How to read a website's About page

I recently found myself staring at an About page for a new high-end candle brand that claimed to be the product of a small, sun-drenched studio in Ojai. The copy was thick with words like intentionality and curation, but the photo was a stock image of a generic ceramicist with suspiciously clean fingernails. If you look closely at the metadata or the tone of the writing, the facade usually crumbles within three sentences. Most of the internet is currently a hall of mirrors where venture-backed conglomerates pretend to be your quirky neighbor and lone freelancers hide behind the plural we to sound like they have a payroll.

To tell what you are actually looking at, you have to ignore the mission statement entirely. Nobody ever put their true intentions in a mission statement. Instead, look for the specific. A real human being will mention a specific year, a specific street corner, or a weirdly niche obsession that doesn't serve a marketing goal. If the text reads like it was passed through a filter to remove all jagged edges, you are dealing with corporate boilerplate designed by a committee of six people who are all afraid of getting fired.

Watch the pronouns like a hawk. When a site uses we but the social media links all lead to one person's vanity project, you are witnessing the classic person pretending to be a team maneuver. It is a defense mechanism born of insecurity. Conversely, if a site uses I but the service is suspiciously scalable and efficient, it is likely a faceless agency trying to wear a human mask to charge you a premium for intimacy. Check the footer for a parent company name. If the About page mentions a passion for craft but the footer says a private equity firm owns the domain, the passion is a lie.

Search the text for a physical address or a recognizable face. A team pretending to be a person will often use a generic founder story while burying the actual board of directors in a different sub-menu. If the photo of the team looks like they are all standing in the same loft with the same lighting, they probably are. If the photos are all different sizes and resolutions, that is a real group of people working from home. Authenticity is usually messy and slightly unpolished.

You can also test the vocabulary against the actual product. If a blog about gardening uses the word leverage or synergistic, it was written by an SEO specialist who has never touched dirt. A real person uses the jargon of their craft, not the jargon of a boardroom. Look for the grit in the writing. The best way to read an About page is to look for the things they didn't mean to tell you, like the fact that they are terrified of being perceived as small.

Stop looking for what they do and start looking for what they are trying to hide. The most honest pages on the web are usually the ones that look a little bit ugly. If the design is too perfect and the story is too cinematic, you aren't a customer; you are a target. Most people are just trying to sell you a version of themselves that doesn't exist. The real treasure is finding the ones who aren't afraid to admit they are just one person in a messy room.