Visitors who land on an About page are already interested, they clicked there on purpose to learn whether they can trust you. That makes it one of the highest-leverage pages on the entire site, and also one of the easiest to waste with vague, self-congratulatory copy that doesn't actually answer the question a visitor came to ask.
Answer "why you," not just "what you do"
A visitor's product or service page already covers what you offer. The About page's job is different: explaining why they should choose you specifically over the other options they're comparing.
Generic mission statements, "we're passionate about delivering excellence", answer nothing, since any competitor could copy-paste the same sentence. Specific detail, how you actually work, what you believe makes a good outcome, what you won't compromise on, is what a competitor can't easily copy.
Lead with the visitor's problem, not your history
Many About pages open with a founding story, when the company started, why it was founded, told in a way that centers the business rather than the visitor. That story can matter, but it works better placed after you've addressed what the visitor actually came to check: can this business solve my problem.
Opening with a clear statement of who you help and how, then following with your background as supporting credibility, respects why someone is actually reading the page.
What to include vs. what to cut
| Include | Cut or Minimize |
|---|---|
| Specific detail on how you work | Generic mission statements |
| Real credentials, years of experience, credibility markers | Vague claims of "excellence" or "passion" |
| A real photo, ideally of you or your team | Generic stock photography |
| A clear next step (contact, book, browse services) | A page that dead-ends with no call to action |
Use a real photo, not a generic one
Stock photography on an About page can quietly undercut the trust the page is trying to build, since a savvy visitor recognizes generic smiling-people stock imagery and it reads as impersonal at exactly the moment you're trying to seem personal.
A real photo, even a simple one, of you or your team does more credibility work than a polished but obviously stock image, particularly for service businesses where the person is genuinely part of the offering.
End with a clear next step
A visitor who reads your About page and feels convinced still needs somewhere to go next. A page that ends without a link to contact, book, or browse services leaves that motivated visitor to hunt for what to do, and hunting is exactly the friction that loses conversions.
A simple, direct closing line and a button is a small addition that captures interest the rest of the page worked to build.
Where this leaves me
The About pages that actually build trust aren't the most polished, they're the most specific. Answering why a visitor should choose you, in your own real detail rather than generic language, does more to convert an interested visitor than any amount of design refinement on a page that says nothing concrete.
I think about this a lot while working on SnapBlock, since it's exactly the kind of page most builders treat as a formality when it's actually one of the most important pages on the site.
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