Why the About page matters more than it used to
Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable content asks a direct question of every site: does it present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, with background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through a link to an author page or the site’s About page?
The same guidance names four qualities, experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, and says that of these, trust is the most important. It also says plainly that this mix of qualities is not itself a ranking factor. The About page is not a trick for ranking; it is where trust is either established or not.
An assistant asked who runs a business, how long it has traded or whether it can be trusted can only answer from what is written down somewhere. If your own About page does not say, the answer comes from somewhere else, or not at all.
Who: the people, by name
Say who runs the business, by name, with what each person does. Google’s first “Who” question is whether it is self-evident who is behind the content. For a small business the honest answer is usually one or two people, and that is a strength: a customer is buying from them.
Use real photographs, or none. Google is unusually blunt here: fabricating creator profiles, with AI-generated headshots, made-up names or false credentials, is a form of deception, and any deception makes a page untrustworthy to users and to its automated systems. A stock photo of a smiling team you do not have does more harm than an empty space.
An invented example: a joiner in Bala writes “I’m Gwyn Roberts. I trained as a joiner in Dolgellau and have run this workshop on Heol Tegid since 2009, on my own, with my son Elis since 2021.” Every part of that sentence can be checked, and none of it is a slogan.
Where, and since when
Give the town, the area you serve and, if customers visit, the address. Say when you started. A founding year is one of the plainest trust signals there is, because it is a fact rather than a claim, and it is the kind of detail an assistant can repeat if it finds it.
Keep these details identical to your contact page, your listings and your Google Business Profile. Our guide on consistent business details covers why a mismatch is worse than either version alone.
If you work in Welsh, say so here in words: which of you speaks Welsh, and that customers are welcome to get in touch in Welsh. It is a reason to choose you, and it belongs on the page that says who you are.
How a reader can check
A claim a reader can check is worth far more than one they cannot. If you hold a qualification, belong to a trade body or are registered with a scheme, name it and link to the register where a reader can look you up. If you are a limited company, give the company name and number. Link to the places your reviews actually live.
Leave out what cannot be checked. “Trusted by thousands” and “award-winning” with no award named are the phrases a careful reader skips and an assistant has no reason to repeat.
Then keep it current. A founding year never changes, but people, qualifications and opening arrangements do. An About page that still names someone who left two years ago tells a reader the rest of the site may be out of date too, so read it again every few months and whenever someone joins or leaves.
- Who runs the business, by name and role
- Real photographs, or none
- Where you are, the area you serve, and since when
- Qualifications and memberships, linked to their registers
- Company name and number, if you are a limited company
- Whether you work in Welsh
How you work, and why
Google’s “How” question is about how content was produced; for a small business, the useful version is how you do the work. Say what a job with you looks like: how you quote, who turns up, what happens if something goes wrong. Two or three plain sentences do more than a page of values.
If you used AI to help write the site, that is your business, but the facts on the About page must still be true. Google suggests saying how content was made where a reader would reasonably wonder, and it is clear that using AI mainly to manipulate search rankings breaks its spam policies. An About page written to sound bigger than you are fails both tests.
Google calls “Why” perhaps the most important question: content should exist primarily to help people. For an About page, that means writing it for the customer deciding whether to ring you, not for a search engine.
The same facts, in the code
Schema.org, the shared vocabulary for structured data, has a type for this page, AboutPage, described simply as a web page type for an About page. On the business itself, Organization has founder and foundingDate, and on each person, Person has jobTitle and hasCredential.
Mark up only what the page already says in words, and keep both in step. Your languages (knowsLanguage) and your other profiles (sameAs) are covered in our guides on local business structured data and consistent business details. The free assessment on this site reads one page and reports what structured data it finds.
Frequently asked questions
What should I put on my About page?
Who runs the business, by name, where you are, since when, how a reader can check your qualifications or registration, and how you work. Facts a customer can verify do more than a story.
Should my About page show photos of real people?
Yes, or none at all. Google says fabricated profiles, including AI-generated headshots and made-up names, are deception and make a page untrustworthy.
Does an About page help my business show up in Google?
Not as a ranking trick. Google says trust matters most among the qualities its systems look for, and that those qualities together, which it calls E-E-A-T, are not a specific ranking factor; but it names the About page as one place readers find who runs a site.
Can I use AI to write my About page?
You can use it to draft, but every fact must be true and checkable. Google treats invented names, credentials or headshots as deception.