Why this signal matters for Google
The About page is the first place anyone checks that you exist. Before believing an article, a doubtful reader, a Google evaluator and a journalist all do the same thing: they look for who publishes. A good page answers four questions in thirty seconds: who, since when, where, and why anyone should believe you. A page that tells the story of a passion born in a garage, without ever naming a real person, answers none of the four. Learning how to write an about us page starts with accepting that it is not a brand page. It is an identity document.
The Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG for short: the public manual Google's human evaluators follow) put that search at the centre. Section 2.5.3 tells them to find the About us, contact and customer service sections of a site. Section 4.5.1 rates as Low quality a page whose website or creator says too little about itself. The Ab signal also depends on section 3.2. In plain terms: having no About page is not a presentation flaw, it is a negative rating criterion written down in black and white. Always connect the page to your real contact details and to the personal bios of your authors, or the search stops at the first dead end. Your legal notice completes the set: it carries the legal identity, the About page carries the human one, and the two must tell the same story.
On a YMYL topic (health, money, safety: "Your Money or Your Life"), the bar changes in kind. Section 3.4.1 expects real expertise as soon as a page informs or advises on health, finance or law. And that expertise gets checked on the About page first. An investment advice site that names no one, shows no license and gives no address cannot be judged trustworthy, however good its articles are. A page listing three practitioners, their titles and their registration numbers changes how the whole site reads.
For AI tools, the About page works as an anchor. When an AI answer decides whether to cite you, it tries to attach your content to an identifiable organization: a legal name, a founding date, a place, people who exist elsewhere on the web. The About page is where all of that sits in one block of plain text a machine can read. It is also why three common gaps · no detailed about us page, no named author, no Organization markup (the code that describes your business to search engines) · get fixed in the same place, something a 72 signal analysis surfaces immediately.
The NeuroEEAT scoring grid (0-10)
Score your about us page on what a stranger can verify, not on how well the story reads.
| Score | Description | Concrete indicators |
|---|---|---|
| 0-2 | Missing | No About page at all, or one that says nothing beyond the tagline. Neither the visitor nor the evaluator can tell who publishes (section 4.5.1). |
| 3-4 | Brand narrative | A "we" story about passion and mission. Nobody is named, no date, no address. Nothing anyone can go and check. |
| 5-6 | Factual | The legal name, founding year, activity and city are on the page. But the team stays anonymous and no link leads to an outside source. |
| 7-8 | Named and verifiable | People named with photo and role, a real address, a dated history, and links to author bios, the contact page and professional profiles that say the same thing. |
| 9-10 | Structured and cross-checkable | All of the above, plus Organization markup tied to official profiles, an editorial policy, and outside proof that confirms what the page claims. |
How to audit it on your site
Five checks to find out whether your about us page actually answers the questions people have about you.
- 01
Find the page like a stranger
Open your site in a private window and look for the About page without your bookmarks. If it sits in neither the main menu nor the footer, section 2.5.3 will never be satisfied: the evaluator gives up before you do.
- 02
Count the verifiable facts
List the legal name, founding year, address, number of people and titles shown. Fewer than three items a third party can go and check, and you have a page that tells a story, not a page that proves anything.
- 03
Check that someone is named
A page written entirely in the corporate "we" proves nobody exists. Every person mentioned needs a first name, a last name, a role and, where possible, a link to a full bio.
- 04
Compare it with the outside world
Put the page next to the company registry, LinkedIn and your professional profiles. A founding date or a headcount that does not line up does more harm than a missing detail.
- 05
Test the way out of the page
From the about us page, can someone reach a human, read an author bio, open the legal notice? A page with no way out leaves the search unfinished at the exact moment the evaluator tries to conclude.
How to activate or improve it
Three levels to turn a nice story into a file of evidence.
Answer the four basic questions
- Open the page by saying who you are, what you do and who you do it for, in three sentences at most.
- Give the legal name of the business, the founding year and the city you work from.
- Name at least one real person with their role, never just "the team".
- Link the about us page from the main menu and the footer, across the whole site.
- Cut unverifiable claims such as "industry leader": they prove nothing.
Make every claim verifiable
- Add a real photo per person, with first name, last name, job title and a link to their bio.
- Publish an exact postal address, and connect it to the contact page and the legal notice.
- Date the history: founding, milestones, and the date the page itself was last updated.
- Write job titles and dates exactly as they appear on LinkedIn and in the company registry.
- Explain how you make money when it is not obvious: affiliate, commission, subscription.
Structure it and prove it from outside
- Describe the page in JSON-LD, the code that presents your business to search engines (Organization with sameAs, foundingDate, address).
- Add an editorial policy: who writes, who reviews, and how you fix a mistake.
- Point to outside proof: press coverage, official registry, professional body, partner pages.
- Publish one about us page per market if you work in several countries, with the exact local details.
- Reread the page twice a year and show the revision date, so it never drifts from reality.
5 common mistakes to avoid
Sector specifics
Medical information site
Section 3.4.1 expects real expertise the moment a page can affect a reader's health. The About page has to name the professionals, show their titles and registration numbers, and say who reviews the articles. An anonymous editorial team is enough to push the whole site toward a Low quality assessment.
Broker or advisor
Readers first want to know who owns the business and how it earns its money. License number, regulatory status, ownership and how you get paid belong on the about us page, not buried in the terms and conditions.
Proof of physical existence
Exact address, service area, the year you opened in the neighbourhood and a real photo of the premises count for more than the narrative. When this page, the Google Business Profile and directories all say the same thing, you feed the NAP consistency signal (name, address, phone) directly.
Online store
The buyer wants to know who takes the payment and who they will email when something goes wrong. Legal name, shipping country, years in business and a direct link to customer service turn a decorative page into a selling point.
Signals to activate in parallel
The about us page is only worth the pages it leads to: connect it to the signals that prove identity and reachability.
FAQ
How to write an about us page when you work alone, with no team?
You name the only person who exists: you. A solo operator page is often more credible than an anonymous agency page, because someone stands behind it. Give your name, your photo, a dated track record, a business address and a way to reach you. Having no team is not a problem. Naming nobody is.
How long should an about us page be?
Long enough to answer who, since when, where and why anyone should believe you, which usually lands between 400 and 900 words. Length does not count on its own: 300 words full of verifiable facts beat 2000 words of nice storytelling. Cut anything a stranger cannot go and check.
Do you need an About page if you already have a legal notice?
Yes, they serve different readers. The legal notice answers a legal obligation, in legal language. The About page answers the human question "who are you", and that is the one section 2.5.3 tells evaluators to look for. Have each page link to the other.
Does an about us page improve SEO directly?
Rarely through its own traffic, often through its effect on everything else. It feeds the trust judgement applied to all your pages, works as an anchor for AI engines, and catches searches on your name. Treat it as a foundation page, not as a page to rank.
Where do you find a good sample of an about us page to model?
Look at sites in regulated fields rather than design galleries: clinics, law firms and financial advisors are forced to name people, show licenses and publish addresses. Copy the structure, never the wording. The best sample of an about us page is the one whose every line you could rewrite truthfully about your own business.
Anonymized case study
Before · anonymous brand page
After · a file of evidence
Illustrative figures meant to show the typical progression of the signal. They do not come from a real client case and must be replaced with your own measurements before any external communication.