What a hair salon website needs

A hair salon website needs four things: a service menu with prices or starting prices and how long each service takes, booking buttons that open the right service in your booking app, a section for each stylist with their own work, and a Google Business Profile that says the same thing. That covers what a new client checks before booking with someone they found on Google or Instagram.

The service menu

Sections clients recognize

• Cuts: women's, men's, children's, bang trims
• Color: single process, root touch-up, highlights, balayage, gloss or toner, color correction
• Treatments: deep conditioning, smoothing treatments, scalp treatments
• Styling: blowouts, updos, bridal
• Extensions and texture services, if you offer them

Use the names your clients use. If you call something "lived-in color" in the salon, add a few plain words so a new client knows what it is.

Prices and times on every service

For each service, show a price or a starting price and how long it takes. Time matters too: a client booking on a lunch break needs to know a balayage won't fit.

If prices depend on hair length, density or the stylist's level, say so next to the price. If you price by level, explain each level in one line, so a client understands why the same cut has different prices.

Consultations and patch tests

Some services need a conversation first: color correction, extensions, a big change in color. Say which ones, and whether the consultation is free or booked as its own appointment. If you require a patch test before certain color services, say that too, and how far ahead it has to happen.

Bridal and group bookings

Weddings and events book differently: several people, one morning, sometimes at another location. Give them a short inquiry form with the date, the number of people, the services they want and whether you'd need to travel. Then reply with a quote, as you would for any group.

Gift cards

If you sell gift cards, say how to buy them: through your booking app if it sells them, or at the front desk. Put the link where people will find it before birthdays and holidays.

Real text, not a photo of the price board

A photo of the price list at the front desk is hard to read on a phone and can't be searched. A story highlight gets buried. Put the menu on the page as text, and update it the day your prices change.

Booking links that open the right thing

If you already book through an app, the website's job is to get people into it with as few taps as possible.

• Link each service to that service in your booking app, if the app supports it, instead of to a general start page
• Link each stylist to their own calendar, where the app allows it
• Keep a "Book now" button on screen while people scroll on a phone
• Give new clients a path: a consultation booking, or a short request form with an inspiration photo for services you won't book without seeing the hair first

The same links on Google

Google's help page on local business links lists booking an appointment as one of the link types on a Business Profile, with up to 10 links per category, and lets you set a preferred link. It also explains that some links from third-party providers can appear on your profile automatically, and how to remove a provider.

If you've switched booking apps, check your profile for a link to the old one. A new client who taps an old booking link can end up in a system you no longer check.

A section for each stylist

People book a person, not only a salon. For each stylist or tech, show:

• A real photo and their first name
• What they're known for: blonding, curly cuts, men's cuts, extensions
• The days they work
• Their level and price tier, if you price that way
• A few photos of their own work, labeled with their name
• Their own booking button, and their Instagram if they want it there

If stylists rent chairs

If some stylists rent a chair and run their own books and prices, say so on the site and send each client to the right stylist's booking link. It saves the front desk from explaining it every time.

Matching Google

Plenty of new clients find a salon on Google Maps first, then tap through to the website. Make the two agree.

• Use your real business name. Google's guidelines for representing your business say the name should reflect your real-world name and must not include marketing taglines, service information or location information. Google also says that adding unnecessary information to the name could result in a suspended profile. Your name as it appears on the sign is enough.
• List the same services and prices on your profile and your site.
• Keep your hours the same in both places, including holiday hours.
• Add photos of the salon itself: the front of the building, the chairs, the wash area. New clients like to know what they're walking into.

For more on how the two work together, see Google Business Profile vs. a website.

Policies in plain words

• Deposits: when you take one, and whether it goes toward the service
• Cancellations and late arrivals: how much notice you need, and what happens when someone is late
• Children in the salon, and friends who come along
• What happens if a client isn't happy with the result

Write these once on the site, and link to them from the booking confirmation.

Photos of your own work

• Before and after, in the same light, with the client's permission
• Natural light where you can, without filters that change the color
• Grouped by service: color, cuts, extensions, bridal
• A link to your Instagram, with your best work on your own site too, where it doesn't scroll away

What to leave off

• Stock photos of models who have never sat in your chair
• A home page slider that pushes the menu and the booking button down
• Autoplay music
• "Luxury experience" and similar lines that say nothing about the work

For what we build for salons, see websites for salons. To see how your current site does on a phone, run our free website checker.

See your salon on a real site

We build the first version of your website free, in 2 days, with your service menu, your stylists and booking buttons that open your app. You click around it, then decide. If it isn't for you, you owe nothing. Get your free preview.