about

about · No Google docs page

Appears in

AboutPage

What is it?

about declares the subject matter of a page. On an AboutPage, this property identifies what the page is about, typically an Organization or Person. It accepts any schema.org Thing type, making it flexible enough to reference companies, people, products, events, or abstract topics. The property differs from mainEntity in scope: mainEntity says "this page IS the canonical page for this entity," while about says "this page covers this topic."

Why this matters for AEO

AI answer engines use about to map pages to entities in their knowledge base. When an engine encounters "about": {"@id": "https://yoast.com/#organization"} on an AboutPage, it creates a direct link between the page and the Yoast organization entity. This connection matters when the engine answers queries like "Tell me about Yoast" or "Who is behind this SEO plugin?" because the about property explicitly confirms the page's relevance to that entity, removing ambiguity the engine would otherwise need to resolve from the page text alone.

Using an @id reference instead of an inline object is the preferred pattern. It tells the engine to look up an existing entity node rather than creating a duplicate, resulting in a cleaner knowledge graph with stronger entity associations.

What the specs say

Schema.org: The subject matter of the content. Inverse property: subjectOf. schema.org/about

Expected type: Thing. This includes any schema.org type: Organization, Person, Product, Event, Place, or any other Thing subtype.

Google: Not mentioned in dedicated documentation. Google does not have a standalone page for the about property on WebPage types. The property is widely used in production markup from major SEO tools.

How to find your value

• About page — The company or person the page describes
• Organization schema — Reference the Organization entity's @id
• Team page — The Person entities listed
• Topic pages — The subject the page covers (as a Thing or DefinedTerm)
• Schema HQ — Mapped automatically from the Organization entity

Format and code

Type: Thing (object, @id reference, or array)

@id reference (preferred for connected graphs):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "AboutPage",
  "@id": "https://yoast.com/about/#webpage",
  "url": "https://yoast.com/about/",
  "name": "About Yoast",
  "about": { "@id": "https://yoast.com/#organization" },
  "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://yoast.com/#website" }
}

Inline object (when no @graph is used):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "AboutPage",
  "name": "About Our Company",
  "url": "https://www.karpi.studio/about",
  "about": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Karpi Studio",
    "url": "https://www.karpi.studio"
  }
}

Multiple subjects:

{
  "@type": "AboutPage",
  "about": [
    { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Karpi Studio" },
    { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Webflow Development" },
    { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Conversion Rate Optimization" }
  ]
}

Multiple subjects work when the about page covers the company plus its areas of expertise. Keep the primary entity first.

Webflow implementation

Static pages

Add to Page Settings > Custom Code > Before </head>:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "@id": "https://karpi.studio/#organization",
      "name": "Karpi Studio",
      "url": "https://karpi.studio/"
    },
    {
      "@type": "AboutPage",
      "name": "About Karpi Studio",
      "url": "https://karpi.studio/about",
      "about": { "@id": "https://karpi.studio/#organization" },
      "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://karpi.studio/#website" }
    }
  ]
}
</script>

CMS template pages

about on CMS pages references the Organization entity, which stays constant:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebPage",
  "name": "{{wf {&quot;path&quot;:&quot;name&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;PlainText&quot;} }}",
  "about": { "@id": "https://karpi.studio/#organization" }
}
</script>

In Schema HQ

The about field is set on AboutPage entities to reference the site's Organization node. The link is generated automatically from the Organization schema stored in the project settings.

Real examples

Yoast (yoast.com/about):

{
  "@type": "AboutPage",
  "@id": "https://yoast.com/about/#webpage",
  "url": "https://yoast.com/about/",
  "name": "About Yoast",
  "about": { "@id": "https://yoast.com/#organization" },
  "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://yoast.com/#website" }
}

Yoast uses the @id reference pattern, linking the AboutPage to the Organization entity defined in the same @graph. This creates a clean, deduplicated knowledge graph.

Schema.org pattern (AboutPage with inline Organization):

{
  "@type": "AboutPage",
  "name": "About Our Company",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/about",
  "about": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example Organization",
    "url": "https://www.example.com"
  }
}

The inline approach works but duplicates Organization data that likely appears elsewhere on the site. For production use, the @id reference pattern produces a more efficient graph.

Related fields

• mainEntity -- Canonical entity the page represents (stronger claim than about)
• isPartOf -- Parent WebSite reference
• breadcrumb -- Navigation trail for the page
• description -- Text summary of the page content

FAQ

What is the difference between about and mainEntity?

mainEntity declares "this page IS the canonical page for this entity." about declares "this page covers this topic." An AboutPage typically uses both: mainEntity points to the Organization (this is THE page about the company) while about can list additional topics the page covers. For most about pages, about and mainEntity reference the same Organization entity.

Should about use @id or an inline object?

Use @id when the referenced entity (Organization, Person) is defined elsewhere in the same JSON-LD @graph. This avoids duplicating the entity's properties and creates a linked graph. Use an inline object only when no @graph is present or the entity is not defined anywhere else on the site.

Can about reference multiple entities?

Yes. Use a JSON array: "about": [{"@id": "#org"}, {"@type": "Thing", "name": "Topic"}]. This is appropriate when the page genuinely covers multiple subjects. Do not pad the array with loosely related topics; keep it to entities the page substantively addresses.