Why Your About Page Is Killing Your Enquiries

Most business owners I meet spend months on their homepage. They argue over the hero banner, the colours, the tagline. Then they write the About page in 20 minutes, paste in a paragraph about their founding year and mission statement, and forget about it. That is a costly mistake.

Here is something your analytics will confirm if you check. The About page is consistently one of the top three most visited pages on any business website. When someone is deciding whether to trust you — whether to send an enquiry, pick up the phone or walk into your office — they go to your About page first. Not your services page. Not your portfolio. Your About page.

So what do most Indian business websites have on their About page? Something like this: 'XYZ Enterprises was founded in 2009 with a vision to provide world-class solutions to our valued customers. We are committed to excellence, quality and customer satisfaction.' I have seen this exact sentence, almost word for word, on hundreds of websites across Bengaluru, Pune, Surat and Chennai. It says nothing. It builds no trust. It gives the visitor no reason to stay.

The fundamental problem is that founders write their About page as if it is a company brochure for a government tender. They list their year of establishment, number of employees, ISO certifications and awards nobody has heard of. What the visitor actually wants to know is: Can I trust this person? Do they understand my problem? Have they worked with businesses like mine? That gap between what you write and what your visitor needs to hear — that is where your enquiry disappears.

I worked with a manufacturer in Coimbatore who was getting decent traffic to his website but almost no enquiries from it. When I ran a brand analysis for him, the About page stood out immediately. It had a photograph of the factory, which was good. But the copy was entirely about machines, capacity and certifications. There was no face, no story, no explanation of who his ideal customer was or what specific problem he solved for them. We rewrote the page in one session. Within six weeks, he started getting two to three enquiries a week from the website — from buyers he had never met before.

Here is what actually works on an About page for an Indian MSME or service business. Start with who you help and what problem you solve for them — not who you are. One clear, specific line. Then bring in your founder's story, but keep it honest and relevant. Not a rags-to-riches narrative, but a real reason why you started this and why you care about it. Add a photograph of yourself or your team — real photographs, not stock images. Mention the type of clients you have worked with, the geographies you serve, and any specific credibility markers that are actually meaningful to your buyer. End with a direct invitation to connect. A simple line like 'If this sounds like what you are looking for, reach out here' does more work than a generic contact form link.

One thing I always check in a business growth diagnostic is whether the About page has a clear call to action. Almost none of them do. The visitor reads your story, feels some connection, and then — nothing. No next step. They drift back to Google and find your competitor. Your About page should always end with a path forward. A link to your services, an invitation to book a call, or a direct prompt to message you.

If you are a founder-led business, your personal credibility is your biggest asset. Use it on your About page. Your years of experience, the specific industries you understand, the problems you have genuinely solved — these matter far more than corporate language. Buyers in India especially want to know there is a real person behind the business who will take responsibility. If you are unsure how your current website is communicating this, a one-to-one consultation can help you see it clearly with a fresh pair of eyes.

Go open your About page right now. Read it as if you are a potential buyer who has never heard of you. Ask yourself: does this give me a reason to trust this business? Does it tell me who they work with? Does it show me a real person? Does it tell me what to do next? If the answer to any of these is no, you have found exactly why your website is not converting the way it should. This is one of the fastest fixes available to any business — it takes one afternoon, costs nothing, and the results show up within weeks.