Your About page: Why it isn’t converting customers & how to fix it
- Miriam Ellis
- Jun 16
- 7 min read
Author: Miriam Ellis
The About page is an asset you know you need to have, but if you’re like many site owners, you aren’t quite sure what to fill it with. You are not alone! Most of the clients I’ve consulted, both large and small, seem to freeze when it comes to talking proudly about their business.
I find this kind of humility rather heartwarming—even if we work in marketing, we tend to blush a bit over blowing our own horn.
It’s totally normal to feel like this, but it creates a huge lost opportunity if this page isn’t designed for conversions. The About page can make the difference between being chosen by a visitor with specific criteria they need fulfilled or losing the sale to a competitor. It may be your one chance to prove that you are the best of all the options they are considering, and it deserves to be one of the strongest pages on your site, rather than an afterthought.
So, here’s the good news: your About page is not about you—it’s about your visitor. Hopefully this distinction can help you move past self-consciousness and towards creating an About page that converts. Let’s get started.
Table of contents:
The problem: What typical About pages sound like to potential customers
Let’s start with an example of how your About page shouldn’t read.
Imagine you’re a homeowner in Marin County, California, who is looking to hire a sustainable landscape designer to turn your non-ecological front lawn into a biodiverse wildlife garden. Here are your priorities as the customer:
You want the service provider to both install the landscape design and to maintain it on a quarterly basis.
You want a provider that’s local so that you won’t need to pay any extra travel-related surcharges.
You want proof that the firm understands and is qualified to undertake native plant landscaping for wildlife and will not use any kind of materials or chemicals that could harm wildlife or your family.
You want a company with a proven record of beautiful work and an excellent reputation in the local community.
You want transparent information about fees so you know if you can afford this service.
You want to work with friendly, communicative people who treat you respectfully and want to form a real relationship with you (since you will be letting them onto your property at least four times a year).
With this list of priorities in mind, let’s look at a fictitious example of typical About page content that incorporates elements from multiple real websites:
What you see above is one of the most common failings of About pages: The company says “We, we, we,” instead of “you, you, you,” to the visitor and misses the opportunity to check off items on the potential customer’s priority list. There is no mention of location, no sense that the visitor is being directly addressed, and little by way of how choosing this business will benefit the customer.
Let’s fix this with some better examples that will help you turn this important page away from internal-speak about your business and toward the visitor and their needs.
How your About page should read to visitors
There are three main points your improved About page should address to the customer:
01. Your problem solved | Directly address your reader by acknowledging the most common problems that prompt them to contact you. |
02. Your life made better | Directly explain how your solution improves the lives of clients/customers, whether that means benefits to their home, health, finances, quality of life, or whatever your product or service provides. |
03. Your proof | Directly showcase all of the aspects of your business that prove you are the best choice. Proof can come in the form of reviews, testimonials, statistics, data, case studies, photos or videos of completed work, awards, and a variety of other assets, all with the goal of demonstrating your credibility. |
All three points are geared directly toward the customer so that your About page becomes their resource for discovering whether their priorities will be met by your company. How you design the layout of your page is up to you, but let’s look at a framework for inspiration.
What belongs on your About page and how should you organize it?
Below, I will walk you through how to create a compelling, customer-first About page that includes the following elements:
01. Opening statement
02. Core products and services
03. Stats
04. User-generated content and reviews
05. Images and video
06. Contact information
07. Mission statement
08. Timeline
09. Call-to-action
01. An opening statement that speaks one-on-one to your visitor
We’ve already looked at an example of typical About page text that fails to engage the reader. Take inspiration from this more effective example:
This example speaks directly to your potential customer using words like “you” and mentions their needs and budget, suggesting that they can handle a wide range of customer requests and circumstances.
02. A summary of your core products and services
Don’t assume that visitors already know what you’re offering. Create a summary of each of your core products and services, with links to relevant landing pages where they can learn more.
