Salon Website Must Haves

So, you're building a website? Congratulations! You are on the road to new levels of salon success. But where do you start? Sure, you've browsed millions of sites before, but if you've never had to conceive one for your own business before now, putting together the right blend of content and choosing a design can be a bit daunting. Fear not; kickstart your brainstorming here with these five essential pillars of a great salon website.

1. About

If you're at the stage where you're ready to start thinking about investing in your own website, or have simply realised that you need to have an online salon presence that works better than your Facebook page, you have probably already got ambitions to be a great salon with a strong brand identity.

Think about how you'd like someone to describe you and your space in five short lines, and use this as your springboard for your 'About' section. While you can use the moment to shout about how great you are, you should also include some super-practical information people will be looking for, such as location and opening hours to help the right customers land on your page.

2. Menu of Services

Once you've nailed who you are, it's time to let your customers know what you do. Think about how you want to display your menu of services; it can be a replica of any printed versions you already have in-salon, or it can be a web version with different length descriptions of services. Just make sure your potential clients can see the full range of services at a glance on various devices, and include key information such as prices and duration of treatments where necessary.

3. Easy navigation

If the universe wants you to get guaranteed custom into your salon, who are you to stop it? Believe it or not, many salons do actually stop themselves by having a clunky website that doesn’t provide clear and simple navigation. A bad online user experience that doesn’t bring people to the web pages they want - pricing, contact details, special offers, etc - will see potential customers leave your website altogether and go elsewhere.

Some salons also overdo the glitz and glamour when it comes to website design, but whereas ten years ago the fashion was to have style over substance, nowadays the focus is very much on making it work, and work well. It can be pretty too, but it has to be able to serve its purpose of bringing customers to you and giving them the information they want.

4. Contact

Don't underestimate how easy it is to overlook contact details if they're not out there loud and clear. Make sure your online shop window is working as hard as it can for you by having contact details on every single page and location finding maps so people know exactly where you are. Salon business may stay because of the quality of what you are offering, but more often than not, it comes in because it's convenient for them.

Make your salon the easiest to find, phone and book in with in your area and you'll already have a head start on your competitors. If done properly, this is one of the main reasons why a website will work wonders for your salon.

5. Offers

Online exclusives, weekly offers or deals for booking more than one treatment at a time; it doesn't really matter what the offer is - having a constant activation that offers value add to your customer is really important. Protect the quality of your brand by avoiding heavy discounts and hard sales pitches, but let your customers know that there will always be a space for a special offer and something to return to your website for week after week. Building your online community will build your customer base too.

Getting a great web presence for your salon isn’t as difficult as you might think, and maintaining and updating it can be left in the hands of the experts, Audit Your Web Presence Today For FREE and we'll devise your step-by-step plan to drive more customers into your salon.