What a salon website needs
People look at a salon website to answer a few plain questions: what do you do, what does it cost, who will do it, and when can I come in? A good salon website answers them on a phone in under a minute, lets people book without calling, shows real work with the client's permission, and says the same thing as your Google listing.
The facts here come from primary sources: Google's Business Profile guidelines, Google's help pages on bookings through a provider and services on your Business Profile, the Maps user-generated content policy, Google Search Central's review snippet docs and the W3C's explanation of images of text. Where we give our own view, we say so.
The short answer
A salon website needs a services page with your own prices written as text, a "Book now" button on every page, a short page for each stylist, before and after photos published only with the client's consent, reviews you ask for fairly, and a name, address, hours and services that match your Google Business Profile.
Services and prices as text
The services page is the page people check most, so write it as real text on the page, not as a photo of your price board or a PDF. The W3C's accessibility guidance puts it simply: "Use text instead of pictures of text", because "People cannot alter how text looks in images." Text also works with screen readers and translation tools, and search engines can read it.
Group the services the way clients think about them (cuts, colour, treatments, nails, brows), and give each one a short description: what is included, roughly how long it takes, and anything to know first, such as a patch test before some colour services. Use your own prices. If a price depends on hair length or on the stylist's level, say so next to it, and say what "from" means. Our view: a clear "from" price with a short note does more for trust than no price at all.
Your Business Profile can carry the same list. Google's help says you can "group services into categories and include additional details, like descriptions and prices", and warns against putting "prices, or phone numbers in custom service names". Our guide to Business Profile services walks through it.
Online booking
Most salon clients would rather book on their phone than call during opening hours. Put a "Book now" button in the header on every page and make it go straight to the booking screen, ideally with the service or stylist already chosen when the client comes from a service or stylist page. Our guide to online booking for service businesses covers the choices (a booking platform, a plugin, or a custom build), calendar sync, reminders, deposits and cancellation rules.
Bookings can also start on Google. Google's help on bookings says that if you work with a supported booking provider, you can sign it up from the Bookings section of your profile, and "Your booking providers will show up on your Business Profile within a week." If you do not use a provider, "you can find providers available in your country through Reserve with Google", and "You can also add your own link to your Business Profile." Google also notes: "When you book through Google, your provider might charge you. Check with your provider for more info."
Stylist pages
Our view: give each stylist a short page with a real photo, what they specialise in, the days they work, a few examples of their own work and a button that books with them.
Some stylists keep their own Business Profile. Google's guidelines describe an individual practitioner as "a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base", with doctors, lawyers and agents as examples. Where there are several at one location, Google says "The organization should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner", and the practitioner's profile title "should include only the name of the practitioner". Check the full guidelines before a stylist creates one.
Before and after photos
Before and after photos show your work better than any description, but they show a client's face and body. Our view, not a legal rule: get the client's written consent before you take photos for the website or social media, and say where they will appear. Show the photos as they were taken, with the same light and angle on both sides and no editing that changes the result. If a client later asks you to take a photo down, take it down. A client who would rather not show their face may still agree to a photo of the back of the head or of the nails.
Give each photo a short alt text that says what was done ("balayage on long dark hair, before and after"). Our guide to website photos and image licensing covers the rights side of photos, and Business Profile photos covers the ones you post on Google.
Reviews
Ask every client for a review the same way, for example in the thank-you message after the appointment. Google's Maps content policy says merchants may not "Offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services - in exchange for posting any review", and may not "Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". It adds that merchants "should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises". This one matters for salons: the policy lists "Merchants requesting that staff solicit reviews that include specific content, including content that identifies a staff member." So a free treatment for a review, or a target of reviews that name a stylist, are both against the policy.
On your own site, show reviews with the client's permission and in their own words, and link to your Google reviews rather than copying only the best ones. Google's review snippet docs say stars for a local business are only for "sites that capture reviews about other local businesses", so reviews of your own salon on your own site will not get star ratings in search. Our guide to reviews and testimonials on websites covers the rules in more detail.
Matching your Google Business Profile
Google's guidelines ask you to "Represent your business as it's consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding", and say the name should be your real-world name "as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers." Use the same salon name, address, phone number, hours and services on the website and the profile, and change both on the same day when hours change for a holiday. Our Google Business Profile guide covers the profile, and local business schema shows how to describe the same details in structured data.
A short checklist (our view)
- A services page in text, grouped by type, with your own prices and what "from" means.
- A "Book now" button on every page that opens the booking screen.
- Booking on your Business Profile through a provider or your own link.
- A page for each stylist with a photo, specialties, working days and a booking link.
- Before and after photos only with written client consent, unedited, with alt text.
- Reviews asked for the same way from every client, with no incentives and no targets.
- Name, address, phone, hours and services the same on the site and the profile.
Restaurants, photographers, churches, real estate agents and gyms have matching guides in what a restaurant website needs, what a photography website needs, what a church website needs, what a real estate agent website needs and what a gym website needs, and the website content checklist covers the pages every site needs. If you would rather have it built for you, our website development service builds custom WordPress and static websites made to load fast, rank well and be easy for your team to edit.
Frequently asked questions
Should a salon website show prices?
Our view: yes, as text on a services page, using your own prices. If a price depends on hair length or the stylist, show a "from" price and explain what changes it.
Can clients book a salon appointment from Google?
Yes, if your booking provider works with Reserve with Google, or you add your own booking link to your Business Profile. Google says a provider you sign up shows on the profile within a week.
Can we give a discount for a Google review?
No. Google's Maps content policy does not allow incentives such as payment, discounts or free services in exchange for a review, and it does not allow asking only happy clients.
Do we need consent for before and after photos?
Our view: always get the client's written consent first and say where the photos will appear. Check the privacy rules that apply where you are, and take a photo down if the client asks.