Almost every small-business website has one page that sits high in the menu, gets clicked often and has received the least work of all: the about page. For small firms it is frequently the second stop after a service page, because prospects want to know who they will be dealing with before they pick up the phone. What they usually find is four sentences about passion, quality and being close to the customer, a stock photo of five smiling people in an open-plan office, and not a single verifiable fact. This article sets out what visitors actually look for on that page, which six building blocks it sensibly consists of, which statements have to be accurate in legal terms, how to handle photos of employees and the moment someone leaves the business — and how the page connects to the contact and careers pages without repeating what belongs there.
The page everyone opens and nobody writes
The about page is one of the few pages visitors navigate to on their own initiative. Someone who has read a service page and is broadly interested looks for the people behind it next — rarely out of curiosity, mostly to assess risk. For a job worth several thousand euros, for a tradesperson who will enter the home, or for advice that touches personal documents, the question of who is on the other side is the last open question before the enquiry. 99.3 percent (Federal Statistical Office of Germany) of all companies in Germany are small and medium-sized businesses; trust there is not decided by a brand but by a manageable number of named people.
The scale is considerable. In the skilled crafts sector alone, 1,038,126 businesses (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) were entered on the crafts registers and the register of trades similar to skilled crafts. They employ around 6 million (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) people, or 13.7 percent (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) of everyone in employment in Germany, and turnover reached roughly 783.2 billion euros (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) in 2025. Businesses of that size have no press office to write a company portrait. They have someone who looks after the website in the evening and picks whatever text for the about page is finished fastest.
That is exactly where the problem starts. Around 89 percent (Federal Statistical Office of Germany) of companies with internet access run their own website, and the about pages of those websites resemble one another right down to the vocabulary: passion, quality, reliability, customer focus, innovation. When the same five words appear on every second page in an industry, they carry no information any more. They only cost time in which a prospect learns nothing — on a screen that is usually small: roughly nine in ten (Bitkom) people in Germany use a smartphone, and about 93 percent (Federal Statistical Office of Germany, survey on the use of information and communication technologies in private households) of people aged ten and over are online. On a phone the second screenful is rarely reached; whatever is not near the top is barely read.
On top of that comes a channel that barely existed a few years ago. 50 percent (Bitkom) of internet users in Germany use AI chats at least occasionally instead of a conventional search engine. Systems like that assemble their answer from whatever a page offers as a self-contained statement. A sentence such as "we stand for the highest quality" contributes nothing. A sentence such as "the business has been on the crafts register since 1998 and employs five people" contributes something quotable. The difference between those two sentences is this whole article in miniature.
What this article deliberately leaves out
What visitors are actually looking for
The questions people bring when they open an about page are short and very concrete. They have little to do with self-presentation. Who works here? Has anyone here actually trained for this? How long has the business existed? Are you near me? How does working together run? And how do I reach these people? Six questions, six answers — the page needs no more, and anything less falls short. The overview below assigns each question the block that answers it and states what has to be verifiable there.
| Question in the visitor's mind | Block that answers it | What has to be verifiable there |
|---|---|---|
| Who actually works here? | Team block | First name, role, photo and how long the person has been with the business |
| Has anyone here trained for this? | Qualifications | Qualification, master certificate, responsible chamber, professional title |
| How long has the business existed? | Short profile | Year founded, legal form, number of employees |
| Are you anywhere near me? | Location and service area | Address, radius in kilometres, typical travel time |
| How does working together run? | How the work runs | The steps from first contact to invoice, with time frames |
| How do I reach these people? | The next step | One route, with a named contact, availability and response time |
What is missing from that list is just as telling. There is no mission statement. There is no corporate philosophy. There is no timeline with seven milestones since the business was founded. Such content is not forbidden, it simply answers none of the six questions and therefore belongs further down the page or nowhere on it. A simple test helps with the decision: delete every sentence a competitor in the same trade could copy word for word without anyone noticing. What remains is the core of the page. If nothing remains, the page was empty until now — despite a great many words.
The blueprint: six blocks in a fixed order
An about page that carries its weight consists of six blocks. The order follows how people read on a phone: first the quick overview, then the people, then the evidence, then the practical details, and the next step at the end. Each block stands on its own, so the page still does something if someone stops after the second section. The whole thing typically runs to 400 to 700 words (project experience) — shorter than most existing pages and denser in information all the same.
1. Short profile in three sentences
What the business does, for whom, since when and from where. Three sentences at the top of the page, with no run-up and no advertising vocabulary. Anyone who reads only this block has already placed the business.
2. Team with first name and role
The people customers actually speak to: first name, role, a real photograph and how long they have been there. Completeness matters more than polish.
3. Qualifications and memberships
Qualifications, master certificate, entry on the crafts register, chamber, guild, proof of competence. Only what is accurate and can be evidenced on request.
