The About page is the second most visited page on most small business sites. Right after the homepage. And it's almost always terrible. Not because owners are bad writers. Because they think the About page is supposed to be about their business. It's not. It's supposed to be about why someone should trust their business.
That's a subtle but important difference. One's a history lesson. The other's a trust-building exercise. When someone's comparing you to three other local businesses they found on Google, trust is everything.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Most About pages start with the company. "We were founded in..." "Our mission is..." "We offer a range of services..." None of that's wrong exactly. But it's all backward. It starts with the business and makes the customer figure out why they should care.
Start with the customer instead. What problem were you trying to solve when you started. Who frustrated you. What was missing. That frame, I started this to fix a problem for people like you, is totally different from we were established in 2018.
"People are not reading your About page to learn your history. They are reading it to decide if they trust you enough to call."
What actually builds trust on an About page
A real photo. I can't say this enough. A photo of you. Not a logo. Not a stock photo of someone shaking hands. You. Doesn't have to be professional. Just clear and well-lit so you look human. People buy from people. Putting a face to the name is one of the strongest trust signals that exists. Most businesses skip it.
A specific reason why. Not "we're passionate about quality." Everyone says that. Something specific. Why'd you start this. What do you care about that your industry doesn't. What in your community motivated you. Specific is believable. Vague is forgettable.
A connection to place. Rural businesses have a real advantage here they almost never use. You're not a faceless national service. You're from here. You know this community. The winters. The floods. The annual festival. The store that closed three years ago. Say that. People in small towns actually care whether you're from the place or just passing through.
Keep it short enough to actually get read
Three to five tight paragraphs. Maybe a photo. Maybe a short section about your team if they're worth introducing. That's it. An About page that takes four minutes to read won't get read.
Write how you talk. Read it out loud. If it sounds like a press release, rewrite it. If it sounds like you explaining your business to someone you just met, you're done.
The goal's simple. A visitor finishes reading and thinks. I know who this is. I get why they do this. I think I trust them. If your About page does that, it works.