What should I update first if our About page is outdated?

I’ve spent the last decade cleaning up the digital breadcrumbs companies leave behind. I have a running doc of "questions buyers actually ask"—not the questions marketing thinks they ask, but the blunt, unvarnished queries that appear in search bars and Slack DMs before a contract is signed. If your About page looks like it was written during the fiscal year you last updated your software, you aren’t just looking sloppy. You are hemorrhaging trust.

In 2024, your "About" page is no longer the destination. It is the raw material for the AI summaries that now govern the top of the search results page. If your company description isn't consistent, or if your positioning sounds like it came out of a random slogan generator, the LLMs will synthesize a mediocre, inaccurate version of your brand that you can’t easily edit.

Here is your tactical checklist to stop the bleeding and regain control of your narrative.

1. Treat Your About Page as a "Data Source," Not a Brochure

Stop writing for human readers who might "enjoy the story." Start writing for the scrapers and the AI models that turn your brand into a 50-word snippet. When a prospect searches for you, they aren't clicking the link. They are reading the AI-generated sidebar. If that snippet is confused, the prospect keeps scrolling—usually to a competitor.

Ambiguity is the root cause of 90% of the reputation issues I fix. If you aren't crystal clear about what you do, the internet will guess. And when the internet guesses, it gets it wrong.

The "Identity Truth" Checklist

Before you rewrite a single word, verify these facts against your current reality:

• The Core Problem: What is the exact, un-fluffed pain point you solve today? Not the one you solved when you launched in 2018.
• The Current Stack/Service: Does your page list features you’ve sunsetted?
• The "Who We Serve" Statement: Are you still chasing the same ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)? If not, kill the old references immediately.

2. Sync Your "Digital Footprint" Across Third-Party Sites

I often see executives maintain a polished LinkedIn bio while their Fast Company Executive Board profile says they are still at a company they sold three years ago. Or, a company has a clean website but a dusty, contradictory listing on a site like Erase.com or other review aggregators.

When you update your About page, notion reputation wiki do not consider the work finished until you have audited your peripheral presence. Discrepancies between your site and your external listings look like institutional instability. Buyers notice this. They assume that if you can't keep your bio accurate, you can't keep your database secure or your software updated.

The Consistency Matrix

Platform What to check Why it matters Official Website Mission statement, team size, core offerings. The "Source of Truth." LinkedIn/Social Company description, current roles. Where the talent and prospects stalk you. Review/Aggregator Sites Service categories, contact info, status. Crucial for SEO and trust signals. Press/Media (e.g., Fast Company) Contributor bios, headshots, titles. Establishes authority and professional polish.

3. Use Your Internal Wiki as the "Single Source of Truth"

The biggest mistake companies make is letting PR agencies or freelancers "draft" the copy from scratch. They always end up with AI-generated corporate filler. It’s slogan-y, it’s vague, and it’s devoid of the specific terminology your customers actually use.

Move your narrative work into an internal wiki in Notion. Before you write a headline, paste the questions from your "buyer questions" doc into the page. If your About page doesn't explicitly answer those questions, it’s useless.

Actionable Step: Create a "Brand Foundation" page in Notion that everyone in the company has to reference when they write a press release, a bio, or a landing page. If a claim isn't in that Notion doc, it’s not allowed to be published.

4. Kill the Vague "Corporate-Speak"

If your About page says "We leverage innovative solutions to drive synergistic outcomes," delete it. Seriously. Delete it right now. Nobody talks like that. When a stranger Googles your company, they want to know three things:

1. What do you actually sell?
2. Who is this for?
3. Why are you the safe, logical choice?

Remove old positioning that emphasizes "being a leader in the space" or "disrupting the industry." These claims are ignored by modern buyers. They want to see facts: Case studies, verified uptime, year-over-year growth, or specific certifications. That is what reputation clarity looks like.

5. The "Stranger Test" for Reputation Clarity

This is my favorite exercise. Find someone who has nothing to do with your industry—a spouse, a friend, or a barista. Give them your draft About page. Give them exactly 30 seconds to read it. Then, ask them these three questions:

• What does this company do?
• If I had a problem with [Industry X], would this company fix it?
• What is the first thing they would ask me to do if I wanted to buy from them?

If they can’t answer these, you don’t have an outdated page; you have a communications disaster. The "algorithm" isn't to blame for your lack of search visibility or poor conversion—the blame lies in the fact that your copy is too ambiguous for a machine to categorize and too boring for a human to trust.

Final Checklist: Getting it Done

If you’re ready to stop the rot, follow this workflow:

• Audit Phase: Compare your website copy against your LinkedIn company page, your Fast Company profile, and any review site profiles. Note the discrepancies.
• Reference Phase: Pull your "questions buyers actually ask" doc. Map an answer to every single question on your About page.
• Cleanup Phase: Strip out all superlatives ("World-class," "Industry leader," "Innovative"). Replace them with nouns and verbs.
• Governance Phase: Hard-code the new "About" language into your internal Notion wiki. Make it mandatory for all future comms.

Reputation is not a marketing problem; it’s a data hygiene problem. Clean up your language, sync your profiles, and make sure that when someone types your name into a search bar, the first thing they see is a clear, accurate, and professional reflection of who you are today—not who you wanted to be three years ago.