Writing an About Page When You Are the Product
An about page for a solo professional is the second most visited page on most coaching and consulting websites, behind only the homepage.
That surprises people. Yet it makes sense, because a visitor who is interested in the offer immediately wants to know who is behind it.
An about page for a solo professional is therefore not a formality. It is where a prospective client decides whether they can picture working with you, and most versions of it are written backwards.
The Mistake Almost Everybody Makes
The typical about page opens with a childhood, moves through a career history, and arrives at a qualification list.
It reads as a story about the writer, which is precisely what the reader did not come for.
Your visitor arrived with a problem. They are scanning for evidence that you understand it and have solved it before, for somebody like them. Your history matters only where it supports that.
So an about page for a solo professional should start with them and earn the right to talk about you.
The About Page for a Solo Professional Structure That Works
Five sections, and the order matters because it follows how a reader actually thinks.
1. Who you help and what changes. One or two sentences placing the reader immediately. Something like: I work with newly promoted managers who find leading a team harder than they expected.
2. Why you are credible. Years practising, accreditations, relevant background, organisations worked with, results achieved. Keep it factual and short.
3. How you work. Your approach in plain language, so the reader can picture a session.
4. Something human. One genuine detail that makes you a person rather than a profile.
5. A clear next step. The same action as the rest of the site.
That sequence answers the reader’s questions in the order they actually arrive.
Your Story Needs a Job
On an about page for a solo professional, personal history belongs there only when it does work for the reader.
Useful: I spent eleven years managing teams in Kenyan banking before training as a coach, which is why the problems my clients bring feel familiar.
Not useful: From an early age I was fascinated by human potential.
The first explains why you understand the client’s situation. The second explains nothing and appears on thousands of sites.
Test any biographical sentence by asking what the reader gains from knowing it. Where the honest answer is nothing, cut it.
Write in First Person
Use I when you work alone, because accuracy reads better than inflation.
We suggests a team that does not exist, and clients notice quickly. Worse, it removes the warmth that makes an about page for a solo professional effective in the first place.
First person feels exposing to write and reads far better than the alternative. Our post on making website content more human covers the wider point about tone.
Credentials Without the List
Qualifications matter, although a wall of acronyms does not.
Include accreditations that a client would recognise or that genuinely signal competence in your field. Mention training where it explains your approach. State how long you have practised, since experience reassures more than most certificates.
Then stop. A reader scanning fourteen abbreviations learns less than one who reads a single relevant sentence.
The Photograph
Furthermore, your about page needs a real photograph of you, looking at the camera, in a setting that suits your work.
Not a logo. A stock image will not do either. Avoid group photographs where the reader cannot tell which person you are.
For a personal brand this is the least optional element on the page, because the entire proposition rests on you being a real, findable person.
Common Mistakes
These recur on almost every about page for a solo professional we audit.
Opening with your childhood, which delays everything the reader wants.
Listing every course you have taken.
Writing in third person, which reads oddly on a one person site.
No photograph, or one taken eleven years ago.
A page that never mentions the reader, using I and my throughout without a single you.
No next step. The about page converts more often than people expect, so give it somewhere to send readers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should an about page for a solo professional be? Three hundred to six hundred words suits most practices. Long enough to establish credibility, short enough to be read.
Should I use I or my business name? Use I when you work alone. It is accurate and it reads better.
How much personal detail is appropriate? One or two genuine details are enough. Enough to be human, not enough to feel like a diary.
What if my background is unrelated to my current work? Frame the connection explicitly, since career changers often bring perspective clients value. Explain what transferred.
Do I need a professional photograph? Strongly recommended. A good phone portrait in natural light beats a bad studio shot, though a proper session is worth the cost.
Should the about page have a call to action? Yes. Readers who finish it are among your warmest visitors.
Start With Them, Not With You
An about page for a solo professional works when the reader finishes it thinking this person understands my situation, rather than this person has had an interesting life.
At Africa Web Experts we draw your about page out of one conversation, because most people describe their work far better aloud than on a blank page. Websites from KES 65,000, live in seventy two hours.
