Local Business About Page: 4 Facts to Put First

Opening answer (BLUF)

A local business about page is not a memoir and it is not a second homepage. It is the page a careful buyer opens when they want to know if you are real, nearby, and the right fit. Put the answers they came for near the top: who you serve, where you work, how you work, and photographs of the actual people and shop. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 About Us research found that people expect this section to be clear, authentic, and transparent, and that they compare what you say with third-party reviews before they start a project [1].

What this page is for (and what it is not)

The homepage sells the offer. The service pages explain the work. The about page answers a quieter question: "Can I trust these people with my money, my building, and my name?" Nielsen Norman Group watched people try to learn a company's purpose, location, history, and how to reach someone, and they saw the same pattern across large firms, small companies, government sites, and nonprofits. Visitors want a plain explanation of what you do, written like a person talking, not like a brochure [1].

That job has not gotten easier. People now assume a company will talk itself up, so they look past the about page as well as at it. In the same 2019 study, skepticism often sent users to Google Reviews, Yelp, Glassdoor, and social channels to check the story [1]. Your about page still matters, because it is the first-party version of that story. If it is vague, they leave. If it is specific, they have something solid to compare with the reviews they will read anyway.

Google's public guidance on helpful, people-first content makes the same point from the search side. One of the questions it asks site owners is whether the page presents information in a way that makes you want to trust it, including "background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site's About page" [4]. A local business about page is that background. It is not a place to stuff every city you hope to rank for, and it is not a novel about your childhood.

Who you serve

Start with the customer, not with your founding year. Name the people and jobs you actually take. "Homeowners in south Charlotte with older roofs." "Independent clinics that need a site a staff member can update." "Commercial property managers who want one vendor for a handful of buildings." Specific beats flattering. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 testers were often baffled by sites that never stated, in a sentence a stranger could repeat, what the organization did [1].

A 2015 Nielsen Norman Group article on about-page summaries is older, but the advice still matches how people use these pages: if someone only skims the top, they should still walk away with a coherent story of who you are, what you do, and why you exist [2]. For a local company, "who" includes the kind of customer you turn down. If you do not take emergency calls, say so. If you only work with businesses, say so. Fit is a trust signal. Pretending you are for everyone is how an about page starts to sound like every other about page.

Write the customer in the language they use. "We help growing teams look established online" is a slogan. "We build custom sites for owners who are tired of fighting their current website" is a sentence a real person might say out loud. We use that test on our own about page: Charlotte-area roots, small and mid-size businesses, work that can go nationwide when the fit is right.

Where you work

Local trust is partly geography. Say the city or metro you work from, the area you travel, and whether a customer can walk into a shop or you come to them. If you are a service-area business working from a home office, say that you travel to the job. If you have a storefront, put the city and a real address on the site, and keep a full contact path on a dedicated contact page rather than hiding the phone number inside About [10].

That location line has to match the rest of the internet. Google's Business Profile guidelines tell you to represent the business the way it is recognized in the real world, to keep the address or service area accurate, and to put extra details (hours, category, service area) in their own fields instead of stuffing them into the name [7]. If your about page says "serving all of the Carolinas" and your profile shows a two-town radius, a careful buyer will notice. The same goes the other way: do not list a suite you never staff.

People still give more credit to sources that feel nearby and knowable. Pew Research Center's October 2025 survey of 5,195 US adults found that 70% have at least some trust in information from local news organizations, compared with 56% who say the same about national ones [8]. That is a news finding, not a claim about plumbers or designers. It is still a useful reminder: a Charlotte roofing company that names its yards and crews will feel more real than a generic "nationwide excellence" block with no hometown.

If you serve nationally from a local base, say both facts in one breath. We design from the Charlotte, NC area and we take on small businesses around the country. Hiding the hometown to look bigger usually makes you look thinner.

How you work

This is the section most about pages skip, and it is the one owners remember. Tell them what happens after they reach out. First conversation. Site visit or discovery call. Written scope. Who shows up on the job. How you handle changes. What "done" looks like. You do not need a 12-step diagram. You need enough process that a stranger can picture the next 30 days.

How you work also includes what you will not do. Fixed-price only. No weekend emergencies. No projects without a signed scope. Those limits are not rude. They are how a local company stays reliable. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 participants favored copy that felt like an honest conversation with a human, and they soured on aggressive sales language [1]. A calm process paragraph does more work than a paragraph about "passion."

Keep hours, typical reply time, and the best way to reach you close to this section, or point clearly to the contact page. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 Contact Us study (part of the same About Us research program) found that people still expect a real address, phone number, and email, and they treat a company that hides those details as evasive [10]. The about page can carry a short "here's how to reach us" line. It should not replace the contact page.

Real photos, or skip the pictures

If you only change one visual on the page, change the photos. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 testers called out realistic photography as a reason an organization felt authentic, and they listed stock photography as a reason satisfaction dropped [1]. A 2024 Nielsen Norman Group article on memorable imagery is blunter: avoid stock photos, because they are generic, easy to overlook, and easy to forget [5].

That finding is not new. Nielsen Norman Group's 2010 eyetracking work on photos (last reviewed in 2026) documented a split that still shows up on local sites: people scrutinize photos of real people and real products, and they ignore fluffy pictures used to "jazz up" a page, including stock photos of generic models [9]. A handshake in a sunlit loft tells a visitor nothing about your shop. A photo of your crew in front of last month's job does.

