Googling yourself (and your business) might be a late-night talk show punchline, but it’s also a great way to find out what your guests see online – and if your salon shows up at all. Your Google search appearance is a crucial part of your marketing efforts, though. Here’s how to get your salon on the first page of Google search results.

1. Set up your salon’s Google search appearance

Start at the beginning by learning how to put your salon on Google. There are several steps you can take to ensure that guests (and future guests!) can easily find your business – and want to stop by.

Complete your Google My Business profile

Google My Business is free, ties to local search, and can make or break your salon’s Google search appearance. This listing is the number one factor in local pack ranking, and the number four factor in localized organic search. (You’ll learn more about pack ranking later in this article.)

Make sure you have at least the following information:

• Location and hours
• Contact information
• Services offered

You can also include pictures, reviews, and scheduled events, all for free.

More than one location? Google My Business can be set up for multiple locations, with different pictures, hours, and contact info, too.

Check for consistency

Search engines crawl web pages at regular intervals to see what’s on them and to categorize them for search. And they love consistency.

If you have even a slight difference across local directories, your page ranking could drop. It can also be a confusing experience for your guests. Use a service like Moz to ensure that your info is all the same across different online directories.

Make sure your branding is uniform

Similarly, even with multiple locations, your tone and style – your brand – should stay consistent.

Use the same font, color schemes, and logos for each location. If you need to differentiate, it’s possible to do so with minor flourishes, but the overall look should stay the same.

2. Optimize your listings

Now that you’re online, it’s time to optimize your listings. You’ve covered the basics in your Google My Business listing – location, contact, and store hours. Now it’s time to turn it up.

Add the types of payments you accept, links to your website, online booking links, online gift cards, and current promotions. Go through each section in your Google My Business profile and fill it in completely.

If you have not already done so, add photos, swapping them out every month or so to keep things fresh. Aim for photos of your salon’s best features – a gorgeous display table, enthusiastic stylists providing VIP treatment, and beautiful cuts and colors. Images are a great way to draw people in, so they don’t just scroll past your online salon listing.

3. Rally for reviews

When you search for a local business online, you’ll likely see something called the local pack. The local pack is a group of three high-quality businesses that most closely match what Google thinks the searcher is looking for. These often sit right at the top of search results, with colorful photos displayed.

So how does Google figure out which results to feature? One big marker is reviews. Salons with more positive reviews rise like cream to the top of these local packs. This is why the second step in managing your Google search appearance is to ask for reviews from each guest.

SalonBiz helps to automate your communications with “set-it-and-forget-it” email marketing campaigns and post-visit follow-ups for each guest contact. You can also have stylists ask their guests to leave a review after their appointment and provide an easy button on your website to click to leave a review. Solutions like the Listen360 integration with SalonBiz can help you build a feedback pipeline to improve your business and satisfy guests.

Search engine optimization (SEO) for salons means that you actively help search engines easily find and categorize your salon’s website. You’re looking to make your salon website high-quality and interesting to likely searchers. This work can affect your Google search appearance.

How do you make this happen?

It all starts with a solid website that has rich copy featuring local keywords. This copy can include product or service pages, blogs, or other pages about current styles that highlight authentic keywords  that will drive more visitors to your site via search engine results.

At a minimum, try to incorporate keywords like the following in your copy:

• hair salon in [city]
• [city] salon
• [neighborhood] salon
• [city] [key service] salons (i.e., Topeka extension salons)

A word of caution: keyword stuffing is one tactic that will backfire. Simply loading a page with the above keywords without an effort to provide relevant, useful copy around them could actually work against you.

If you aren’t sure how to improve your Google search appearance using SEO for salons, consider hiring a professional or consultant to get you started.

4. Get backlinks from businesses

Backlinks are links from another website to yours. These backlinks will help position your website as a trusted authority on search engines. If you have partnerships with other businesses, are part of professional organizations, or work with other companies, ask those companies to include a link to your website on theirs.

Backlinks from directories and review sites like Yelp also improve your Google search appearance, so make sure to add any that are missing, that includes adding your website to your Yelp page and vice versa. 

5. Update your salon’s website

The final way to improve your salon’s Google appearance is to make sure that the meta title and meta description for your main website pages are both inviting and actionable.

The meta title is essentially the name tag for your webpage – it’s the blue linked text that shows up in a list of Google search results. The meta description is the short line or two of description that sits underneath it. Make both tantalizing snippets of what’s on that webpage.

Both meta titles and meta descriptions are read and interpreted by search engines, as well as the searchers themselves! It can mean someone skimming past your link, or clicking to learn more. Again, if you are just learning how to put your salon on Google, consider hiring a professional to help with meta data, too.

Grow your salon

At SalonBiz, we understand the importance of the entire guest experience, starting from the moment they go online to find you. Improving your Google search appearance is just one aspect of running a successful salon.From email marketing to online appointment scheduling, get in touch to see how we can help you with the rest!