What Should You Include on Your “About” Page? 12 Ideas for Writing Yours
Take it from a copywriter: Writing your own About page is hard.
I write them for a living, but writing my own About page? Torture.
What are you supposed to include? How do you keep it from being boring or long-winded?
If you’ve ever tried writing your own, you likely read a few underwhelming About pages in your search for inspiration. Unfortunately, most business’ About pages fall flat.
Which is a shame, because an About page is the second-most read page of most service providers’ websites.
And just like your home page, its primary purpose is to market your business. Which means it’s not really about you, but about your client. (We’ll get to that in a bit.)
Your About page should make a connection, establish credibility, and compel your right-fit client to take action.
Below are some ideas to get you thinking about what you should include. Your business won’t necessarily need or have all of these elements.
And side note: Whether you’re writing your own About page or working with a copywriter who needs some details to work with, I recommend bullet-pointing your ideas to start. It makes the blank page way less daunting.
Show off your social proof and credibility boosters
Your About page is where a little bragging is encouraged.
Anything from your experience that builds trust with your potential clients and is relevant to the work you do today is worth including.
(What’s considered “relevant” can often be stretched. Usually, you can find a throughline even in the most seemingly random collection of experiences. So don’t hold back when you’re bullet-pointing your ideas.)
Some things to include are:
Past experience
Did you work in your current field prior to starting your business? Were there any other jobs or careers that inform the work you do today?
Whatever your background, find a common thread in the experience you choose to share as it relates to how you help your clients today.
Brands you’ve worked with
If you’re a B2B, include the logos of past clients. Big names are great if you have them, but they don’t have to be recognizable—they just have to be real.
Impressive stats or results
Numbers tell a story. How many clients have you worked with?
If you’re a CPA, what’s the average dollar amount you save your clients in deductions?
If you’re a recruiting specialist, how many candidates have you placed?
If you’re a social media strategist, what growth and engagement rates do you frequently achieve for your clients?
You get the idea.
The folks at Student Loan Planner share some pretty compelling stats on their About page:
But you don’t have to have numbers in the millions or billions to tell a story.
Ashley and team at Solution Integrators help business owners grow by streamlining their systems. They’ve included some stats that show rather than tell they’re in demand.
Awards or certifications
Also note the credibility-boosting certification logos on Ashley’s site above. Your About page is a great place to display these. Just keep it clean and minimalistic if you’re using logos.
Features and partnerships
Podcast interviews, blog or magazine articles, speaking engagements, or any other partnerships you’ve formed can be a great way to show that you’re active, engaged, and an expert in your field.
Testimonials
Choose testimonials that highlight the parts of your work or results you want to emphasize. Mei Lin Barral Photography specializes in intimate weddings for dog parents. (So, pretty much the best job ever.)
This testimonial on Mei Lin’s About page speaks to that specialty and sets her apart from other photographers in her area:
Use social proof and credibility boosters impactfully, but sparingly. No one appreciates a long list of superlatives or a junky collection of logos.
Focus on the highlights and include only what’s most relevant to your ideal client.
Your brand’s origin story
Story: the key to your ideal client’s heart.
Why did you start your business? What was the moment that changed everything? How did you get to where you are today?
If you have an interesting origin story, share it. Don’t write a novel, but share why your business needed to exist, what hole you were trying to fill, or what aha moment or passionate idea led you to today.
Chris the Money Mom tells a short but impactful origin story on her About page. (Notice how she doesn’t get too into detail.) Chris increased her net worth by $200k in three years—which makes this origin story all the more compelling.
Mission, vision, values
Your brand’s origin story is a natural segue to your mission, vision, and values.
If you’ve defined them (and they match your actions), this is the place to talk about them. If you haven’t defined your mission, vision, and values, it’s a good time to start thinking about them.
More than ever, clients and consumers care about who their money is going to and what a brand stands for.
And if you’re an entrepreneur or small business, defining these things can help you stand out from the competition, because most small business owners still aren’t talking about the impact they want to make in the world.
No one knows this better than Totally Taryn Social, a social media strategy company for purpose-driven businesses. Their actions match their message, which is what makes their mission all the more compelling.
Your unique process, approach, or framework
When you’ve been an expert in your industry for a while, you tend to develop processes and refine your approach to your work.
Whether you have a standard system, created a custom framework, or do work potential clients need help understanding, sharing a bit about it can help clients see your value and know what to expect when working with you.
Jess Joswick, founder of Backbone Business (and my business coach!) has a framework she references often in our coaching calls. By sharing them on her About page, she’s signaling to potential clients, “Hey, I don’t just wing this coaching thing. I’ve got a proven model. Here’s a sneak peek.”
Did it set her apart from the dozens of other coaches whose sites I looked at? You bet.
The human element: personal details
People want to connect with humans. Whether you’re a solopreneur or a team of twenty, adding a human element to your About page is a great way to establish a connection (and add some personality).
You can include personal details like:
- Where you live
- The teams you root for
- Pets or kids you love
- Favorite hobbies
- A favorite quote, book, band, or food
- “I believe…” statements that convey your philosophy on work or life
- What you love most about your work
Brevity is key. Highlight a few short details that best define you or your team members for maximum impact.
I love how Chandler J. Esq. did it. Not your average trademark lawyer, she’s prone to dropping F-bombs and breaking the rules. (Just not the legal ones.)
She’s chosen a few strategic personal details and delivered them in an eye-catching format that’s in line with her brand messaging and makes you feel like you know her after just a quick glance.
Don’t forget a call-to-action
You didn’t think we were done here did you? Because even your About page needs a call-to-action.
If you don’t point your reader toward their next action, that next action is likely to be navigating away from your website.
It’s not personal. And it’s not an exaggeration. We all have 20 tabs in our browser, phone notifications alerting us of the latest celebrity death, and pets, kids, or plants begging for our attention.
Do not skip the CTA. Do not overcomplicate the CTA. Do not choose the wrong CTA.
Show readers exactly what they should do next, whether that’s viewing your services, booking a call, or downloading your freebie.
Web design and development pro Katie of Rebel + Rise shows us how CTAs on an About page can work for multiple audiences. While one CTA is ideal, sometimes you do really need two. Katie has kept it simple with her messaging and personalized CTAs help the reader self-identify and get the pricing guide they need.
Are you inspired to write your About page yet?
Aside from knowing what to include, you’ve also learned how important your About page is—and that it’s actually about your clients.
When done right, it can create connections, make your business look like hot shit, and inspire right-fit clients to take action toward working with you, today
After all, that’s the goal here.
Need some help with all of this?
Because writing website copy is my zone of genius (and probably not yours).
Send me a note so we can talk about your business, goals, and how YOU can get potent website copy (and an awesome About page).
