About Page Design for a Small Business Website

Look at your website analytics and you will likely find the About page in your top five, right after the homepage and services. People open it just before they decide whether to call you, and most small business About pages greet them with three paragraphs about "passion" and a founding year. Good about page design answers the questions a nervous buyer has at that moment, and it usually takes less copy than you think, not more.

I have redesigned About pages for plumbers, bookkeepers, a bakery and a two-person architecture studio. The structure below is what consistently moves people from reading to contacting.

What Visitors Want From an About Page

Someone clicking "About" on a small business site is rarely curious about your history. They are checking whether you are real, whether you are the right fit, and whether you are safe to hand money to. In practice that comes down to four questions:

• Who will I actually deal with?
• Do they work with people like me?
• Can I trust them, and is there proof?
• What do I do next?

Every section of the page should answer one of those. Anything that answers none of them can go.

About Page Design, Section by Section

1. A headline that says who you help

Skip "About Us" as the only heading. Use the top of the page to state who you serve and what you do for them, in one line. "We fix heating systems in older Leeds homes, usually within 48 hours" says more than any mission statement.

2. A real photo of real people

A photo of the owner or team, taken in your actual workplace, does more for trust than any stock image. It does not need a professional shoot. A recent phone photo in good daylight, at eye level, beats a ten-year-old headshot. Put names under faces.

3. A short story with a point

Two or three short paragraphs are plenty. Explain why you started and what you do differently, in a way that matters to the customer. "I started this after waiting six weeks for a quote on my own house" is a story. "Founded in 2011 with a passion for excellence" is not.

4. Proof

Add two or three short testimonials, numbers that mean something, such as "1,400 boilers serviced", certifications, memberships or local awards. Our guide to website testimonials that turn visitors into clients covers which quotes to choose and how to present them.

5. One clear next step

End with a single call to action: book a call, request a quote, or visit the shop. Include the phone number in text, not only in a button.

Layout and Visual Details That Help

Design choices on an About page should make it easy to scan on a phone, because more than half your visitors will be on one.

1. Keep line length readable. On desktop, around 60 to 75 characters per line. Full-width text across a 1,400 pixel screen is tiring to read.
2. Break up the page. Alternate text with a photo, a testimonial or a set of figures every two or three paragraphs.
3. Use your brand fonts consistently. One heading font and one body font, as set in your brand guide. Our post on choosing brand fonts for a small business explains why two fonts are enough.
4. Keep the page fast. Team photos are often uploaded straight from a camera at 6 MB each. Compress them to under 200 KB.
5. Repeat the contact details. Put the phone, email and address in the footer too, so visitors who scroll to the end find them. Our checklist for what a small business footer should include lists the rest.

The Advice I Disagree With: "Make It All About the Customer"

A popular rule in web copywriting says the About page should not talk about you at all, only about the customer and their problems. I understand the logic, but taken literally it produces pages that sound like every competitor's homepage and tell the visitor nothing new.

For a small business, the person behind it is often the main reason someone chooses you over a chain. A bakery owner who trained in Lyon, an accountant who used to work at the tax office, a gardener who has worked the same three postcodes for 15 years: those details are about you, and they sell. The skill is in choosing facts about yourself that answer a customer worry. Lyon training says quality. Tax office experience says you know how audits work. Fifteen years in three postcodes says reliability and local knowledge.

So talk about yourself. Just keep asking, "Why would a customer care about this sentence?" If there is no answer, cut it.

Common Mistakes Worth Fixing This Week

• No names. "Our team" without a single named person feels anonymous.
• Old information. A page mentioning staff who left in 2021 makes visitors wonder what else is out of date.
• Dead ends. An About page with no link to services or contact loses people who were ready to act.
• Corporate filler. Words like "solutions", "excellence" and "dedicated" on every line. Replace each one with a specific fact.

One quick test helps here. Hand your phone to a friend who does not know your business, open the About page, and give them 30 seconds. Then ask who runs the company, who it is for, and how to get in touch. If they hesitate on any of the three, that is the section to rewrite first. When we ran this test with a local bookkeeping client, nobody could say which towns she served, so we added one line under the headline and her enquiries from nearby villages picked up the following month.

Most of these fixes take an hour. Rewriting the headline and swapping in a current team photo alone often makes a visible difference to enquiries within a month.

FAQ

How long should a small business About page be?

Usually 300 to 600 words is enough. That covers a clear headline, a short story, proof and a call to action. Longer pages work only if each section answers a real customer question.

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

For a sole trader or very small team, first person usually feels warmer and more honest. Third person suits larger teams or professional firms where several people are introduced. Pick one and stay consistent.

What should I put on an About page if my business is new?

Focus on your relevant experience, why you started, and who you help. Use early testimonials, qualifications or previous work if you have them. Honest detail matters more than a long track record.

Does an About page help SEO?

Indirectly, yes. It supports trust signals, names the people behind the business and can mention your location and services naturally. Its main job is converting visitors, but those details help search engines understand who you are.