The about page is not about you

The about page is the most misunderstood page on a coaching website. It has the word about in the URL, so coaches think it is about them. It is not. It is a trust argument, written in the first person, about the client.

The test is simple. Read your about page and count how many sentences are about the visitor's problem, versus how many are about your diet story. If the ratio is not at least 50/50, the page is not doing its job.

What the about page is actually for

Somebody who lands on your about page has already read your homepage. They already know roughly what you do. They clicked about for one reason. They want to know if you are the right person to trust with their body and their money.

That is the whole question. Are you the right person to trust. Everything on the page either answers that or gets cut.

Your gym journey does not answer it. Your love of training does not answer it. The year you got certified does not answer it, unless the certification is directly relevant to the exact problem this client has.

The structure that works

Here is a structure that works for 90 percent of coaches. Five short sections, in this order.

The problem you solve. One paragraph. Name the exact situation the client is in, in their own words. Not your niche, their situation.

Why most solutions fail. One paragraph. Name what they have already tried, and be honest about why it did not work. This is where you earn the trust.

How you work differently. One paragraph. Not a methodology name, a concrete difference. What do you do on a Monday that the other coach down the road does not do on a Monday.

Your short credibility block. One paragraph. Where you trained, what you did before, how long you have been coaching, how many clients you have worked with. No life story. No childhood photos.

What the next step looks like. One paragraph. The call, the intake, what to expect. Link to the booking page.

The first sentence rule

The first sentence of your about page should not start with your name. It should start with the client's situation.

Compare these two openings.

Hi, I am Sarah. I grew up as the chubby girl in my school and I hated PE.

Versus.

If you have tried every diet, every trainer, and every app, and you still cannot lose the last 10 kilos without losing your mind, the problem is not you. The problem is the approach.

The first one asks you to care about someone you have never met. The second one describes a situation you have been living in for two years. You can guess which one keeps the visitor reading.

The credibility paragraph you actually need

You do need credentials. The mistake is leading with them. Credentials belong in paragraph four, not paragraph one.

And when they land, they should be specific. Not this.

I am a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach with a passion for helping women.

This.

I have been coaching online since 2019. Most of my clients are women in their thirties balancing a full time job and two kids. I have worked with over 140 of them, and a good chunk of my current roster has been with me for more than a year.

The second version is longer, harder to write, and ten times more convincing. It tells the reader exactly what niche you are in, exactly how long you have been doing it, and exactly what retention looks like, without you having to say the word retention.

What to do with this

Before you redesign your about page, rewrite it. Block out 30 minutes, open a blank doc, and write the five sections in the order above. No images, no design, no formatting. Just the words.

You will almost certainly find that the first draft is four times longer than what you currently have on the page, and ten times more useful. Then cut it back until only the essential sentences are left.

That is what copy first means. The words come first, and the design wraps around the words. Not the other way around.