4. How the work runs
How a job proceeds: first contact, appointment, quote, execution, sign-off, invoice. With time frames wherever one can be given, and with what the business does not take on.
5. Location and service area
Address, radius, typical travel time, parking situation or workshop hours. This answers the question of responsibility before someone calls in vain.
6. One clear next step
A single offer at the foot of the page: form or phone call, with a named contact, availability and response time. Two equally weighted routes in the same place halve the decision.
These six blocks are not a matter of taste, they are the answer to the six questions from the previous section. Remove one block and a question stays open — and open questions are settled by phone or not at all. Add blocks and the page grows longer without answering another question. That is why it pays to fix the order once and afterwards only exchange the content.
The short profile in three sentences
The first block decides whether anyone reads on. It consists of three sentences and sits at the top of the page without preamble. Sentence one says what the business does, for whom and since when. Sentence two says who does the work and with what qualification. Sentence three says what follows from that for customers. No sentence starts with "we are your partner for", because that opening works for every business and therefore says nothing about any of them. The template below can be filled in inside ten minutes.
Sentence 1 - What, for whom, since when, from where:
[trade or service] in [town], since [year]
for [target group] across [area].
Sentence 2 - Who works here and with what qualification:
Run by [role, e.g. master craftsperson],
team of [number] journeymen and [number] apprentices.
Sentence 3 - What follows from that for customers:
Reply within [time frame], service area [radius],
named contact [first name].The template is deliberately tight. It forces figures and place names into positions where adjectives would otherwise sit. The effect shows on the second read: a completed short profile cannot be copied word for word by any other business, because year, town, team size and service area differ. That is precisely the point. How the same approach transfers to service pages is described in the article on website copy customers actually read.
| Stock phrase | What cannot be checked about it | Verifiable version |
|---|---|---|
| On the market for many years | No year, no figure, no reference point | Founded in 1998, run by the second generation since 2016 |
| A strong, well-drilled team | No size, no roles, no names | Five people: one master craftsperson, three journeymen, one apprentice |
| The highest quality and reliability | No yardstick, no verifying body | Entered on the crafts register of the responsible chamber of skilled crafts |
| Deeply rooted in the region | No area, no distance | Service area within a 40 km radius, journey usually under 30 minutes |
| Available around the clock | No hours, no reachability | Phone lines weekdays 7 am to 5 pm, callback the same working day |
| Innovative and future-oriented | No subject matter, no period | Heat pump servicing added in 2023, two employees trained for it |
The team: first name, role, face
The team block is the part of the page businesses hesitate over most and gain from most. A photo with a first name and a role takes the anonymity out of an enquiry: someone who knows a named person will answer the phone is more likely to call. For small firms that is a genuine difference, because there the route to a job runs through a person rather than a call centre. Completeness beats perfection here — four decent portraits outside the workshop read as more credible than two carefully staged ones and two missing.
- First name and role are enough in many cases. A surname is not a mandatory detail for employees and can be omitted if someone prefers that — for the management, by contrast, the details required by the provider identification apply.
- How long they have been with the business is the most underrated line. It quietly answers the question about staff turnover and experience without a word being spent on it.
- Responsibility instead of job titles. "Scheduling and follow-up questions" helps more than "assistant to the management", because it tells the reader when they would want to reach this person.
- One sentence per person, not five. What the person does and how to recognise them is enough. Hobbies and favourite tools are a matter of taste and add considerable length on a phone.
- Direct lines only where they hold up. An extension belongs beside a portrait only if someone genuinely picks up. Otherwise the team block produces frustration instead of contact.
- No mixed image material. Two real photos next to three purchased stock shots stand out and damage the impression more than having no photos at all.
That leaves the question of whether employees have to appear on the page at all. They do not. Photographs of employees are personal data, publishing them needs a legal basis, and in practice that is voluntary, documented consent. Voluntary means a refusal must carry no disadvantage. Anyone who prefers not to appear is listed with a first name and role but no picture — that is not a break in the layout, it is a normal variant.
Consent, withdrawal and the day someone leaves
Stating qualifications and memberships verifiably
This block carries the actual burden of proof for the page — and it is the legally most sensitive one. German unfair competition law addresses claims about one's own capability explicitly. Under Section 5(1) UWG (Federal Ministry of Justice), it is unfair to engage in a misleading commercial practice that is likely to cause someone to take a transactional decision they would not otherwise have taken. And Section 5(2) no. 3 UWG (Federal Ministry of Justice) lists precisely the statements an about page is made of.
the person, attributes or rights of the trader, such as identity, assets including intellectual property rights, the extent of commitments, capability, status, authorisation, memberships or connections, awards or honours, motives for the commercial practice or the nature of the sales process
That makes the master certificate, chamber membership, guild membership, proof of competence and awards more than decoration: they are statements with a standard of proof attached. Two cases are impermissible without any further weighing at all. The Annex to Section 3(3) UWG prohibits, in no. 2 (Federal Ministry of Justice), the use of quality marks, quality labels or similar without the required authorisation, and in no. 4 (Federal Ministry of Justice) the untrue claim that a trader or a service has been endorsed, approved or authorised by a public or private body. A seal pulled from an image search therefore has no place on the page. The German consumer advice organisation adds that a seal without a corresponding link may indicate a forgery (Verbraucherzentrale) — visitors do check this now.
