Free salon guide

Keep every chair booked.

The exact playbook to get your salon found online and the books full, from Google to Instagram to easy booking.

✓ How clients pick a salon in your town
✓ The booking setup that fills the calendar
✓ How to get a steady stream of 5-star reviews
✓ How to show up for "salon near me"

Read the guide below ↓

Email me this guide

The full guide is on this page. We'll send you a copy to keep.

✓

Check your inbox

We just emailed your copy. Keep reading below, or pull it up anytime from your email.

While you're here

Want us to just build your site? Free.

Tell us about your business and we send a real preview of your new site, usually within a day. No catch.

Get my free website preview →

Your guide

The Salon guide to getting booked

The specific online-presence playbook for a salon. Work top to bottom.

Where your customers actually find you

Clients find a salon through Google and Instagram. They look at your work, your reviews, and whether they can book online in a couple taps. Great photos and easy booking win the appointment.

Phase 1

Get found where they look

Create and verify your Google Business ProfileIt is the first place a client checks.

Pick the category that matches: the exact type (hair salon, nail salon, med spa), not just "Salon"

Add real photos of your best work and your space

Post your best work to Instagram and link it to online booking

Phase 2

A website that gets you booked

A clear "book an appointment" button on every page

Your services and prices, clearly listed

Make it load fast and look right on a phoneMost of your visitors are on a phone.

Show your hours, area, and how to reach you in five seconds

Phase 3

The reviews that win clients

Ask every happy client for a Google review, the day of

Make it one tap with a direct review link

Respond to every review, good or bad

Keep a steady trickle coming in, not a one-time pushGoogle rewards reviews that keep coming.

Phase 4

Show up for "salon near me"

Put your town and service in your page titles and headings

List your business in the big directoriesSame name, address, and phone everywhere.

Add a page for each town you want to be found in

Phase 5

Keep them coming back

Send a friendly rebooking reminder between visits

Reward clients who refer a friend

Keep a list for slow-day openings

Field notes

What's different about salon businesses

The parts of the playbook that are specific to your trade, not every local business.

Timing

Peak weeks book themselves. Use them to fill the rest.

Salon demand peaks around the holidays, prom and wedding season, and the summer color rush, and those weeks fill without help. The skill is converting peak-week walk-ins into year-round regulars: prompt rebooking at checkout during the rush, and your December first-timer becomes a standing six-week appointment. Then attack the soft spots directly. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are slow in almost every salon, so a midweek offer posted to Instagram and your Google profile fills chairs that would sit empty, without discounting your Saturdays.

Reviews

Clients book a stylist, not a storefront

The review that fills a book names the stylist and the service: "Dana fixed a color correction two other salons gave up on." New clients search for exactly that kind of proof, and each name-mention sells that stylist's chair. Ask at checkout, at the mirror moment when the client is looking at the result, and hand them the review link by text or QR at the desk. Encourage them to say who did their hair and what they had done. Photos in reviews are gold in this trade; a real balayage from your chair beats a stock photo every time.

Common mistakes

Where most salon sites lose the appointment

Booking only through DMs. A new client who has to message and wait will book wherever a live calendar is one tap away.
No prices listed. "DM for pricing" reads as expensive and loses the comparison shopper before a conversation starts.
The portfolio lives only on an untagged Instagram, so your best work never shows up where new clients are actually searching.

That's a real list, and several of these never stop.

You're great at the work. This is ours. We set up the website, Google, and reviews for you, starting at $697 setup and $99 a month, and you own everything.

See plans & pricing →

Straight answers

What's the catch?

Is the guide really free?+

Yes. It's the exact process we run for salon clients, written out step by step. You owe nothing.

My stylists rent their chairs. Whose reviews are they?+

The reviews go on the salon's Google profile, and that helps everyone: the salon ranks, and each stylist gets found through name-mentions inside those reviews. Have every renter push the same review link and ask clients to name who did their hair. One strong profile beats six weak ones.

Can you just do all of this for me?+

Yes, that's what most owners pick. We handle the website, Google, and reviews, and you stay on the work. It starts at $697 setup and $99 a month.

I already have a website. Is this still useful?+

Definitely. Run the guide against what you have and you'll spot the gaps fast. Want a second look? Grab a free website audit.

More free guides

All trade guides Auto Repair guide →Roofing guide →Electrician guide →