A short guide to about pages

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. Everything we would tell a client about about pages in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Pages that answer a real question outlive pages written to fill a slot in a sitemap. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

Why it matters

The about page is often the second most visited. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

How to approach it

Visitors are checking whether you are real. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

Common failure modes

Photos of actual people outperform stock imagery. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

How to tell if yours is fine

Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. Three things worth confirming about about pages before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• The about page is often the second most visited — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

The point is not perfection, it is knowing which of these you have consciously chosen to skip.