What SEO does an esthetician actually need?

Who it’s for

Someone who already knows your name can usually find you. SEO matters most for people who don’t know you yet. They can’t search for your name, so they search for a treatment, like “dermaplaning near me”, or for a kind of business nearby.

Here’s what it takes to show up for those searches, in the order I’d do it. If you’re just starting out, getting clients as an esthetician has the steps that cost nothing.

Two sets of results on one page

Search a treatment and your city and you’ll usually see a map with a few businesses on it, then a list of ordinary results underneath.

Google says its local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches the search. Distance is how far the business is from the person searching. Prominence is how well known the business is, and Google says that draws on things like how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has.

The list underneath is made of pages from websites. So you’re working on two things: your profile for the map, and your site’s pages for the list.

1. Your Google Business Profile

• Verify it. Google says verification makes a profile more likely to show up in search results.
• Pick the primary category that best describes your business, which is Google’s own wording. “Facial spa”, “Skin care clinic”, “Waxing hair removal service” and “Eyelash salon” are all in the list. Google says your categories affect your local ranking, and advises using a few additional categories rather than one for every service.
• List your treatments as services, using the names your clients use. Google says that when local customers search for an offering you provide, “that service may be highlighted on your profile.”
• Add your booking link, your hours, and photos of your room and your work.

If you’re missing from the map altogether, I’ve written up the usual reasons.

2. Your details, written the same way everywhere

Pick one way of writing your business name, address and phone, and use it on your profile, your website, your booking platform, Yelp and anywhere else you’re listed. The simplest way is to copy exactly what your Google Business Profile shows.

3. A page for each treatment

A single Services page with twelve treatments on it has one page title and one main heading to cover all twelve. A page about one treatment can put that treatment and your city in both.

Give each treatment you want more of its own page, with:

• The treatment and your city in the page title and the main heading, like “Dermaplaning in North Park, San Diego”.
• What it is, who it’s for, how long it takes and what it costs, written as text on the page.
• The questions clients ask you before they book it.
• A Book button.

Start with the treatment you most want to fill. You don’t have to do them all at once.

If your site is a booking page on GlossGenius or a similar platform, you may not be able to add pages there. I’ve covered what GlossGenius does and doesn’t let you change in the GlossGenius guide.

4. Structured data

Structured data is a block of code stating, in a format Google reads, what kind of business you are, your address and your hours. Google says it uses structured data to understand the content of a page.

On Squarespace it goes in the Header field of Code Injection, which Squarespace offers on its Core, Plus and Advanced plans. Google’s Rich Results Test will check it for errors. Google also says it doesn’t guarantee that features using structured data will show up in search results, so it won’t necessarily change how your listing looks.

5. Reviews

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and that positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out. Ask your clients for reviews, keep asking for as long as you’re open, and reply to them from your profile.

What you can skip

• Paying monthly for work that’s done once. If a quote is monthly, ask which parts repeat. I’ve written about telling the two apart.
• Near-identical pages for every suburb. Google’s spam policies describe pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page as doorway abuse.
• Bought links. Google’s spam policies list buying links for ranking purposes as link spam.
• Anyone selling a better map position. Google says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

How you’ll know it’s working

Set up Google Search Console, which is free. Its Performance report shows the searches your site appeared for, including ones nobody clicked, so a new treatment page can show up there before it brings in a booking. How long local SEO takes covers the timing.

If you’d rather hand some of it over, the SEO Tune-Up is a flat $350 and covers on-page SEO and keyword targeting, structured data, page titles, descriptions and headings, and internal linking. The Refresh, at $600, adds a light redesign, Google Business Profile optimization, Search Console setup and directory listings. The free audit on the home page looks at your site and suggests which one fits.