Writing an 'About' Page New Visitors Actually Read

The "About" page is one of the most-visited pages on almost every club website, and one of the least-read. Visitors click it expecting to learn who you are in thirty seconds. What they usually get is a wall of text, a long history, a list of committee names, and maybe a mission statement in formal language that could have been written anywhere from 1907 to 1987, and never updated since.

The visitor skims, decides the club feels stuffy or confusing, and leaves. That's a real cost. Where the homepage decides whether someone stays on your site at all, the About page decides whether the club itself feels right for them. The rest of the detail belongs on the pages that go deeper.

The good news is that writing a much better version is genuinely fast. It just requires cutting.

What a good About page actually needs

Three things, in about this order:

1. What the club is, in one sentence. Not "we are a community of passionate…" Just a plain-English sentence. "We're a small kennel club in western Washington focused on obedience and rally training."
2. Who the club is for. "Our members range from people with their first dog to people who've been competing for decades. Beginners are welcome; we run a free introduction class every spring."
3. What you do together. A few concrete things: the monthly meet, the annual event, the classes, the mentorship program. Be specific. Names of events are more memorable than categories of events.

That's the core of the page. If a visitor reads just these three things, they should know whether your club is for them.

Keep it simple, let other pages do the rest

Several common About-page contents work better on other pages:

• Long histories belong on a history page. A one-sentence origin story is plenty for the About page itself.
• The full board list belongs on a Board page, where each member can have their proper role and contact info.
• Mission statements. Lead with the human version of what your club is and does. A short formal mission statement can sit on the About page as a callout after the intro. A long one belongs on its own page. Either way, your real voice comes first.
• Bylaws belong on their own page, and/or in Documents. The About page is a welcome mat, not a legal document.

One more habit that helps: define acronyms and field-specific terms the first time you use them. Visitors aren't fluent yet.

Most About pages can lose half their length and become better for it.

Write it in your club's real voice

If your club feels warm and friendly in person, your About page should feel warm and friendly. If it feels rigorous and competitive, the page should reflect that instead. The best test is to imagine reading the page to a new member at the start of their first meeting. Would they feel welcomed? Would they recognize the club in the words?

Write the way you'd actually talk about your club to a friend. Formal, stiff language almost never feels like a real club, no matter how impressive it looks on paper.

A starting structure

Here's a structure you can fill in on your own site. It's not the only way, but it gets most clubs 80% of the way there.

Headline: One line, plain and specific. Not "Welcome to the Club!" Something like "A kennel club for dog sports enthusiasts in western Washington."

Opening paragraph (two to four sentences): What the club is, who it's for, why it exists. Keep it warm.

What we do (a short list or two paragraphs): The specific things members actually do together. Names of events, classes, meetings, anything concrete.

Who we are (one paragraph): A short description of your members, the mix of experience levels, what they share, what the culture is like.

How to get involved (one paragraph with a clear link): "If you're thinking about joining, here's our membership page." Point them somewhere specific.

That's a complete About page. It can be read in under a minute. It does its job.

Below the basics

The About page is a good place for a couple of dynamic elements at the bottom, below the main content, where they don't compete with the message. A short list of upcoming events or a few recent news teasers shows the club is alive right now. A visitor who's already read the basics gets a quick view of what's actually happening, without you having to update the About content to keep it current.

One small addition

If you have the right photos, add a single wide image at the top. A real photo of your club, in the kind of moment you'd want a new member to see. Not a logo. Not a stock image. A real picture.

A good photo plus a short, clear About page tells a visitor more about your club in thirty seconds than a thousand words of formal text ever will.

Where Clubistry fits in

On a Clubistry site, your About page is just another page, built the same way as any other. The Simple Text Section is almost always the right tool for the body of an About page; the Pages documentation covers the basics.

For the bottom of the page, the Upcoming Events Teasers and Recent News Teasers sections show the club is active without you having to update the About page itself. A Promo Blocks section also works well down there, linking off to other pages a curious visitor might want next: a Board page, a history page, member spotlights, or whatever else your club is proud of.

Keep the top of the page simple, short, and human. The teasers and links can handle the rest.