Your About Page Gets More Traffic Than You Think. Here's Why It's Losing You Customers.
When someone lands on your website and wants to hire you, they don't just scroll through your services and click call. Most of them go to your About page first.
It's a trust check. They want to know who they're about to hand their money to.
And most small business About pages fail that check completely.
What Customers Are Actually Looking For
When someone visits your About page, they're not looking for your company history. They don't care that you were founded in 2009 or that you've completed thousands of projects. They're looking for answers to questions they'd never actually ask out loud:
- Is this a real business or a side hustle?
- Will the person who shows up know what they're doing?
- Does this feel like someone I'd want in my home or working on my property?
- Do other people like me hire this company?
That's it. That's the whole checklist. And nearly everything on the typical small business About page answers none of those questions.
The Four Things That Are Killing Your About Page
A stock photo where a real face should be. If your About page has a photo of two people shaking hands in an office or a team celebrating around a laptop, that's a trust killer. Customers know that photo isn't you. A single real photo of the actual person doing the work does more for your credibility than three paragraphs of copy. A story that starts in the wrong place. "We were founded in..." is the corporate version of starting a sentence with "I." Nobody hired you because of when you started. They hired you because of what you fix for them. The story on your About page should start with the customer's problem, not your origin. No names, no faces, no personality. Plenty of About pages read like a press release. Passive voice, vague claims, no person behind the words. Customers hiring a local business want to know they're dealing with a human being. A short paragraph that sounds like a real person wrote it is worth more than polished marketing copy that could belong to anyone. Testimonials, certifications, or awards buried at the bottom. If you have good reviews, put them on your About page. If you're licensed or insured in a way that matters to your customers, say it plainly right where they'll see it. Don't make someone scroll to find the one thing that might actually convince them to pick up the phone.What a Working About Page Actually Looks Like
Good About pages for local service businesses follow a pretty simple structure. You don't need much.
Start with a short paragraph that names the problem you solve and the area you serve. Something like: "We're a family-owned window cleaning company serving Pasco and Pinellas County. If you want it done right the first time without having to babysit the process, that's what we do."
Then a photo of the real person (or people) doing the work. One good photo beats every other element on the page.
Then two or three sentences about why this work matters to you personally. Not a history lesson. Just a reason that feels human.
Then a few real customer testimonials, ideally specific ones that mention what the customer was worried about before they hired you.
Then your license number, insurance info, or any credential that matters in your industry.
That's the page. It should take five minutes to read and leave the customer with zero doubts about whether to call.
The Fix Most People Skip
The biggest mistake isn't bad copy or a bad photo. It's that most small business owners wrote their About page once, three years ago, and never touched it again.
Your business has changed. You have more reviews. You've added services. You've gotten better at what you do. Your About page should reflect where you are now, not where you were when you launched the site.
Take ten minutes this week to read your About page like a first-time visitor. Ask yourself honestly: if I knew nothing about this company and landed here, would I call them?
If the answer is no, you know where to start.
If your website isn't converting visitors into calls, the About page is often part of the problem. At On Point Digital Studio, we build sites for local businesses in Pinellas and Pasco County that actually bring in leads. Get in touch if you want a site that works.
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