Small Businesses: 10 Secrets to a Good ‘About’ Page

When you’re a small business, your website content can make the difference between success and failure.

Your ‘About’ page is often the most awkward to write, but it’s important you put effort into writing it because it can persuade the reader you’re the business to trust.

As a small business, you can make your About page more personal than a larger company can, with the chance to put a face to the business. You can showcase your story, what makes you unique, what drives you and let customers know why they should use you.

We’ve put together a list of 10 Secrets to writing a good ‘About’ page. Once you’ve written your content, use this list to check you’ve hit all the right notes. 

  1. Writer’s Block? – If you’re stuck for content, ask your friends, employees or even your customers what makes you different. If you already have some reviews or testimonials, it can be helpful to read through these to remind you exactly how you make clients feel and why they chose you over anyone else.
  1. Your tone of voice should be conversational – As your About Page is all about building trust with your customers, you need to write it as if you were speaking to someone face to face. Read it out loud and see if it sounds like something you would say to them in real life.
  1. Tell your story – One of the greatest parts about a small business’ About page is finding out who they are and how they got started. Try looking at what got you passionate in the first place about starting your business.

Did you want to create the type of customer experience you don’t see often, but you feel customers deserve? Did you feel you could offer clients something different from your competitors? What drives you to help the people your business serves?

This can add the real human touch to an About page. Showing you’re a genuine person who understands what the client is feeling is important, so if you can link this into your story, even better!

  1. Inject some personality – Does it capture your voice? If you’re going to working closely with your clients, it’s an opportunity to let them know exactly who’ll they’ll be dealing with and what you’ll bring to the table. This is your business and you can showcase it in the best way possible.
  1. It’s not actually about you Whilst your About page should be designed to tell your potential clients more about you, it should always be customer-centred. By this, we mean the information should be something they can relate to and make them want to hire you, e.g. the benefits of working with you.
  1. Start with a question or a statement – Let the customer know they’re in the right place to find out more about your business. A great way to start is by acknowledging why your customers may have come to your site in the first place.
  1. Use subheadings – Readers will get bored very quickly if you just have a lot of text to read with no real guidance to what they’ll be reading about. This could be as simple as ‘What We Do’, ‘My Story’, ‘Benefits of Working with Me’ etc. It’s just so much easier to read.
  1. Include a photo – Being able to put a face to the words being written and the person behind the business helps to build trust.
  1. Avoid random facts about yourself – Give the reader a taste of who you are, where you live, what you enjoy doing etc. However, the facts you give are all about showing your human side and your values, which could relate to your business if it’s your passion. People will relate to these things more rather than completely random facts about yourself.
  1. Always end with a Call to Action (CTA) – There’s nothing worse than reading a great About page and then have no clue what to do next. This could be a link to another page on your site, for example, such as a testimonials section, service page or contact form.

Hopefully you’ve taken some inspiration from what you’ve read here and can ensure your About page is head and shoulders above the rest! Just remember it’s about showing you’re a genuine person, the ethos behind your business values and that you can relate to your customers. If nothing else, remember to ask others what makes you unique so you can let customers know why they should use your business.

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