How to use AI to write your business's About page so it actually makes people want to hire you

You finally sit down to write your About page, stare at a blank document for twenty minutes, type "We are a passionate team dedicated to excellence," and then close the laptop in mild despair. This post walks you through how to use AI to write an About Us page for your small business so it sounds like a real human wrote it — specifically, a real human who happens to be very good at convincing people to hire them. The trick isn't just using AI; it's knowing what to feed it and how to fix what comes out.

What you need before you start

ChatGPT — an AI tool you type questions and instructions into, and it writes back; the free version works fine here, but the paid version (ChatGPT Plus, about $20/month) gives you access to GPT-4o, which handles nuance better.

Time required: About 90 minutes for your first pass — 30 minutes gathering your inputs, 30 minutes prompting and reviewing, 30 minutes editing.

Skill level: If you can write an email, you can do this.

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Step 1 — Gather Your Brand DNA Before You Use AI to Write Your About Page

This is the step most people skip, and it's why their AI-generated About page sounds like it was written by a committee that has never met a human.

1. Open a blank document — Google Docs, Notes, anything.
2. Write down your answers to these five questions in plain, off-the-cuff language. Don't edit yourself yet:
   • What problem do you solve, and for whom?
   • Why did you start this business? (The real reason, not the LinkedIn version.)
   • What's one thing you've failed at or had to learn the hard way?
   • What do your best clients say you're like to work with?
   • What do you believe about your industry that most people in it get wrong?
3. Pull two or three pieces of writing you've already done — a client email, a social post, a proposal intro — anything that sounds like you when you're at your most natural.
4. Save all of it in that same document. You're going to paste it straight into ChatGPT.

That last question about what you believe is a big one. A salon owner who thinks "the beauty industry oversells products people don't need" has a story. A contractor who believes "most renovation quotes hide the real costs" has something worth saying. Those opinions are what make an About page magnetic.

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Step 2 — How to Use ChatGPT to Write Your About Page (And Avoid 'AI-Speak')

Now you're ready to talk to ChatGPT. The goal is to give it your raw material and a clear set of guardrails — because left to its own devices, AI will happily describe your small landscaping business as an "innovative, results-driven organization committed to paradigm-shifting synergies." Hard pass.

Here's a prompt structure that actually works. Paste your answers from Step 1 above this prompt, then follow with:

Write an About page for my small business using only the information I've provided above. Follow these rules: — Focus 80% of the page on the problem I solve for my customers and why they're better off hiring me. Save 20% or less for background and history. — Use a warm, direct, conversational tone — like a trusted local expert, not a corporation. — Avoid these words entirely: innovative, passionate, synergy, paradigm, solutions, excellence, world-class, cutting-edge, dedicated. — Keep sentences short to medium length. No paragraph longer than three sentences. — The page should be between 250 and 350 words. — End with a single clear sentence that tells the reader what to do next (book a call, send a message, etc.).

The word ban matters more than it sounds. Research from Copyblogger consistently shows that vague, inflated language erodes trust — and for a small business, trust is everything. You don't have a brand logo doing heavy lifting for you. Your words have to do it.

After the AI responds, read it out loud. If you stumble, that's a sign something sounds off. Mark those spots — you'll fix them in a later step.

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Step 3 — Layer In Human Stories the AI Can't Write

AI is a very good writer and a very bad storyteller. It can arrange words well, but it cannot invent the specific moment you decided to quit your corporate job at 11pm on a Tuesday, or the client who cried when you finished their kitchen renovation because it was the first time her house had felt like a home.

Those details are yours. And according to what the Nielsen Norman Group found studying how people read About pages, specific personal details are the single biggest driver of whether someone feels a connection — or clicks away.

1. Go back to your AI draft.
2. Find the most generic paragraph — usually wherever it's describing your values or approach.
3. Replace it with one of these: a specific failure you recovered from, the exact moment you knew this business was right for you, or a real thing a client said (paraphrased, not a testimonial).
4. Keep it short — three to four sentences is plenty. This isn't a memoir.

A plumber who writes "I started this company after spending years watching homeowners get overcharged for repairs that took me forty minutes" is more trustworthy than one who writes "We believe in honesty and transparency." Both are saying the same thing. One of them actually means it.

