Your About Page Isn't a Birth Certificate

Most UK About pages start with a year and end with a shrug. Somewhere between ‘founded in 2012’ and a photograph of the office dog, the actual promise disappears. The page becomes a filing cabinet: old milestones, new headshots, a list of values that could belong to any firm from Aberdeen to Ashford. Visitors don't need your birth certificate. They need a reason to care for the next thirty seconds.

The timeline trap

A timeline feels safe. It is easy to assemble and hard to argue with. But chronology is not character. The fact that you moved premises in 2018 tells a customer almost nothing about whether you will answer the phone on a wet Tuesday in Sheffield. A row of logos tells them who once paid an invoice, not what working with you feels like. And a pile of adjectives — passionate, trusted, bespoke, dynamic — is just wallpaper with a thesaurus.

The result is a page that answers ‘when?’ and ‘who?’ while quietly ignoring ‘why should I care?’ That is a brand problem dressed up as a layout problem.

One sentence, one job

A useful About page does a simple job: it tells the right person that they are in the right place. The fastest way to do that is a single sentence that names who you help and what changes for them. Not a mission statement. Not a value. A promise with edges.

Try this fill-in-the-blank template:

We help [specific customer] get [concrete outcome] without [predictable frustration].

It works because it forces a choice. Here are three UK service-brand examples that sound human rather than robotic:

• We help Bristol landlords keep compliance paperwork tidy without the Friday-afternoon panic.
• We help Leeds tradespeople get paid before the van needs new tyres.
• We help Manchester HR teams answer the same question forty times without losing the plot.

Each line is specific enough to be tested. None of them needs a timeline. If you cannot fill in the blanks, you do not have an About page problem — you have a positioning problem. Better to find that out before you commission the team photos.

Proof beats a plaque

Once the line is up, back it with a short proof section. Three items is plenty: a number, a named customer, a plain-English process note. For example: ‘94% of enquiries answered within one working day’; ‘We have looked after 38 independent nurseries across the North West since 2019’; ‘Every project starts with a 20-minute call and a one-page quote.’

The founding year can live in the footer, next to the company number and the privacy link. It is useful information, not a personality. ‘Since 2012’ is a footnote. ‘We help X get Y without Z’ is the headline.

Make it sound like a person

Read your sentence aloud. Would you say it to a customer in a café without hiding behind the menu? If not, cut the varnish. Playful is allowed; patronising is not. There is a difference between ‘We make VAT returns less grim’ and ‘We leverage synergistic compliance solutions’. One sounds like a human; the other sounds like a portaloo at a networking event.

A little humour works best when it sits on top of a clear promise. A joke cannot rescue a vague sentence. But a clear sentence with a dry aside can make a service brand feel approachable without turning the About page into an open-mic night.

A layout that earns its keep

A one-line About page still needs a shape. Try this: hero with the sentence, large and uncluttered. Under it, one line of context — ‘Based in Norfolk, working across the UK’ is enough. Then three proof blocks. Then a short ‘Who we are for’ list, maybe three bullets. Then one call to action that says what happens next: ‘Book a 20-minute call’ or ‘Send us a brief’. Not ‘Begin your journey’. Journeys need snacks and a toilet break.

If you must include team photos, caption them with something useful. ‘Sarah, who answers the phone before 9am’ is more human than a headshot with a job title and a quote about synergy. The same goes for office shots: a picture of a meeting room tells less than a line about how you run a project.

The Friday test

Open your About page. Delete the first two paragraphs. Write the template sentence. Ask a real customer whether it is true. Replace every adjective with a fact. Add one line about what you don't do — boundaries are brand too. Then publish. It will feel shorter. That is the point.

At OneLine Studio we like a page that says one thing well. Your About page doesn't need to be an autobiography. It needs to be a handshake: who you are, who it is for, and why the next step is worth taking. Keep the founding year in the footer. Put the personality in the sentence.