Why people visit your 'About us' page (and what to do with the traffic)
Your About page gets more visitors than you might think. It's one of those quietly important pages that sits in the background until someone needs to know who they're dealing with. Then it suddenly becomes the most relevant page on your entire site.
The question is: what brings people there, and once they've arrived, what are you actually telling them?
Who visits an About page and why
People land on your About page for a handful of predictable reasons. They might be considering buying from you and want to check you're legitimate. They could be a potential client weighing up whether you're the right fit. Perhaps they're a journalist, a job seeker, or someone who's heard about your business and wants to know more before getting in touch.
What ties all these visitors together is a simple need: they want to know who is behind the business. An About page is where you put a face to the name, explain what you stand for, and give people enough information to decide whether they trust you.
That's quite a lot of responsibility for one page that probably took you twenty minutes to write three years ago.
Where the traffic actually comes from
If you dig into your analytics, you'll find that About page traffic doesn't all arrive the same way. Some people type your URL directly or find you through search. Others come via your homepage and deliberately click through to learn more. Then there are those who land on a blog post or a product page and decide mid-browse that they'd like to know who's talking.
The path matters because it tells you what state of mind someone's in when they arrive. A direct visitor might already know your name and be doing due diligence. Someone coming from your homepage is probably early in their journey and trying to get a sense of what you're about. A reader clicking through from a blog post has already engaged with your content and now wants context.
These different journeys suggest different needs, but they all converge on the same basic question: who are you?
What About page traffic tells you
High traffic to your About page generally means people are interested enough to want more information. That's good news. It means you've piqued curiosity, and now they're checking whether you're credible, interesting, or the right sort of outfit for what they need.
If a lot of visitors hit your About page and then leave the site entirely, that's worth paying attention to. It might mean they got their answer and decided you weren't quite right, or it might mean your About page didn't give them a clear next step. Either way, there's a conversation happening on that page, and you want to make sure you're holding up your end of it.
On the other hand, if people visit your About page and then navigate deeper into your site, that's a positive sign. They've learned enough to want to continue exploring. Your job is to make that easy for them.
What to actually put on your About page
The temptation with About pages is to either write an exhaustive company history that nobody asked for, or to keep it so vague that you've said nothing at all. Neither approach is particularly helpful.
A good About page answers the questions that matter: who you are, what you do, why you do it, and what kind of people you are to work with. You don't need to list every qualification or recount your entire career. You just need to give enough detail that someone can form an impression.
If you're a small team or a solo operation, say so. If you've been doing this for twenty years, mention it. If you have a particular approach or philosophy that shapes how you work, explain it. The specifics will vary depending on your business, but the principle is the same: be clear, be honest, and give people a reason to feel confident about you.
Photos help. If people are trying to work out who you are, seeing a face makes you more tangible. It doesn't need to be a professional photoshoot—just something that looks like an actual human being rather than a stock photo of someone pretending to have a meeting.
What your homepage should do instead
Here's where it gets interesting. If a lot of people are visiting your About page immediately after landing on your homepage, it suggests your homepage isn't quite doing its job. People shouldn't need to click away to understand what you do or who you are.
Your homepage ought to make the basics clear: what you offer, who it's for, and why it might be useful. If someone has to visit your About page just to work out what your business actually does, that's a sign your homepage needs more clarity.
This doesn't mean cramming your entire story onto the homepage. It just means making sure the most important information is easy to find. Think of your homepage as the introduction and your About page as the detail. People should be able to understand the gist from the homepage and dig deeper on the About page if they want more.
How to make the most of About page traffic
Once you know people are visiting your About page, you can design it to be more useful. That means thinking about what someone might want to do next and making it easy for them to do it.
If you're a service business, a clear call to action—something like "Get in touch to talk about your project"—gives people a natural next step. If you publish content regularly, linking to your blog or case studies keeps people engaged. If you're hiring, mention it.
The idea isn't to bombard visitors with options but to guide them somewhere useful based on what they've just learned about you. They've shown enough interest to visit your About page. That's worth acknowledging.
When to rethink both pages
If your About page is getting heavy traffic but not leading anywhere, or if people are bouncing straight off your homepage to look for more information, it's probably time to revisit what both pages are saying.
Look at the journey people are taking through your site. Are they finding what they need quickly, or are they having to hunt around? Are you explaining the right things in the right places? Could your homepage be clearer, or your About page more engaging?
The traffic data won't tell you everything, but it will show you where people are spending their time and where they're losing interest. That's enough to start making better decisions about what to say and where to say it.
The short version
Your About page exists because people want to know who they're dealing with. It gets visited more often than you might expect, and the traffic patterns can tell you a lot about how well your site is communicating.
If people are clicking through from your homepage to your About page in droves, your homepage probably needs to explain more upfront. If people land on your About page and leave immediately, you might not be giving them enough information or a clear next step.
Either way, it's worth paying attention. Your About page is one of the few places where you get to speak directly to someone who's actively trying to understand your business. Make it count.
More articles on marketing
If you found this useful, we write quite a bit about marketing and how it intersects with running a website. There's plenty more where this came from if you're interested. Here are a few to get you started:
Fixing the "Leaky Bucket": Why the Best Marketing is Keeping Your Old Customers
The Lazy Creator’s Guide: Turning One Good Idea into a Month of Marketing
The honest reason most small business blogs fail (and it's not the writing)
Why we write about this sort of thing
We write about marketing because it's part of our job. When we build a website for you, we're not just thinking about how it looks or whether the buttons work—we're thinking about what you're trying to say and how to help you say it clearly. That includes everything from structure and navigation to the words on the page.
Once your site is live, we also offer an ongoing management service where we take care of updates, improvements, and all the small adjustments that keep a website useful over time. It's the sort of thing that's easy to put off when you're busy, so we do it instead.
Let's talk about your website
If you'd like us to build you a website, or if you've got one that needs some attention, we'd be happy to talk it through. We're easy to work with, we won't baffle you with nonsense, and we'll build you something that does what you actually need it to do. Get in touch and we'll take it from there. You can find more info and price guides below.
Ongoing Website Management Prices
Should I put my company's entire history on the About page?
No. Just answer what matters: who you are, what you do, why you do it, and what you're like to work with. Give enough detail for someone to form an impression without exhaustive timelines or every single qualification.
What does it mean if people go straight from my homepage to my About page?
It suggests your homepage isn't making the basics clear enough. People shouldn't need to click away just to understand what you do or who you are—your homepage should cover that upfront.
Do I really need a photo on my About page?
Yes, photos help. If people are trying to work out who you are, seeing a face makes you more real and trustworthy. It doesn't need to be professional—just something that looks like an actual person, not a stock photo.