Use a few strong pictures, not a collage. Put each photo next to the sentence it supports (the owner next to the owner bio, the van next to the service area, the shop next to the "how we work" steps). The 2024 imagery guidance also warns that too many similar visuals weaken the page, and that low-resolution photos are harder to trust because you cannot tell what you are looking at [5]. Shoot in the real light of the business. Warm, specific, a little imperfect. That is the point.

What to leave off

Leave off the novel. The founding story can be four sentences. The rest of the childhood, the awards banquet, and the decade-by-decade timeline can live on a History page, or nowhere. Nielsen Norman Group's 2015 summary guidance is still the right test: start the conversation on this page, and do not make people click through a wall of empty tiles to learn the basics [2].

Leave off jargon. Hollow words ("revolutionary," "world-class," "synergy") confuse people at best and make them mistrust the site at worst, which is exactly why that 2015 article told writers to swap them for concrete facts [2]. If a sentence could sit on a competitor's page without changing a noun, cut it.

Leave off the homepage recap. If the about page is a shorter list of the same services, you have two homepages and no about page. Point to web design or whichever service they came from. Do not rebuild the catalog here.

Leave off fake warmth. Testimonials on your own site are advertising. The Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, treats a testimonial as a promotional message, and a business that puts fake or false testimonials on its own site can be on the hook for them [6]. The rule also covers reviews that pretend to come from someone who does not exist or who never used the business [6]. One or two named, typical customer notes (with permission) can belong on About. A wall of five-star blurbs with first names only belongs on a testimonials page, and only if they are real.

Leave off the sales banner, the pop-up, and the hard close. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 list of what hurt satisfaction included aggressive promotions, busy layouts, and walls of text [1]. The about page should make the next step obvious (call, email, book a time). It should not shout.

Leave off staff bios that read like a résumé dump. A name, a role, one sentence about the work they do for customers, and a real photo is enough. Long personal essays belong on a team page, if you even need one.

Write it so a scanner can use it

People rarely read a page word for word. Nielsen Norman Group's 2020 look back at eyetracking studies (more than 500 participants across 13 years) found that the core habit is still scanning, and that content should use clear headings, front-loaded sentences, lists, and plain language so a visitor can pick out what they need [3]. That is why a local business about page should open with a short summary, then break the rest into labeled chunks: who we serve, where we work, how we work, the people.

Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 structure advice is practical for a small company. Put a two-sentence summary at the top of About. Keep the extra detail on the same page if you are not a corporation with an investor wing. Repeat an About link in the footer, because that is where people go when the main nav fails them [1]. Use the words "About" or "About [business name]." Cute labels hide the page.

Front-load the facts that change a decision. "Family owned since 1998" can wait until after "We repair residential HVAC in Mecklenburg and Union counties, usually on-site within two business days." The second sentence is why they stayed.

Keep the story consistent off this page

An about page that contradicts the rest of the web is worse than a thin one. Nielsen Norman Group's 2019 testers treated reviews as one of the main ways they formed an impression, and they used the word "reviews" more than 40 times across 20 sessions [1]. They still read on-site quotes, then they checked them elsewhere. Align the name, city, service area, and "what we do" line with your Google Business Profile, your listings, and your homepage [7]. If you changed the company name last year, say so once, plainly.

When someone finishes the page they should be able to repeat four things: who you help, where you show up, how the work goes, and what you look like. If they cannot, the page is still a draft.

Practical takeaways

• Open with two short, specific paragraphs: who you serve, where you work, how you work. Save the origin story for later [1], [2].
• Name real customer types and real geography. Cut any sentence that could sit on a competitor's site unchanged [1].
• Match the city, address, and service area to your Google Business Profile and to the way the shop is known in the real world [7].
• Describe the process in everyday language. Include one or two things you do not do.
• Use a handful of real photos of the people, the shop, and the work. Skip stock [5], [9].
• Keep testimonials honest and typical, or move them to a reviews page. Fake or planted quotes are not a design choice [6].
• Write for scanners: labeled sections, short paragraphs, the decision facts first [3].
• Point to Contact for phone, email, and address. Do not hide those behind About [10].

How we can help

We design sites for small businesses from the Charlotte, NC area, and a clear about page is part of that work, not an afterthought. If your current page is a slogan, a stock photo, and a long timeline, we can rebuild it around the four facts a buyer actually uses. Start with our about page to see how we talk about our own shop, then get in touch if you want the same kind of page for yours.

Citations

1. Nielsen Norman Group, "About Us Information on Websites" (2019-05-26)
2. Nielsen Norman Group, "Great Summaries on About Us Pages Engage Users and Build Trust" (2015-06-21)
3. Nielsen Norman Group, "How People Read Online: New and Old Findings" (2020-04-05)
4. Google Search Central, "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content" (2025-12-10)
5. Nielsen Norman Group, "7 Tips for Memorable and Easy-to-Understand Imagery" (2024-05-03)
6. Federal Trade Commission, "The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers" (2024-10-21)
7. Google Business Profile Help, "Guidelines for representing your business on Google" (accessed 2026-08-16)
8. Pew Research Center, "How Americans' trust in information from news organizations and social media sites has changed over time" (2025-10-29)
9. Nielsen Norman Group, "Photos as Web Content" (2010-10-31, last reviewed 2026-08-13)
10. Nielsen Norman Group, "Contact Us Page Guidelines" (2019-08-18)