What SEO does a hair salon actually need?

Two kinds of search

People look for a salon in two ways. Some search for the kind of business, like “hair salon near me”. Others search for a service by name. Google’s autocomplete offers “balayage near me”, “hair extensions near me”, “keratin treatment near me” and “bridal hair near me”, and Google says its predictions reflect real searches.

Either way, the results usually show a map with a few businesses on it, then a list of ordinary results. Your Google Business Profile is what appears on the map. The list is made of pages from websites. SEO for estheticians covers how Google says it ranks the map, and that part is the same for a salon. This page is about the parts that are particular to salons.

1. The category

“Hair salon”, “Beauty salon”, “Nail salon” and “Barber shop” are all Google Business Profile categories. Google says the categories you select affect your local ranking. Its guidelines say to pick categories that complete the sentence “This business IS a” rather than “this business HAS a”, and to choose the fewest it takes to describe your core business.

So a salon that mostly does hair is a “Hair salon”, even with a manicure table in the back. The manicures go in your services list. If nails are a real share of the business, I’d add “Nail salon” as an additional category.

2. The name on your sign

Google’s guidelines say your name “should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers.” They say including unnecessary information in the name isn’t permitted and could result in the profile being suspended. Their list of what a name must not include has marketing taglines and service or product information on it.

If “Balayage and Extensions” isn’t part of the name on your sign, it doesn’t go in the name field. Those words belong in your services and on your website.

3. If stylists rent a chair or a suite

Google’s guidelines have a section on what they call individual practitioners: “a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base.” The examples they give are doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents. Stylists aren’t on that list, so applying it to a salon is my reading and not Google’s wording.

Here’s what the section says:

• A practitioner should create their own profile if they work in a public-facing role and can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours.
• Where several practitioners share a location, the organization creates a profile for the location, separate from the practitioners’ profiles.
• A practitioner’s profile title “should include only the name of the practitioner, and shouldn’t include the name of the organization.”
• A practitioner shouldn’t have several profiles to cover different specializations.

Read that way, the salon has one profile under the salon’s name. A stylist who rents a chair and takes their own bookings can have their own, under their own name and without the salon’s name in it.

If you rent a suite and run it under your own business name, the suite number is part of your address. Google’s guidelines say suite numbers can be included, and that the suite goes on the second address line.

4. Your services, on the profile

Google says that when local customers search for an offering you provide, “that service may be highlighted on your profile.” In the Google Maps app, customers can see the full list under Services.

List what you do under the names clients use, like “balayage” and “keratin treatment”. Someone who’s never been in can’t search for a package name you made up.

5. A page for each service you want more of

A salon menu is long, and you don’t need a page for every line of it. Start with the services you most want to fill that people search for by name.

A Services page that lists everything has one page title and one main heading to cover all of it. A page about balayage can put “balayage” and your city in both. On the page, write what the service is, who it suits, how long it takes and what it starts at. Add photos of your own work and a Book button.

Where you build the page depends on your platform. Squarespace for salons covers Squarespace, and the Vagaro guide covers Vagaro’s Listing Page and MySite.

6. Structured data

Structured data is a block of code that tells Google what kind of business you are, your address and your hours. Google’s documentation says to use the most specific business type possible. The schema.org vocabulary it reads has HairSalon, BeautySalon, NailSalon and DaySpa.

Google also says it doesn’t guarantee that structured data will change how you appear in search results. Squarespace for salons covers what Squarespace adds by itself and which plan lets you add your own.

7. Photos

Google says photos only show on a profile once it’s verified. It suggests photos of your storefront, products and services, and says an exterior photo helps customers recognize the business when they visit.

One of its photo guidelines matters for hair color. Google says a photo should be in focus and well lit, with “no significant alterations or excessive use of filters. In other words, the image should represent reality.”

8. Reviews

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. Its advice for getting more is to ask. You can create a review link and a QR code from your profile, under Read Reviews, then Get more reviews. Google says the QR code can only be generated in a computer browser, and suggests printing it and displaying it in your store.

Don’t offer anything in return. Google says offering incentives, “like free or discounted goods or services”, in exchange for reviews is prohibited, and it treats that as fake and misleading content. That rules out a card offering 10% off the next visit for a review.

Google also suggests replying to reviews, and says replies are public.

The parts that are the same for any studio

• Writing your name, address and phone the same way everywhere, and what Google’s policies say to skip, are both in SEO for estheticians.
• If the salon is missing from the map altogether, start with why a salon doesn’t show up on Google Maps.
• For what moves first and how to watch it, read how long local SEO takes.

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. There’s more about salon work on the salons page, and the free audit on the home page looks at your site and suggests which package fits.