How to Write an About Page Google and AI Can Trust

An About page earns trust when it proves who runs the business: a registered name, named people with real experience, a location or service area, working contact details, and proof someone else can check. A mission statement proves none of that, so customers, Google and AI assistants are left guessing.

What does Google actually say about About pages?

Google has no About page ranking rule. Its people-first content guidance asks whether visitors can tell who created content, how and why, and names a site's About page as one way to show background. Google also says E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor, and that trust is the most important part of it.

That wording is in Google's guide to creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. Its “Who, How, and Why” section asks whether it is self-evident who authored the content.

The Search Quality Rater Guidelines(September 11, 2025 version when checked) are more specific. “Finding Who is Responsible for the Website and Who Created the Content on the Page” says both should be clear. “Finding About Us, Contact Information, and Customer Service Information” calls contact and customer service details extremely important for sites that handle money, such as stores and banks.

Two limits apply. The guidelines say no single rating can directly change how a page appears in Google Search, and expectations scale with purpose: a humor site needs less contact detail than an online bank.

What should a trustworthy About page include?

A trustworthy About page answers four checkable questions: who owns the business, who does the work, where it operates, and how a customer reaches a person. Each claim should point to something a stranger can verify, such as a registry entry, license number or review profile. Skip rows that don't apply.

Customer proof has legal limits too. The FTC's final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials(announced August 14, 2024) covers testimonials from people who don't exist, AI-generated fakes and undisclosed insider reviews. Show only real reviews you may use, linked to their source.

How do you rewrite a vague About paragraph?

Replace every adjective with a fact someone can check. “Experienced” becomes a founding year and a license; “local” becomes named towns; “trusted” becomes a link to independent reviews. If a sentence has no name, number, date or link behind it, cut it.

Northgate, Dana Okafor, the address and the phone number are invented. Each fact in the rewrite can be reused in structured data and directory listings.

How do you keep the About page consistent with your Google Business Profile?

Use the same business name, address or service area, and phone number on your About page, Contact page, footer, Google Business Profile and directory listings. Google asks for your real-world name, used consistently on storefront, website and stationery, and a precise address or service area.

Google's guidelines for representing your business on Google also say service-area businesses should hide their address from customers. If your profile hides it, name the area you serve on the About page instead of a home address. The guide to NAP consistency for local SEO shows how to audit mismatched listings.

Which structured data belongs with an About page?

Add Organization markup, or a LocalBusiness subtype, to your home page or to the single page that describes your organization, often the About page. Google lists no required properties and recommends adding as many relevant ones as apply, including name, url, logo, address, contactPoint and sameAs.

Google's Organization structured data documentation says the markup can help Google understand your administrative details and disambiguate your organization. Its recommended list also includes legalName, foundingDate, email, telephone and description. founderis a valid schema.org property, but it isn't on Google's list.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Plumber",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization",
  "name": "Northgate Plumbing",
  "legalName": "Northgate Pipe & Drain Ltd",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example.com/logo.png",
  "description": "Residential plumbing repairs in Riverton and 12 nearby towns.",
  "foundingDate": "2014",
  "founder": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Dana Okafor" },
  "telephone": "+1-201-555-0142",
  "email": "office@example.com",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "48 Mill Road",
    "addressLocality": "Riverton",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example",
    "https://www.facebook.com/example"
  ]
}

Fictional data on a reserved example domain. Replace every value with your own facts.

Schema.org also defines an AboutPage type, a subtype of WebPage, but Google's structured data search gallery lists no About page feature. Whatever you mark up must be visible: Google's general structured data guidelines say not to mark up content readers cannot see. Check your markup with the VisRank schema checker.

How do you rebuild your About page in an afternoon?

Gather facts first, write second, mark up last. Most of the afternoon goes into collecting license numbers, profile links and dates, not writing. Work in this order and the page, markup and listings end up agreeing with each other.

1. Collect the facts. Legal and trading names, founding year, owner and key staff with roles, licenses, insurance, address or service area, phone, email and hours.
2. Copy your Business Profile details. The website must match its exact name, address format and phone.
3. List official profiles. Gather the URLs of profiles you control, such as LinkedIn or a trade directory. Drop inactive ones.
4. Rewrite the opening. Who, since when, where and how to reach you.
5. Add a people section. Real names, roles and one line of relevant experience each, with profile links where staff agree.
6. Add proof links. Link license lookups, review profiles and press coverage. Remove quotes you cannot attribute.
7. Replace stock photos. Use captioned photos of your real team or premises, or none at all.
8. Update Organization markup. Mirror only visible facts, add sameAs for the profiles from step 3, and validate.
9. Link and date the page. Link it from the header or footer, add a “reviewed” date, and recheck it when staff, licenses or addresses change.

What do VisRank's Trust checks look for?

VisRank's Trust & Entity category runs 15 checks on the scanned page. They detect whether signals exist and are machine-readable, not whether a license is real. Trust is reported as its own score and does not feed the overall SEO, AEO, Security and Local formula.

• About page: a same-site link whose path or text matches about, company, team or who we are. Deeper scans also try paths such as /about and /about-us.
• Business name: read from Organization-type schema, then the Open Graph site name, then the page title.
• Founder or author info: Person schema, an author or founder property, an author link, or visible words such as founder, owner or our team.
• Contact signals: a visible email, a phone number or clear support path, and an address or service-area statement.
• Profiles and Organization completeness: public profile links, sameAs URLs, and Organization markup with name, url, logo, description, a contact property and sameAs (five of six passes).
• External profile consistency: deeper scans fetch up to five linked profiles and check whether their URL or page name matches your on-site name.
• Local and proof signals: a Google Maps or Business Profile link on local sites, plus reviews or testimonials.

The Trust & Entity SEO audit guide walks through the full category, or you can run the Trust & Entity audit directly.

Will a better About page make AI assistants describe your business correctly?

It can help, with no guarantee. Consistent, verifiable facts leave AI assistants less to guess. Google says its generative AI features are rooted in core Search ranking and quality systems, that structured data isn't required for them, and that indexing and serving aren't guaranteed.

Google's generative AI optimization guide also says Business Profiles can help products and services appear in AI responses. ChatGPT and other assistants run their own retrieval. If one ignores you, the cause may be elsewhere; see why ChatGPT does not mention your business.

Frequently asked questions about About page trust signals

Key takeaways

• An About page should prove who runs the business with names, dates, places and links.
• Google says E-E-A-T isn't a specific ranking factor, and that trust matters most.
• Rater guidelines expect clear ownership and stronger contact details on sites that take money.
• Match your name, address or service area and phone to your Google Business Profile.
• Use Organization markup with name, url, logo, address, contactPoint and sameAs, listing only visible facts.
• AboutPage schema is valid, but Google documents no rich result for it.
• Clear entity facts can help AI descriptions, but mentions are never guaranteed.

Run a free VisRank scan to see which About, contact, schema and profile signals your site exposes today, then fill the gaps with the checklist above.