- Qualifications and master certificate: designation, year and issuing body. "Master business" without naming the trade is markedly weaker than the full professional title together with the responsible chamber of skilled crafts.
- Entry on the crafts register: name the responsible chamber and the trade. This detail can be verified from outside, which is exactly why it works.
- Guild and association memberships: list active memberships only, with the correct name of the guild. A membership that has ended belongs off the page as soon as it ends.
- Proof of competence and qualification certificates: subject matter, issuing body and — where one exists — the period of validity. Expired certificates are a common leftover on pages that have grown over time.
- Awards: awarding body, year and, where possible, a reference to the announcement. Without those three details the award is better left out.
- Insurance and authorisations: where an authorisation is a precondition for the work, it belongs here — together with the body that granted it.
Some of these details are legally required anyway, though in a different place: Section 5(1) of the German Digital Services Act (DDG) (Federal Ministry of Justice) requires, for regulated professions, the chamber the provider belongs to, the statutory professional title and the state in which it was awarded, as well as the professional rules and how they can be accessed. Those mandatory details sit in the provider identification; which entries belong there in full is covered by the article on the imprint and privacy policy. The about page may repeat the same facts in plain language — that does not replace the provider identification, but it makes it readable.
The rule of thumb for this block
How the work runs, location and service area
After the people and the evidence comes the practical part. Both blocks are short and save measurable time in day-to-day operations, because they pre-empt questions that would otherwise arrive by phone. The process block describes a typical job in four to six steps, in the customer's language rather than the trade's. The location block answers the question of responsibility: address, radius, travel time and, where relevant, workshop or shop hours.
- First contact: which route enquiries arrive by and how quickly a reply follows. A concrete time frame carries more weight than the word "promptly".
- On-site appointment or remote assessment: what happens at the first appointment, how long it takes and whether it costs anything. Nearly every caller asks this.
- The quote: what form it arrives in, how long it is valid and what it covers. This is also where to say if a cost estimate is not possible without an on-site visit.
- Execution: who turns up, how many people, in what time window, and what customers should prepare. That last point saves effort on both sides.
- Sign-off and invoice: how sign-off works, when the invoice arrives and which payment routes are available. Warranty periods can be covered here in one sentence too.
- What the business does not take on: an honest exclusion prevents enquiries that help neither side — and reads as more credible than a promise of services without limits.
For the location, one distinction is worth making. The full postal address belongs on the contact page and in the provider identification; the about page carries the context: which region the business comes from, how far it travels and what that means for getting to a job. Anyone who also wants to be found in several towns does not need a bloated about page for that but a sound local foundation — described in the article on local visibility for small businesses.
Real photographs instead of stock imagery
The purchased group shot of five smiling people in front of a glass facade is the hallmark of an untouched about page. Visitors see through it, because the same images turn up on many sites at once, and the effect reverses: instead of trust, the impression forms that the business has nothing of its own to show. Two simple subjects are enough as a replacement — the people in front of the premises or vehicle, and one shot from the actual work. Both can be made with the device that is already to hand: roughly nine in ten (Bitkom) people in Germany use a smartphone, and its camera provides more than enough resolution for web images.
The order matters: consent first, then the shoot, then publication. Under Section 22 KunstUrhG (Federal Ministry of Justice), consent is deemed given in case of doubt where the person depicted received remuneration for being photographed — for employees that is not a sound basis, because their pay is for their work and not for the picture. Record consent separately for that reason. Which subjects are worth photographing, which image rights attach to purchased files and how a photo session fits into an hour is described in the article on website photos and image rights.
