I have watched people agonize over their About page for weeks, rewriting, reorganizing, second-guessing every word, with an intensity they did not bring to their actual marriage proposals.
Something about writing about yourself makes otherwise confident people seize up like an engine with no oil. You become both the subject and the object. The photographer and the photograph. And somehow, in that funhouse mirror of self-consciousness, everything you know about good writing vanishes.
Here’s the emotional truth: your About page isn’t about you. It never was. And grasping that single insight will make the whole agonizing process not just easier, but genuinely useful for your business.
I call the pattern behind effective About pages the Mirror Method, because a great About page reflects the reader back to herself, showing her own desires and problems, with you positioned as the person who understands them. The page is called “About Me.” The strategy is about them. (Life is full of these little ironies. Best to embrace them.)
Let me show you the seven mistakes that keep About pages from doing their job, and how the Mirror Method fixes every one.
Mistake #1: You don’t actually have one
You might have a page called “Experience.” Or “The Scoop.” Or “But Wait, There’s More!” Or my personal favorite, “Resonate.” (What does that even mean? Are you a tuning fork?)
Usability expert Steve Krug wrote an entire book called Don’t Make Me Think, and the title is your entire interface philosophy. When someone wants to know who you are, they look for a link that says “About.” Not “Journey.” Not “Our Story.” About.
Call it About. Be easy to find. Done.
Mistake #2: I can’t find your name
You’d be amazed how many sites make this a treasure hunt. If I want to link to you, share your work, or recommend you to a friend, I need to know who you are. Your actual name. Not “The Real Estate King.” Not “Marketing Maven 3000.” Your name.
Unless you are Madonna or Cher or Beyoncé, you need a last name too. If your name is Dave Smith, wedge a middle name or family name in there, David Meerman Scott made it work. It helps people remember you, and it gives you a fighting chance at ranking for your own name in search.
(And no, it doesn’t have to be your legal name. Plenty of people write and work under professional pseudonyms. The point is consistency, pick a name and own it.)
While you’re in there, list your credentials. The degrees, certifications, awards, and experience that tell us you actually know what you’re talking about. If you’re a registered dietitian with a nutrition site, say so. Don’t make us guess.
Mistake #3: I don’t know what you look like
I’m making this one optional, because the internet can be a hostile place and not everyone should have to post a photo to be taken seriously.
But here’s the calculus: if I want to hire you, refer you, or pass you readers, a face makes it easier. Combined with your writing voice, a photo starts to create the feeling of knowing you. And people link to, refer, and buy from people they feel they know.
Use your judgment. But don’t underestimate the quiet power of putting a face to a name.
Mistake #4: The writing is boring
This is the one that stings. But we’re adults, so let’s sit with it.
When people sit down to write their About page, something strange happens to their brains. All the craft and personality and warmth they bring to their regular content evaporates. They start writing like a reluctant junior accountant filling out a compliance form.
Fix it like this:
- Use the same voice you use everywhere else on your site.
- Murder every instance of corporate-speak, jargon, and hype.
- Let yourself be funny, if funny is what you are.
- Let yourself be a dork, if dorky is what you are.
This page, together with your photo, is where people come to decide if they like you. Don’t send your corporate avatar to do that job.
Mistake #5: It’s video-only
Video can create quick rapport. It can also alienate every person browsing your site from a cubicle, where your voice, however delightful, is not welcome blasting from laptop speakers at 2:14 on a Tuesday afternoon. Or the person who doesn’t have six minutes and twenty-three seconds to learn who you are.
Video is a tool, not a strategy. If you use it, keep it short, make it interesting, and include text for the readers in your audience. Always include text.
Mistake #6: The never-ending saga
Stories are magnificent. They pull people in. They change minds. They’re one of the few tools that can actually shift someone’s perspective.
Long, self-indulgent stories are not magnificent. They’re a test of your visitor’s patience that they will fail, and then they’ll leave.
If you tell your origin story, and you should, make it interesting. And here’s the filter: what do your readers find interesting? Themselves. Their problems. Things that benefit them. Those are your compass points.
Mistake #7: You think it’s about you
This is the big one. The one that dooms more About pages than all the other mistakes combined.
Your About page is not about you. It’s about the person who clicked the link. They showed up because they want to know: Should I trust this person? Can they help me? Do we see the world the same way?
Talk to that person. Expand on the problems you solve. Explain how you help. Point out shared values and interests. Brian Clark put it precisely:
“What do you need to know? You need to know whom they admire, and what they aspire to, despise, fear, and cherish.”
Yes, you talk about yourself, but only in the context of how you serve your readers. If you need a place for unfiltered self-expression, start a personal blog. Put your cat’s gluten sensitivity struggles there. Warn people before they click.
For your About page, use the Mirror Method. Show readers themselves, their hopes, their problems, their language, and position yourself as the person who gets it.
Then make it easy for them to take the next step.
That’s the whole game. Not complicated. Just honest. And honesty, on a page where most people are posturing, is its own kind of magnetism.