Open the About page on most small business websites and you will find the same thing. A founding year. A list of credentials. A paragraph that begins, "With over fifteen years of experience..."
None of it is wrong. It just answers a question the visitor did not ask.
When someone clicks "About," they are rarely curious about your résumé. They are trying to decide whether you are safe to reach out to. For a faith-based business, that decision carries extra weight, and your About page is where it gets made.
The question behind the click
A recent column on church digital strategy made a point that applies just as well to coaches, counselors, consultants, and creative studios. A good website should help a visitor answer one question: does this fit someone like me?
That question has gotten harder to answer. More and more websites now read the same, because more and more of them were drafted by the same AI tools. Headlines blur together. Mission statements sound borrowed. Visitors have learned to skim past anything that sounds generic.
The About page is one of the few places where sameness cannot hide. It is supposed to be about a specific person or team. When it reads like everyone else's, people notice, even if they could not tell you why they left.
Start with the reader, then introduce yourself
The most common mistake we see is starting with "I." The fix is not complicated. Open with the person you serve and what they are carrying when they find you.
Compare these two openings:
- "I founded Grace Path Coaching in 2014 after completing my certification..."
- "Most of the people I work with are in the middle of a change they did not plan for, and they want someone who will take both their goals and their faith seriously."
The second one still leads to your story. But it earns the reader's attention first by showing that you already understand their situation. Once they feel seen, they are ready to hear who you are.
A simple order that works for most faith-based businesses:
- Who you help and what they are facing. Two or three sentences, in plain language.
- Why you do this work. The real reason, not the polished one.
- How your faith shapes the way you work. Specific, not sweeping.
- What working together looks like. A short bridge to your services or process.
- A clear next step. One link, not five.
Say how faith shows up, not just that it matters
Many faith-based business owners either say nothing about their faith on the About page or say something so broad it could mean anything. "Faith is at the center of everything we do" is sincere. It is also hard for a visitor to picture.
Try describing what it looks like in practice instead:
- "I pray for each client by name before our sessions, and I will never bring faith into our conversations unless you invite it."
- "We close our studio on Sundays, and we tell clients that up front so no one is surprised."
- "We give a portion of every project to the local food pantry our team volunteers with."
Details like these do two things at once. They tell believers that your faith is real and lived, not a marketing line. And they reassure people who do not share your faith that they will be respected. Both groups want to know what to expect, and specifics answer that better than slogans.
Let a real person show up
The About page is not the place for stock photography. A clear, recent photo of you, or your actual team, does more for trust than any amount of copy. It does not need to be a professional headshot. Natural light, a genuine expression, and a setting that looks like where you actually work are enough.
The same goes for your writing voice. If you would never say "leveraging holistic solutions" across a coffee table, do not say it here. Read your About page out loud. Anywhere you stumble or wince is a place to rewrite.
AI can still help. It is good at tightening a rambling draft or suggesting a cleaner structure. But the stories, the convictions, and the small particulars have to come from you. Those are exactly the parts a tool cannot invent, and exactly the parts visitors are looking for.
Keep credentials, just move them down
Your training and experience still matter, especially in fields like counseling or financial coaching where qualifications protect clients. You do not need to remove them. Move them lower on the page, after the reader already cares.
A short credentials section near the bottom, or a tidy list beside your photo, lets people who want that information find it without making everyone else wade through it first.
Give the page somewhere to go
A surprising number of About pages simply end. The visitor has just decided they like you, and there is nowhere to click.
Close with one warm, specific invitation. "If this sounds like the kind of help you have been looking for, the next step is a free twenty-minute call." Link it to your booking page or contact form. If you have a process page or a "what happens next" section elsewhere, link that too, but keep the main invitation singular and obvious.
A quick self-check
Before you publish a new version, ask:
- Does the first paragraph mention the reader before it mentions me?
- Could a competitor copy this page and use it without changing much? If so, it needs more specifics.
- Would a visitor know how my faith shapes my work after reading it?
- Is there a real photo of a real person?
- Is there one clear next step at the end?
If you can answer yes to all five, your About page is already doing more than most.
A page worth revisiting
The About page tends to get written once, at launch, and then forgotten. But your business grows, your clients change, and your sense of calling sharpens over time. A quiet season at the end of the year is a good moment to read it again with fresh eyes and ask whether it still sounds like you.
If you would like help rewriting your About page, or want a second opinion on whether your website is answering the questions your clients are really asking, we would love to talk.