If practicable, include pricing information to avoid wasting your time and the visitors’ if their budget doesn’t match your costs. Here’s an example to inspire you:
03. Showcase your most persuasive statistics
Numbers tell a story of their own. Whether it’s customers served, projects completed, or the size of your software’s link index, pick three to five stunning stats to highlight, like this:
04. Showcase reviews and user-generated content
In surveys I’ve conducted in the past, I discovered that the majority of consumers trust what customers say about a business more than what a business says about itself. Because of this, one of your most influential About page sections should feature your best reviews.
If you have a separate page on the site for reviews and testimonials, you can link to it from this section. In the enterprise arena, this is also where you should showcase your most impressive clients (if you are permitted to do so).
Some review platforms enable you to embed reviews from your profiles, but always read the guidelines of each platform before republishing its contents.
05. Include compelling images and videos
A video summarizing key factors about your business can provide a shortcut for visitors who don’t want to read through your entire About page (this can be especially true for mobile users).
You should include:
An introduction from the business owner
The benefits customers receive from working with you
Impressive statistics
Snapshots of your reviews
Footage of your premises
Information about your most important products and services
Video testimonials can also be a major asset for brands in almost any industry. Meanwhile, imagery plays a role in most businesses:
Service area businesses, like plumbers and landscapers, can share photos of company vehicles and uniforms to instill trust.
Before-and-after photography works like magic for house painters, carpet cleaners, remediation services, and similar businesses.
Brick-and-mortar companies can photograph exterior and interior premises as well as amenities, such as patio dining, gender-neutral restrooms, and accessibility features.
For fully virtual businesses, such as software companies, screenshots of your dashboards or reports could add interest to this section.
06. List every possible way to connect with your business
If your business is local, you should find room near the top of your About page to list your complete company name, address, and phone number.
In addition, create a list of every possible way in which a potential customer might connect with you:
Alternate phone numbers
SMS/text numbers
After-hours support numbers
Links to all your social media profiles
Forms
Booking buttons and calendars
Email addresses
Fax numbers
07. Only after all of the above, include your mission statement
While a mission statement may be a primary consideration in the non-profit sector, it tends to take second place for customers in most other industries. Only when the contents of your About page have directly addressed as many of your customers’ questions as possible should you dive into the deeper story behind your company.
Once again, even though your mission statement is technically all about your business, orient its language toward the visitor, like this:
08. Instill trust with your company timeline
While you don’t have to include a timeline of your business’s history, this can be an excellent way to quickly convey further information that will matter to the visitor. Here is a starter list of points that can make your timeline a sales asset:
Founding date
Awards won
Community involvement
Growth or expansion
Major projects
Acquisitions
Relocations
Top achievements
09. Add a prominent call-to-action
Prompt the visitor to take the next action along their customer journey after viewing your About page. That next step is likely something on this list:
Phone your business
Fill out a form
Book an appointment
Text your business
Buy something
Visit your premises
Move to a different page on the site
Contact you via email
You can sprinkle calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your About page, but don’t forget to close the page out with one. Make it as easy as possible for the visitor to understand what they can do next.
Your About page is as much about your business as your customers’ needs
There are many additional elements that could be incorporated into your About page. For example, it might be smart to feature notifications of sales and specials, or coupons. You could have links to a Careers page or a Press section. It may even be necessary to disclose your policies, licensing agreements, or similar information. Begin with the basics you’ve learned about in this article and add to it to make your About page as influential as possible.
The one rule of thumb to keep in mind is that what you write is meant to solve the visitor’s problems. Answer their questions and meet their needs. Speak directly to the potential customer, as the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard described, “that single individual whom I with joy and gratitude call my reader.”
When a visitor to your About page feels that you are speaking to them one-on-one, with genuine consideration for their wishes and feelings, their journey toward conversion will be quicker because you have already met them halfway by proving you know how to serve your audience.
Miriam Ellis is a local SEO columnist and consultant. She has been cited as one of the top five most prolific women writers in the SEO industry. Miriam is also an award-winning fine artist and her work can be seen at MiriamEllis.com. Twitter | Linkedin
