one worry.
A homeowner in Cary comparing three contractors worries about showing up late and costing more than quoted. A first-time parent in Raleigh choosing a birth professional worries about whether this stranger will be calm in the room. Those two pages should sound nothing alike.
Write one sentence before you write anything else: "This page is for someone who ______ and is worried that ______."
Everything on the page should answer that worry. If a paragraph does not, cut it or move it.
Step 2: Lead with what you do for the reader
Your first screen should say what you do and who you do it for. Not your origin story. Not a mission statement.
Compare two openings:
- "Established in 2009, we are a family-owned company dedicated to excellence."
- "We fix leaking roofs in Wake County, and we show you the damage before we quote the job."
The second one is a promise. The first is wallpaper.
Your history still matters. It just works better as evidence after the promise. "We show you the damage first because we once watched a competitor skip that step" is a story with a job to do.
Step 3: Should your story be on one page or woven through the site?
Take a position: if your history is part of why people choose you, do not lock it in one room.
Las Mas Mexican Kitchen & Bar has served downtown Wake Forest for twenty-five years. That is a real asset. But a diner on a phone, deciding where to eat, wants the menu, the hours and the address first. So the site we built for them puts those one tap away and weaves the family story through the pages instead of parking it on an About page nobody reads.
The takeaway is not "skip the About page." It is this: let your story show up where it helps a decision, and keep the About page as the place where it all comes together.
Step 4: Write in your real voice
Read your draft out loud. If you would never say it to a customer across a table, rewrite it.
"We leverage synergies to deliver tailored solutions" is nobody's voice. "We answer the phone, and we are honest about what you do not need" is.
For some businesses, voice is not a style choice. It is the product. When we built BodyWise Birth Co. in Raleigh, the central fact was that a doula sells trust before the client has ever met her. An expecting parent is evaluating her manner. So the site leads with the founder's voice and philosophy, and it sounds like Tara in the room: calm, direct, and unafraid to say plainly what a body is doing.
If people hire you for how you think, your About page should let them hear it.
Step 5: Add proof such as real stories, places served and experience
A claim is cheap. Proof costs something.
Good proof for a small business includes:
- Real client stories. BodyWise publishes actual birth stories. A prospective client can read how someone else's experience went.
- Experience you can state plainly. Years in the work, kinds of jobs, kinds of clients. Only say what is true and checkable.
- Places and partners. BodyWise lists the full roster of Triangle hospitals and birth centres Tara has attended. That turns a decade of experience into something a visitor can see.
Do not invent numbers to look bigger. A visitor can smell a made-up statistic. A specific, modest fact beats a vague, impressive one.
Step 6: Which Triangle details make a local business feel real?
Local detail is proof that you actually work here.
Name the towns you serve. Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill, wherever you genuinely go. Name the venues, neighborhoods or landmarks that matter in your line of work. BodyWise names the Raleigh and Triangle towns and birth venues it serves, which helps local search connect it to the places where families actually give birth.
Keep it natural. A list of forty towns you have never visited reads as spam, and visitors notice.
One test: could a stranger from Phoenix have written this page? If yes, add the details only a Triangle business would know.
Step 7: End with one clear next step
A visitor who finishes your About page and feels good about you still needs somewhere to go.
Pick one action. Not a phone number, a contact form, a newsletter box and three social icons. One.
BodyWise routes the whole site toward a free 30-minute discovery call, with scheduling built into the site so booking never leaves the page. It also publishes starting-point pricing for each package, which removes the uncertainty that keeps people from reaching out at all.
Your next step might be a quote request, a call or a booking. Name it plainly, put it at the bottom, and make it a low-risk first move.
A checklist to finish this week
Block out two hours. Work down this list:
- Write the one-sentence reader description from Step 1.
- Rewrite your opening so it says what you do for that reader.
- Decide whether your history belongs on one page or across several.
- Read the draft aloud and fix every line you would not say.
- Add at least two pieces of real proof.
- Name the Triangle towns and places you actually serve.
- Cut the page to a single next step.
- Delete the timeline, or shrink it to one short paragraph.
Start with the first item today. It takes five minutes, and it will change how you write everything after it. If you want a second pair of eyes on the result, tell us about your site.