About Page Copy: Building Trust With Strangers
Most about pages get written once, early on, and never revisited. That’s a missed opportunity, since the about page is often where a genuinely interested customer goes to decide whether they trust you enough to buy, especially from a brand they’ve never heard of before.
This guide covers what an about page actually needs to accomplish, how to structure it, and how to tell your story without slipping into overselling. It builds on our broader guide to website copy, which covers this alongside your product descriptions and homepage.
What an About Page Actually Needs to Do
An about page’s real job is building trust, not just providing information. A visitor reading it usually wants an answer to one underlying question: is this a real, credible brand worth buying from, or something to be cautious about.
This means the page needs to feel genuinely human, not like a corporate mission statement copied from a template. Specificity is what makes a story feel real, so favour concrete details over broad, generic claims about passion or quality.
Structure That Builds Trust
- The origin, specifically told: why you actually started the brand, with a real detail or moment rather than a generic “we saw a gap in the market” line.
- What makes your approach different: a specific practice, material choice, or philosophy that genuinely sets you apart, not a vague claim of quality or passion.
- Proof points: concrete details like where products are made, who’s behind the brand, or how long you’ve been operating.
- A clear next step: a link back to your collection or a specific product, so an engaged reader has somewhere obvious to go next.
This structure works alongside your brand mission and vision, translating those foundational ideas into a story a stranger can actually connect with in a few minutes of reading.
Telling Your Story Without Overselling
An about page that reads like an advertisement undermines its own goal. Customers can tell the difference between genuine storytelling and marketing copy dressed up as a story, and the latter tends to erode the trust the page is supposed to build.
Write in your brand’s actual tone of voice, and don’t be afraid to include a genuine limitation or challenge you’ve faced. A small admission of imperfection often makes the rest of the story more believable, not less.
What to Include Beyond the Founder Story
The founder’s personal story is a natural anchor, but an about page can carry more than that alone. Consider including how products are made, who’s on the team, what values genuinely guide day-to-day decisions, and any milestones worth mentioning.
Photos of the actual team, workspace, or production process add credibility that text alone can’t fully provide. If your about page is purely text with a stock-feeling brand photo, that’s often a sign it’s worth revisiting.
Common Mistakes
- Writing in generic, corporate language. Vague claims about passion and quality don’t build the trust a specific story does.
- Never revisiting the page after launch. An about page written when a brand was brand new often no longer reflects where it’s actually at.
- Leaving out a next step. An engaged reader needs a clear path back to your product, not a dead end.
- Overselling with no specificity. Broad claims read as marketing, while specific, concrete details read as genuine.
Frequently Asked Questions About About Page Copy
An about page’s real job is building trust, answering a visitor’s underlying question of whether the brand is credible and worth buying from. This matters most for customers encountering the brand for the first time.
A specifically told origin story, what genuinely makes your approach different, concrete proof points like production location or team background, and a clear next step linking back to your products.
Revisit it periodically, since a page written when a brand was brand new often no longer reflects where the business actually is. Many brands write it once at launch and never return to it, which is a common missed opportunity.
Favour specific, concrete details over broad claims about passion or quality. A real moment, detail, or even an honest limitation makes a story feel genuine, while vague, sweeping statements tend to read as generic marketing copy.
Yes, ideally of the actual team, workspace, or production process rather than generic stock imagery. Real photos add credibility that text alone often can’t fully provide, reinforcing the trust the page is meant to build.