The minimum set of images
Figures only where they are verifiable
Figures work harder on an about page than any adjective — and they are the most common source of trouble. "Over 2,000 satisfied customers" sounds harmless but presupposes a countable basis that many businesses do not have. Alongside the misleading statement, the law also recognises misleading by omission: under Section 5a(1) UWG (Federal Ministry of Justice) it is unfair to withhold material information that is needed for an informed decision. Section 5a(2) UWG (Federal Ministry of Justice) treats it as equivalent where material information is provided in an unclear, unintelligible or ambiguous manner. A figure without a reference base falls squarely into that pattern.
| Statement on the page | Evidence it presupposes | If the evidence is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Over 2,000 satisfied customers | Countable jobs and a definition of satisfied | Switch to completed jobs in a stated period, or leave it out |
| Awarded top business status | Awarding body, year, criteria, announcement | Remove the claim while the source cannot be named |
| Certified to recognised standards | Standard, certificate number, verifying body, validity | Name the specific standard or delete the point |
| The leading business in the region | Market shares from a verifiable survey | Switch to verifiable attributes such as year founded and team size |
| 98 percent would recommend us | Method, period, population, response rate | State the method or leave the figure out |
| Over 30 years of experience | Year founded or summed professional years, clearly labelled | Be specific: name the founding year or sum the team's years in the trade |
There is a simple way out of this trap: replace every estimated figure with one the business already keeps. Year founded, number of employees, number of apprenticeship places, service radius in kilometres, response time for enquiries. Those details are verifiable, they distinguish the business from others, and they can be updated in a minute at the next change. How to translate such details into sentences customers understand without asking back is shown in the article on writing website copy customers read.
The next step and the link to neighbouring pages
The about page does not end with a sentence about the future but with an offer. A single one. Two equally weighted routes in the same place — form here, phone number there, plus a callback request — spread attention instead of concentrating it. The sensible choice is the route the business handles most reliably, complemented by a named contact, availability and response time. The second route may sit alongside, but visually subordinate.
- One goal per page ending. Form or phone call, not both at equal size. The other route sits underneath as a small addition.
- Name the response time. "Reply the same working day by 4 pm" is a statement; "as soon as possible" is not. Only state what the business can keep to.
- No duplicate of the contact page. Opening hours, directions and form fields belong there — the about page only refers to them.
- Keep recruiting separate. Open roles get their own page with their own address; the about page carries a one-line pointer at most.
- Link services rather than describing them. Someone convinced by the team block wants to get back to the service — a link is enough, a summary gets in the way.
- Check it on a phone. The next step should be reachable without zooming and operable with a thumb; that is the normal case, not the exception.
The division of labour with neighbouring pages is clear. The contact page receives enquiries and explains what happens after submission — how a form should be built for that is set out in the article on contact forms as an enquiry channel. The careers page addresses applicants, with its own tone and its own address; 346,000 (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) young people are trained in the skilled crafts alone, and that audience reads different content than a client does — details in the article on the careers page for skilled staff. And where the about page belongs in the overall structure, which pages surround it and how the menu looks around it is covered by the article on which pages a business website needs.
Done in eight steps
Rebuilding an existing about page typically takes two to three hours spread over two sessions (project experience) — the larger share of that goes on the photographs. The following order has proved itself because it starts with what can be done without anyone else's input.
- Read the existing page and delete. Remove every sentence a competitor could copy word for word. What remains is the starting position.
- Fill in the short profile. Complete the three-sentence template with year, town, target group, team size and service area. Ten minutes, no need to ask anyone.
- Gather the evidence. Master certificate, chamber confirmation, guild membership, proof of competence, certificates. Whatever cannot be found does not go on the page.
- Agree the team entries. Who appears with a photo, who only with first name and role? Obtain consent in writing and file it with a date.
- Take the photographs. One session, one hour, overcast sky: portraits, one group shot, two work pictures. Then assign file names and alternative text.
- Write down how the work runs. Take the most recently completed job as a template and translate it into four to six steps, including time frames.
- Check every figure. Hold each number on the page against a piece of evidence. Without evidence it is deleted, not qualified.
- Set the next step and test on a phone. One goal at the foot of the page, with a named contact and a response time, then walk through the finished page top to bottom on a handset.
How XICflow fills the page
The reason about pages so often consist of stock phrases is rarely unwillingness. It is the blank page: without a structure in front of you, you write whatever comes to mind first, and that is the vocabulary everyone else uses. XICflow reverses the order. The about page is created with the six blocks already in place as a frame, and it is filled from the details the briefing asks for anyway — trade, founding year, team, credentials, service area.
Structure instead of a blank sheet
Short profile, team, qualifications, process, location and next step are ready as blocks — in the order that follows how people read, with fields for year, trade, team size and service area.
Team and qualification blocks
Per person a first name, role, year of joining and picture; per credential a designation, issuing body and year. When someone joins or leaves, one entry changes instead of a page being rebuilt.
Accessible and free of third-party scripts
Alternative text, contrast and keyboard operation are part of the standard; team and credential blocks load no external scripts. The page stays statically delivered and therefore fast.
What the route from briefing to published page looks like is described on the page how XICflow works; which further blocks are available is shown in the overview of features. What such a setup costs is set out in the plan overview, and how it compares with other routes to your own website is covered by why XICflow.
A seal without a corresponding link may indicate a forgery.
The short version
Sources and studies