Most small-business About Us pages get written in five minutes and never touched again — a few lines about “passion” and “quality,” a stock photo, done. That’s a missed opportunity: the About page is often the second or third most visited page on a small-business site, and it’s one of the clearest trust signals Google and real customers use to decide whether to take you seriously.
Table of Contents
This guide walks through exactly what to include, how to structure it so people actually read it, and how to write it in a way that also supports your SEO — without turning it into a keyword-stuffed sales pitch.
Quick Answer
A strong About Us page explains who you are, who you serve, why you started the business, and what makes you credible — backed by real names, real photos, and verifiable details like years in business, location, and credentials. Keep it skimmable, put the most important trust signals near the top, and link it clearly from your main navigation and homepage.
What to Include, Step by Step
Start with a one- or two-sentence summary of who you are and who you help — written for a stranger landing on the page for the first time, not for someone who already knows your brand. This is the part most visitors actually read, so don’t bury it under a long origin story.
Next, cover the origin and purpose: why the business exists, what problem it solves, and what changed or what gap you saw that led you to start it. Specifics beat generic mission statements — ‘we started this after spending a year fixing other contractors’ mistakes’ is more convincing than ‘we’re passionate about quality.’
Introduce the people behind the business. For a solo operator or small team, include real names, real photos (not stock images), and relevant credentials, certifications, or years of hands-on experience. Google’s quality guidelines put heavy weight on this kind of firsthand, verifiable expertise — a named founder with a real bio and photo reads as far more trustworthy than an anonymous ‘our team’ paragraph, and it matters just as much to a human visitor deciding whether to call you.
Add concrete trust markers: years in business, number of projects or customers served (only if accurate — don’t invent a figure), service area, licensing or insurance info if relevant to your industry, and any affiliations or associations you genuinely belong to. If you have a physical location, include it here as well as on your contact page.
Close with a clear next step — a link to your services, a contact form, or a phone number. The About page is a trust-building stop on the way to a decision, not a dead end.
Writing It So It Helps SEO, Not Just Looks Pretty
Use a single clear H1 (something like ‘About [Business Name]’) and break the page into a few H2 sections — your story, your team, how you work, service area — rather than one long block of text. This makes the page easier for both readers and search engines to parse.
Naturally work in the terms people would use to find a business like yours: your service plus your city or region, your specialty, and the problem you solve. Don’t force keywords in awkwardly — a page that reads naturally and answers real questions tends to perform better than one optimized purely for phrase matching.
Link to your About page from your homepage and main navigation, and link out from it to your services, portfolio, or contact page. Internal links like this help search engines understand how your site fits together and help visitors actually find what they came for.
If you want an extra technical boost, add Organization schema markup (structured data in JSON-LD format) to your site, typically placed on the homepage or the About page. It can include your business name, logo, address, and contact details, giving search engines a clean, machine-readable summary of who you are — on top of, not instead of, the human-readable content on the page.
Keep your NAP (name, address, phone) consistent between your About page, your contact page, and any business listings you maintain elsewhere online. Inconsistent details across the web can quietly undermine the trust signals you’re trying to build.
Tips / Common Mistakes
Don’t write only about yourself — the strongest About pages quickly pivot to the customer: who you serve and what outcome they get from working with you. A page that’s 100% ‘we, we, we’ reads as self-focused.
Avoid vague claims like ‘industry-leading’ or ‘best in the area’ with nothing behind them. If you can’t back a claim with a specific, verifiable detail, soften it or cut it.
Don’t use stock photos of generic ‘business people’ when you could use a real photo of yourself or your team — it’s one of the fastest ways to undercut the trust you’re trying to build.
Keep it current. An About page that still references a milestone from years ago, a team member who’s left, or an outdated service area signals neglect. Revisit it at least once a year.
Resist the urge to make it enormous. A focused page of several short sections usually works better than a sprawling essay — skimmability matters more than word count.
Explore more: More digital strategy guides for small businesses.
About Us page SEO and trust FAQs
How long should an About Us page be?
There’s no fixed word count — a few hundred to around a thousand words is typical for a small business, organized into short, skimmable sections rather than one long block of text.
Does an About Us page actually affect SEO rankings?
It’s not a single ranking factor you can point to, but it supports the trust and expertise signals search engines use when evaluating a site, and it’s often one of the pages people check before deciding to contact a business — so it indirectly affects both rankings and conversions.
Should I include my photo if I run the business alone?
Yes — a real photo of the owner or team is one of the simplest ways to build trust, and it’s consistently more effective than a logo or stock image alone.
What’s the difference between an About Us page and a homepage?
The homepage is built to convert a visitor quickly around your core offer; the About page is where visitors go to vet you — your story, your credibility, and who’s actually behind the business.
Build It With GTStudios
Need help with your website, app, or small-business tech? GTStudios builds web, apps, and software for small businesses. See how GTStudios can help.
Want dev news in your inbox? Subscribe to the free newsletter.
Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash.