Most advice on about us page SEO treats the page as a ranking target: put the brand name in the title, add a keyword to the H1, write 500 words. That misses the point. Hardly anyone searches for your about page. What the page does is support every other page on the site, by showing readers and search engines that a real, accountable person or organisation stands behind the content.
The clearest description of what that means comes from Google’s own Search Quality Rater Guidelines (the version dated 11 September 2025). Raters do not set rankings. The guidelines describe what Google’s systems aim to reward, which makes them the best public brief for what an about page should contain.
What the rater guidelines actually ask
Section 2.5.2 sets the baseline: “Every page belongs to a website, and it should be clear: who … is responsible for the website [and] who … created the content on the page.” Two separate questions, and an about page usually only answers the first. The second is answered by bylines and author pages.
The guidelines accept an alias or username for forums and social platforms. Elsewhere, they expect a reader to be able to work out who is behind the site without detective work.
Section 2.5.3 covers About Us, contact and customer service information, and it is the section most worth reading in full. Its key line is that “the types and amount of contact information needed depend on the type of website.” There is no single standard about page.
How much you need depends on the site
The guidelines scale the expectation to the stakes. They describe contact and customer service information as “extremely important for websites that handle money, such as stores, banks, credit card companies.” For shopping sites, raters look for policies on payment, exchanges and returns. A humour site needs much less. And the guidelines recognise that some creators have a legitimate reason to stay anonymous.
| Type of site | What the guidelines expect | What to put on the page |
|---|---|---|
| Online shop or anything taking payment | Contact and customer service information is “extremely important”; policies on payment, exchanges and returns | Company name, address, contact routes, and linked payment, returns and exchange policies |
| Bank, card provider or financial service | Contact and customer service information is “extremely important” | Legal entity, regulatory details, several contact routes |
| Blog, review or information site | Clear who is responsible and who created the content | Who runs the site, author bios and bylines, an email or contact form |
| Humour or entertainment site | Less contact information needed | A short statement of who runs it and a way to get in touch |
| Forum or social platform | Alias or username acceptable for content creators | Clear ownership of the platform; user profiles for contributors |
This is where the stakes connect to YMYL topics. A site giving financial or health advice is held to a higher bar than one reviewing board games, because a mistake costs the reader more. The about page should rise to match.
What to put on an about page for SEO
Translate the guidelines into page content and the list is short. Every item answers a question a sceptical reader would ask before trusting the site.
- Who runs the site. A named person or a named company, not “a team of passionate experts”.
- Why they are qualified. Relevant experience, stated specifically. “Ten years repairing bicycles” beats “cycling enthusiast”.
- How the content is made. A short editorial or review policy: how products are tested, how errors get corrected, how the site earns money.
- How to reach them. Contact details scaled to the type of site, as in the table above.
- Links to author pages. Each writer’s page then answers the guidelines’ second question for the content they produced.
History and milestones help when they show experience in the topic. They are filler when they list office moves. Keep anything that would make a reader trust a recommendation more, and cut the rest.
The common failures are easy to spot once you look for them. Stock photographs of smiling strangers presented as “our team”. Mission statements that could belong to any company in any industry. A contact page that is only a form, with no name, address or email behind it. Each one tells a careful reader that the site would rather not be identified, which is the opposite of what the page is for. If a detail cannot be checked, it does little to build trust; if it can, it does a lot.
About us page SEO beyond the about page
The received wisdom stops at the about page itself. In practice, the signals the guidelines describe are spread across the site, and a well-written about page cannot compensate for anonymous articles.
Bylines on every article, each linking to an author page with relevant background, answer the “who created the content” question where it is actually asked: on the content. A visible editorial policy covers how reviews and corrections work. Footer links to the about, contact and policy pages mean a reader can find them from any URL, which is how raters, and readers, actually move through a site. Our E-E-A-T examples show how these pieces fit together on real pages.
On the technical side, keep the about page indexable and linked from the main navigation or footer. Organization structured data on the homepage or about page can state the official name, logo and profiles, which helps search engines connect the site to the entity behind it; we cover that in entity SEO.
What a good about page cannot do
Here is the limitation. The rater guidelines are a training document for human evaluators, not a description of the ranking algorithm. Raters do not change rankings, and Google has not published how, or whether, any specific element of an about page is measured. What the guidelines tell you is what Google wants its systems to reward, which is a strong hint, not a ranking factor you can tick off.
A thorough about page also cannot rescue thin content. If the articles are unhelpful, stating who wrote them only makes the authorship clear. Treat the page as necessary rather than sufficient: a missing or evasive about page is a reason for doubt, and a good one removes that doubt without adding much else. Spend an afternoon on it, then put the rest of the effort into the content it vouches for.
Frequently asked questions
Does an about page help SEO?
Indirectly. It rarely ranks itself, but it shows who is responsible for the site, which Google’s rater guidelines treat as a basic trust question.
What should an about us page include?
Who runs the site, why they are qualified, how the content is made and funded, how to get in touch, and links to author pages.
Can I run an anonymous website?
The rater guidelines recognise that some creators have a legitimate reason for anonymity, and accept aliases on forums and social platforms. Sites that handle money need far more.
Do online shops need more than an about page?
Yes. The guidelines call contact and customer service information extremely important for sites that handle money, and raters look for payment, exchange and returns policies.
The takeaway Write the about page to answer who runs the site and who writes for it, with detail scaled to what the site does. Then carry the same answers into bylines and author pages.
