Why Your Service-Based Business Needs a Better About Page

Your About page might be the most valuable page on your website, and most businesses treat it like an obligation instead of an opportunity, especially in the trades like electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. They spend weeks refining every detail of their homepage, and thousands of dollars on ad spend. The About page is often an afterthought. A few credentials, a quick timeline, maybe a sentence about “quality service,” a few buzzword values and they call it a day. Pull up a local service business near you and you’ll see what I mean. They mostly all look and sound the same.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. 

That’s the process every relationship goes through, and our brains are wired to move through that process as fast as possible. That’s why first impressions are so important. The challenge for any service-based business is getting people to know, like, and trust you as fast as possible. Your About page is one of the best points of leverage to facilitate that process.

For service-based businesses, the importance of the know, like, trust process is magnified because you’re stepping into someone’s home, their business, or their finances. These are deeply personal aspects of people’s lives. There’s an unspoken question sitting beneath every client: Do I feel comfortable with this company? Can I trust them?

That answer begins forming before the first call, before the job quote, before any direct interaction. It often begins with your digital presence. Where does your company show up in the search results? How many reviews do you have? The answer begins to form as the prospect scrolls through your website, reads between the lines, and picks up on tone, energy, and intent.

Your About page is where the prospect goes to learn about the people behind your business. It gives your business a face, a voice, and someone to identify with. Once someone feels like they know and like your brand, trust forms naturally.

More than anything, your About page is where your brand’s culture and narrative come into focus. It’s where people begin to understand who you are, what you stand for, how you operate, and the kind of story they’re stepping into. Every brand tells a story, whether it’s intentional or not. Your About page gives you the space to narrate what that story is. Your About page does something even more important, and almost no one is talking about it.

The Recruiting Tool No One is Talking About

Your About page is one of the most underutilized recruiting tools in your entire business. I live in Ashland, Oregon. In the Rogue Valley, there is an abundance of potential customers for plumbers, HVAC techs, mechanics, and electricians because there is a shortage of workers in the trades. There is more work to be done than there are workers to do the jobs. The bottleneck isn’t getting more clients, it’s often getting more qualified workers and skilled tradesmen to do the work they already have. 

Most business owners think hiring starts when they post a job. In reality, hiring starts much earlier. It starts the moment someone sees your work trucks or lands on your website. Long before an application is submitted or an interview is scheduled, people are already asking themselves what it would be like to work at your company. They want to know who they’d be working with, whether they can see themselves as part of your team, and how they would fit within your company’s culture.

Your About page helps potential employees and top talent answer those questions, whether you built it to answer them or not. When your About page clearly reflects who you are, how you operate, and the kind of people that make up your team, people feel an internal push or pull. That’s your brand’s magnetic field doing what it’s supposed to do. 

The right people feel it. They recognize something familiar in the way you present your brand, and that sense of alignment draws them in. Your brand’s magnetic field also repels. Your About page can filter out the people who don’t fit your brand’s aura. Not because you pushed them away, but because they didn’t feel the alignment. That’s clarity doing its job because strong teams are built by attracting people who already fit, rather than trying to force conformity.

What Businesses Get Wrong With Their About Page

This is where most About pages fall short. In an effort to sound professional, they become generic. They smooth out every edge, remove every hint of personality, and end up sounding like every other company saying the same safe things. In the process, they hide the very thing that makes them magnetic. Every business has a culture. The question is whether you’re courageous and intentional enough to show it.

A strong About page reveals how you think, how you treat people, and what actually matters to your brand. Through tone, language, and the way you tell your story, people get a sense of who you are. When someone finishes reading it, they should feel like they know your brand as the person they are.

Most businesses overlook this, and the ones that don’t, build better businesses because they use their about page as an opportunity to attract the right people.

One Practical Section Every About Page Should Have

One of the most effective ways to bring your brand to life is through an intentional “Meet the Team” section. Every client-facing team member should have a clear, friendly photo and a short paragraph that introduces who they are in a way that feels human. A quick introduction that gives people a feel for their personality, their energy, and what it’s like to work with them and the team at large. 

A simple structure works well here. Have each person share what they love most about working at the company, three adjectives that describe their personality, what they’re passionate about outside of work, and one thing people would never guess about them. These 4 questions create unique profiles that reveal an authentic person people can identify with. Together, they speed up the know, like, trust process.

For potential customers, this builds trust in a very real way. They can see who they’re working with and begin to feel comfortable before the first interaction ever takes place. For potential employees, it offers something just as important. It gives them a window into the team, allowing them to see the personalities, the energy, and the kind of environment they’d be stepping into. When they see people they relate to and can connect with, half the recruiting battle is already won.

You don’t need to be the highest paying company with the best benefits when you’re offering something money can’t buy; A work culture that enables them to do work they’re passionate about with people they enjoy being around.

If a skilled electrician reads glowing reviews about your company from other electricians who work for your company, and they can see they have similar interests and worldviews, that’s far more persuasive than the owner talking about how they treat their workers. If you can attract top talent from your competitors, that’s a massive competitive advantage. That’s talent you didn’t have to develop yourself. That’s fewer mistakes you have to make up for. That means you can serve more clients with a higher quality of service. Your About page can become a powerful flywheel for attracting both clients and talent when it’s built with that intention.

A generic About page attracts a mix of people, some aligned, some not. A clear, human About page fosters alignment. Your About page helps your business create connection on a human level. It builds trust before the first conversation takes place. It attracts people who already feel your brand’s magnetic pull, and gives your culture a visible form.

In a service-based business, your people are the product, and your About page plays a key role in helping people decide if they trust who’s behind it. It’s also where potential employees decide whether they can see themselves as part of the team or not.

Most businesses treat the About page like a formality, but the ones who see it as an opportunity to attract the right people can develop a strong competitive advantage.

They attract better people on both the customer side and the employee side. And more often than not, better people build better businesses.

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A Few Questions You Might Still Have

Why is the About page important for service-based businesses?

Your About page helps potential customers get to know, like, and trust your business. In service-based industries, where you’re stepping into someone’s home, business, or finances, that trust matters. Your About page gives people a sense of who they’re working with before the first interaction ever happens.

Can an About page help attract employees?

Yes. Your About page is one of the most underutilized recruiting tools in your business. It shows potential employees who they’d be working with and what your company culture feels like. When the right people see themselves in your business, they don’t need to be convinced. They lean in.

What should be included on an About page?

A strong About page should highlight your people, your culture, and your story. It should give people a clear sense of how you think, how you operate, and what it feels like to work with you. A Meet the Team section can help bring that to life by showing the real people behind the business.

How does an About page build trust?

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Your About page helps move people through that process by making your business feel human. When someone can see your team, understand your values, and get a sense of your personality, trust forms naturally.

Why do better employees build better businesses?

Better employees improve the quality of your work, reduce mistakes, and create stronger experiences for your customers. When you attract people who are aligned with your culture and values, everything runs smoother. That’s why better people build better businesses.