The About page is usually the last one written and the first one to go stale. It gets put together in a hurry on launch day, filled with a line about being founded in 2011 and committed to quality and customer satisfaction, then left alone for six years while the business changes around it. Most owners know the page is thin. Fewer are sure what it should say instead, because the advice online swings between "tell your story" and "keep it short," which is not advice at all.

Worth starting with what the page can and cannot do. In a survey of 263 US consumers run by Clutch in June 2025, 87 percent said they had immediately left a website because it did not look trustworthy, and 55 percent form an opinion of a site within 10 to 20 seconds. That same survey found something that should change how the page gets written: an About page showing the people behind the business was the least-cited top trust signal, named by just 2 percent of respondents. That is worth knowing before writing a word, because it reframes the job. The About page is rarely the reason somebody picks a business. It is where they check a choice they are already leaning toward, and writing it for that narrower purpose produces a better page than writing it as a second sales pitch.

What the About page is really for

Almost nobody lands on an About page first. They arrive from a service page, a Google result, a review, or a recommendation from a neighbor, and by then they have half decided. The About page is where they check that half decision before picking up the phone.

That means the page has a short list of questions to answer. Are these real people or a lead-generation shell that will sell the job to someone else? Is the business near enough to care about the work? Has it done this specific thing before, and for how long? Who is going to show up at the door? A page that answers those four questions in plain language does its job, even if it never reaches 400 words.

It also means the page is not the place to make the argument for hiring the business. That argument belongs on the service pages and the pricing page, where someone is still weighing options. Treating the About page as a second sales pitch is the most common way it goes wrong, because a visitor who is already interested does not want to be sold to again. They want to be reassured. That is the standard Optuno builds toward on small business sites: each page answers the question the visitor arrived carrying, rather than restating the pitch from the homepage.

What to include, in the order it matters

Lead with who runs the business and how long it has been running. A first line along the lines of "Ramirez Electrical has been doing residential panel upgrades and rewires across Pasco County since 2009, and every job is run by Danny Ramirez or his son Marcus" does more work than three paragraphs of values language.

Then cover the practical facts a customer would otherwise hunt for. Licensing and insurance status, the service area in plain place names, the size of the crew, and whether the owner quotes the work. For trades and health services, license numbers belong here in full, not as a vague claim of being fully licensed.

Photographs do work the copy cannot. One real photo of the actual person or crew, on a real job, lets a visitor verify that the people described on the page exist. Polished prose and a stock handshake cannot. Visitors are checking whether the business exists as described, and a genuine photo settles that in a second. That is not a contradiction of the survey above. Few people name an About page as their main reason for trusting a business, which is precisely why it should be quick to verify rather than long and persuasive.

Finish with the human detail, kept to a sentence or two. Why the business started, what the owner did before, the neighborhood connection. That is the part people remember, and it works because it sits on top of the facts rather than replacing them.

Three About page patterns that work

The solo trade page is the simplest. One person, one photo, one paragraph of history, the license number, the service area, and a direct line to the owner. Its strength is that it never overstates. A plumber who says he works alone, answers his own phone, and takes on four jobs a week sets an expectation he can meet, and the page filters out the customers who want a large firm.

The family business page leans on continuity. Two or three names, how the business passed between them, how long it has stood at the same address. Sentences like "the shop has been at the same corner on Hillsboro since 1994" are doing quiet, specific work that a claim about quality never does.

The small-crew page is the hardest to write and the most valuable when done well. Visitors hiring a company of eight or fifteen want to know who they will deal with, so the page introduces the person who runs estimates and the person who runs the schedule, not the entire staff list. A short note about how jobs are assigned, and who to call if something goes wrong, turns an anonymous company into something a customer can picture.

What to leave off

Cut the mission statement. A sentence about being committed to excellence and exceeding expectations describes every business that has ever existed and tells a visitor nothing they can act on.

Cut the founding-story epic. The page does not need four paragraphs beginning with a childhood memory. Compress it to the part that explains something about how the work gets done today.

Cut stock photography of models in an office. It has the opposite of the intended effect, because visitors recognize the images and start wondering what else on the site is not real.

Cut anything that cannot be verified. Vague awards with no year or issuing body, a claim to be the area's number one provider, a count of customers served that nobody tracks. Anything unverifiable sits next to the facts and weakens them. If checking on your overall visibility is next on the list, Optuno's free local SEO report gives a snapshot of rankings, listings, and reviews, which is a better use of an afternoon than rewriting a mission statement.

How to write the page in an hour

Open a blank document and answer four questions in plain sentences, as though a neighbor asked them. Who runs this. How long it has been going. What area it covers. What happens after someone calls. Do not edit while writing.

Then take a photo. A phone camera on a real job site in daylight is fine, and better than a studio portrait. One photo of the owner, one of the crew or the shop, one of recent work.

Then cut. Remove every sentence that could appear on a competitor's page without changing a word. What survives is the page. Most small business About pages land between 250 and 500 words once that pass is done, which is shorter than owners expect and reads far better.

Last, add the facts a customer might want to copy down. License number, year established, service area, and a direct way to reach a person. Link to the contact page so the next step is obvious, and to the FAQ page if common questions are answered there.

Where the About page fits into the rest of the site

The About page is one piece of a structure. The homepage states what the business does and where. Service pages carry the detail and the keywords. The pricing page handles cost. The About page handles credibility. When one page tries to do all four jobs, it does none of them properly, which is the underlying problem on most small business sites that feel vague.

Search engines read the page too, though not the way owners often assume. The About page rarely ranks for anything valuable, and chasing keywords on it is wasted effort. What it contributes is entity clarity: a consistent business name, address, and founding date that matches the Google Business Profile and the rest of the web. That consistency is worth more than any phrase stuffed into a paragraph. For a fuller picture of how the pages fit together, what a small business website should include covers the structure, and building a website that generates leads covers what happens once visitors arrive.

If rewriting the page and the four around it is not a job you want on your desk, Optuno's plans include the content work along with the design and the local SEO, with no long-term contracts, no setup fees, and a dedicated contact.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an About page be?
Between 250 and 500 words suits most small businesses. Long enough to answer who runs the business, how long it has been going, what area it serves, and what happens after a call. Length past that point rarely adds anything a visitor needs.

Should the About page include photos of the team?
Yes, if they are real photos of the actual people. One honest phone photo taken on a job beats a polished stock image, because visitors are checking that the business exists as described. A page with no photo at all is better than a page with a stock handshake.

Does an About page help with SEO?
Not directly, and it is rarely worth targeting keywords on it. Its search value is consistency: the business name, address, and founding details matching what appears on the Google Business Profile and in directories. Chasing rankings on an About page usually produces stilted copy for no gain.

Should the page be called "About Us" or something else?
"About" or "About Us" is fine and is what visitors look for in a menu. Creative labels like "Our Story" or "Meet the Crew" can work as a heading on the page, but the navigation link should use the word people scan for.

What if the business is brand new?
Say so plainly and lead with the experience behind it. A two-month-old company run by someone with fourteen years in the trade should put those fourteen years first. Hiding a recent founding date tends to backfire, because customers find the registration information anyway.

How often should the About page be updated?
Once a year, and whenever the facts change. Crew size, service area, licensing, and the year established all drift. An About page describing a two-person operation that now runs six trucks is quietly telling every visitor that the site is not maintained.