The about page is read late in the decision, by someone deciding whether to trust you. That job has almost nothing to do with your company history and everything to do with evidence.

The about page is usually one of the most visited pages on a business site, and it is visited late: after someone has read the offer and before they get in touch. Its job is to answer one question, which is whether these people can be trusted with this work. Company timelines, mission statements and founding anecdotes rarely answer it.

Who reads it and when

Check the analytics on almost any B2B site and the about page sits near the top. The visits cluster late in the session, often immediately before a contact page view. That tells you the reader already understands what you sell; they are now deciding whether to risk a conversation. Write for that person, not for a general visitor who has just arrived.

Lead with what you do and for whom

The first paragraph should say what the business does, who it does it for, and what makes the approach specific. A reader who has to scroll past a mission statement to find out whether you work with companies like theirs is a reader you are testing unnecessarily.

Show people

Real photographs of real people outperform stock in the one measure that matters here: whether the reader believes there is someone behind the site. A single good portrait beats a gallery of stock office shots. If the business is one person, that is an advantage on this page, not something to disguise with plural pronouns.

  • Real photography, even imperfect, over stock.
  • Names and roles for anyone the client will actually deal with.
  • No fake team of five if there is one of you.

Use evidence, not adjectives

Every company describes itself as passionate, experienced and client-focused, which is why none of those words carry information. Replace them with things that can be checked: years doing this specific work, named clients where permission exists, the kinds of problems you have solved, a fact about how you work that a competitor would not claim. "I have designed and built websites since 2022, mostly for B2B and property companies" tells a reader more than a paragraph of values.

Explain how working with you actually goes

Who the client talks to, how decisions get made, what you handle and what you do not. This is the part most about pages skip and most buyers want. It also does useful filtering work: a reader who wants a large agency team learns that here rather than after two calls.

Be honest about limits

Naming what you are not good at, or what you do not take on, is the single most credible thing an about page can do. It costs the enquiries that would have gone wrong anyway and it makes the rest of the page believable. A page with no limits reads as marketing; a page with one specific limit reads as a person.

End where the reader is going anyway

The reader arrived here on the way to deciding. Give them the next step at the bottom: the work, the contact page, or a low-commitment offer. A page that ends on a founding story leaves them to find their own way back.

What to cut

A year-by-year timeline nobody reads. Values as a list of nouns. A mission statement written for investors. Stock photography of handshakes. Awards nobody in your market has heard of. Anything that would be equally true of your three closest competitors.

Practical decision checklist

  • Open with what you do and who for.
  • Include a real photograph of a real person.
  • Replace every adjective with something checkable.
  • Describe how working together actually goes.
  • Name one honest limit.
  • Finish with a next step, not a story.

Frequently asked questions

How long should an about page be?

Long enough to answer the trust question and no longer. For most businesses that is 400 to 800 words, with the important part in the first screen for readers who will not scroll.

Should a solo freelancer write "we"?

No. It is transparent, and it discards the main advantage: the client deals directly with the person doing the work. Say that plainly and the page does more work than a plural pronoun ever will.

Do we need team photos if the team changes often?

Show the people a client will actually work with, and keep the page current. An out-of-date team page is worse than a page that describes the team without photographs.

Where should the about page sit in the navigation?

In the main navigation, but not first. Readers arrive at it deliberately, usually from a service page or the footer, which is why its placement matters less than its content.