How to master SEO for your salon or spa website
You know that nerve-wracking feeling of hitting Publish on a brand new website or Facebook/Instagram page for your salon, and then wondering, “How the heck are people supposed to find me?”
If you’ve been in business for at least a year, you’ve probably come a long way since then - learning how to use hashtags, registering your business online, and figuring it out as you go along.
But there are always more ways to grow online, and once you learn how SEO works (which stands for Search Engine Optimization - meaning, setting your online presence up in a way that makes sure you end up on the first two pages of an internet search) you’ll be amazed at how quickly your client base can grow.
I spoke with John Hallberg from The Salon Business, where he helps beauty businesses build their legacy. John's an absolute wiz when it comes to increasing your online presence. He shared some very helpful tips and tricks for making it easier for your ideal client to find your beauty biz online.
If you’re a salon or spa owner, booth renter, building your beauty business from the comfort of your home, or fresh out of school and wanting to advertise your skill to local salons and spas, today’s blog is packed full of lessons just for you!
Here’s why you need to optimize your online presence using SEO
Let’s say your friend is raving about this super-cute wax bar she went to recently. The decor is delightful, her wax was painless and perfectly done, and her wax specialist was just the nicest person ever. She can’t remember the name of it, but she knows that it was in the next town over from you.
You open Google and search, “wax bar near me” and ten results come up. You hit the Images section and flick through until you find a picture of the lobby your friend was saying was “honestly just the chillest desert vibe”. Neon cacti signs and bright pink walls. That’s the one! You flip back to the results page and see that they have a 4.8 star rating…that’s pretty freakin’ good. You visit their website and book an appointment for two weeks from today.
When a salon or spa is set up with basic SEO, it’s as simple as that to locate. A few keywords and bam! You’ve got a new client coming in.
Here are the two simplest (and best reasons) to set up your SEO today:
Evergreen: once you set it up, it will stay that way for as long as you keep your domain registered, paid for, and up to date.
Easily searchable: once you set up a Google My Business profile, your salon, spa, or other beauty business will show up locally when people search for the type of service you provide.
The places you can register your salon or spa in order to show up in search results
People generally use Google to search for spas and salons based on what they want done: balayage, nails, brazilian wax, a facial, etc.
However, you can register your salon or spa in a bunch of different places to increase the chances of showing up in the first ten results on Google:
Google My Business account
Your salon or spa website
Yelp
Apple Maps
Facebook and Instagram
Twitter
TikTok
LinkedIn
The more places you register yourself, the better - but you can lean into developing your presence on just one or two of these accounts and guarantee that you’re easily found in a Google search.
But don’t forget - the simple act of getting your clients to leave Google reviews on your salon or spa will hugely increase your SEO rating!
“One of the most important factors I would say is collecting reviews on [your Google My Business] profile so that Google and the algorithms understand that people are going there and they like what you're giving them,” explains John.
And it’s so true! 5-star reviews are a really valuable currency when it comes to getting potential clients interested in booking with you. So don’t neglect to ask for them!
Tips for increasing your salon or spa’s SEO ratings
John says that at his agency, they go through five steps to make sure their clients SEO ratings are in tip-top shape. Here’s some he shared with me:
Check on the page loading speed of your website: Google doesn’t want to send people to pages that run slower than molasses!
Make sure that your salon or spa’s phone number and address match on your website, Facebook and Instagram account, and Google My Business account: If there’s a discrepancy, your pages will be dinged for it and you’ll hurt your SEO rating
Flesh out the descriptions of your services in your Services menu on your website: The SEO engine for most search apps looks for keywords so it’s important to include all the important search terms that people will search for related to each service.
Include images of all your services on your websites, social media pages, ads etc: AI will pick up on what’s in your images and ‘tag’ your sites as being about the subjects of your photos, which will boost your SEO rating
The simplest content strategy to boost SEO for your salon or spa
You’re way too busy to be plotting out detailed blog posts, fleshing them out, editing them, and posting them once a week, PLUS making Reels and TikToks and taking client photos for your portfolio…it’s too much!
As with all things, keep it simple. What would your ideal client like to read about and be searching for related to your beauty biz?
Your services, of course!
John says that often he finds that salons and spas share the latest news about their business on their blog, but literally no one is searching for that.
So the easiest way to create content quickly and easily is to pick one service per week you’d like to promote, write a quick story about a client who had it recently or share positive client stories about it, OR just general information about the service, then post it on your blog (and don’t worry about it being perfect - I promise you no one cares!)
It can be short, sweet, and to the point - no need to add fluff or extras.
The one ‘addition’ I suggest is to make it pop with your personality - jokes, sarcasm, wit, whatever your specialty is - just so that it’s more enjoyable to read.
Then you can reuse that same content for your email list, Instagram, Facebook ads etc. Easy-peasy…don’t overthink it!
If you’re not sure what to write about, John says that you can use the Google 'auto suggest’ feature to see the terms people are searching for around your niche or specialty.
For instance, if your niche is balayage and you want to know what search terms people are using to find balayage near them, open up Google and type ‘balayage’ and see what terms are auto-populated. Those terms are the most popular ones, and you can use those keywords in your content to get a quick SEO win.
John says that rather than stressing out about posting all the time, the better way to gain attention for your salon or spa is always to post highly-relevant content that your ideal client would be interested in.
Above all, John says to remember that any little thing you do to increase your salon or spa’s visibility online is a step up from your competition, who might not be doing anything at all to attract their ideal clients online.
Use the tips shared here today, and before you know it, you’ll find that more and more of your ideal clients are showing up to sit in your chair!