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Step 4 — The Credibility Check (Refining for Trust Signals)

Google uses a framework called E-E-A-T — which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — to evaluate how credible a page is. Your About page is one of the most important places this shows up on your website.

The good news: you don't need to think like an SEO (search engine optimization) expert. You just need to make sure these four things show up somewhere on the page:

1. How long you've been doing this — "Since 2016" or "after twelve years in commercial kitchens" tells Google and humans alike that you're not new at this.
2. A specific credential, certification, or training — even one. "Licensed in the state of Colorado" or "trained at the Aveda Institute" works.
3. A named location — local businesses especially benefit from mentioning their city or region. It signals real-world presence.
4. What makes you specifically qualified — not "we care about our clients" but "I've managed inventory for food trucks, diners, and catering companies, so I know where costs actually bleed."

Go through your AI draft and check: are any of these missing? If so, add them in plain language. Don't stuff them in awkwardly — weave them where they fit naturally.

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Avoiding the 'Cringe Factor': Editing AI Output for Authenticity

Here's the thing about AI copy: it's rarely wrong. It's just often a little too smooth. Real people don't write in perfectly balanced sentences. Real people repeat themselves slightly. Real people have opinions.

If the draft sounds too polished: Add one sentence that's a little blunt. "Honestly, I wasn't sure this would work" or "I'll tell you upfront: we're not the cheapest option" breaks the corporate sheen immediately.

If it sounds too formal: Swap every "we utilize" for "we use," every "we endeavor to" for "we try to," and every "in order to" for "to." Takes two minutes, makes a big difference.

If it sounds like everyone else's About page: Go back to that opinion you wrote in Step 1 — the thing you believe that your industry gets wrong. If it's not on the page, put it there. That's your differentiator. Don't bury it.

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The Final Polish: Adding Your Personal Proof Points

Before you publish, do one last read-through with this checklist:

• A number that proves something — years in business, clients served, projects completed. Even a small number is better than no number.
• A named place — your city, your neighborhood, the region you serve.
• A real moment — one specific story detail, not a generic claim.
• A clear next step — one call-to-action at the end. One. Not three.
• Your name — this sounds obvious, but AI drafts sometimes forget it. Sign the page. People are hiring you.

Once you've ticked those off, paste the final draft into a readability checker like Hemingway Editor (free) and aim for a Grade 6–8 reading level. If it comes back higher than that, your sentences are probably too long. Break them up.

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What to do next

Your About page is live — nice work. The natural next step is making sure the rest of your site copy pulls its weight the same way. If you want to take this further, we've got a full walkthrough on using AI to write homepage copy that converts.

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FAQ

Can I use the free version of ChatGPT for this, or do I need to pay?

The free version works for this. The free tier currently uses a capable GPT-4 class model, so you'll get solid results — though it can be slightly less nuanced with tone than the full GPT-4o. If you give it detailed inputs from Step 1, it'll still produce something useful. If you find the output consistently flat or generic, upgrading to ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) for GPT-4o is worth it — it handles voice and subtlety noticeably better.

What if the AI writes things that aren't true about my business?

Good question — and it happens. AI will sometimes fill gaps in your input with plausible-sounding details it invented. Read every draft carefully and fact-check anything specific: years, numbers, credentials, service areas. Never publish anything you didn't put in or can't verify. You're the editor here, not just the prompter.

How long should my About page actually be?

Shorter than you think. Nielsen Norman Group research shows most visitors spend less than a minute on About pages. Aim for 250–400 words — enough to answer "who are you and why should I trust you," but not so much that you're writing your autobiography. If you have a longer story to tell, link to a separate "Our Story" page.

Is it okay to use AI to write this if it's supposed to sound like me?

Yes — with the right inputs. Think of it the way you'd think of hiring a copywriter: you'd give them a brief, your talking points, and examples of your style. Then you'd edit their draft until it sounded right. AI is doing the same job, just faster and cheaper. The voice still has to come from you; AI just helps arrange it.

What words should I always delete from an AI-written About page?

The usual suspects: innovative, passionate, dedicated, solutions, synergy, paradigm, world-class, cutting-edge, leveraging, transformative. If you see any of these, replace them with whatever you'd actually say out loud. "We care a lot about getting it right" beats "we are passionately dedicated to excellence" every time.