Google Maps shows three businesses, and not yours
For “hairdresser” or “beauty salon” followed by a town, almost everything is decided on the map. The three profiles shown get most of the calls. The others exist, but you have to scroll to see them.
Home / Industries / Beauty and hairdressing
SEO for beauty salons and hairdressers: direct bookings and loyal clients.
On a single street there are sometimes several hair salons and beauty salons, all on the same booking apps. People choose on a photo, a rating and a free slot. I work on your Google Business Profile, your service pages and your reviews so they find you, book with you without a middleman, then come back.
- Rattle your competitors.
- Overtake them.
- Protect you from their attacks.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
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The map, on a Friday at noon
Someone working in Cognac is looking for a beauty salon for a facial during her lunch break. Google shows three profiles. Yours is a five-minute walk away, in fourth place, with incomplete hours and no services listed. Get it onto the map.
- A beauty salon 212 reviewsBeauty salon · central Cognac
- A chain salon 148 reviewsBeauty salon · retail park
- A spa 76 reviewsSpa · on the edge of town
- More businesses
- YouYour salon 31 reviewsBeauty salon · hours not provided
Your profile: no. 4, off the map
Fig. 1. A lunchtime search in Cognac, three profiles, and yours below them. (You were open and close by. The profile just didn't say so.)
What this means for you. I complete your profile with your services, your prices, your real hours and your photos, so Google knows what you offer and when.
What is SEO for a beauty salon or hair salon?
SEO for a beauty salon or hair salon is the work that makes the business show up on Google when someone in the neighbourhood looks for a service: a haircut, balayage, a facial, a nail set. It relies on a complete Google Business Profile, one page per service with its price, photos of your work and recent reviews. It's measured by the number of appointments booked directly and the share of clients who come back.
The problem
Where beauty salons and hair salons get stuck.
The booking app also shows your competitors
It's handy, and your clients are used to it. But it shows them the other businesses at the same time, with their promotions and their free slots. Also check what happens to your client list if you stop the subscription.
New clients who don't come back
A welcome offer fills a Saturday. It mostly attracts people who chase promotions from one place to the next. A salon lives off its regulars, and nothing on your website or profile helps them book again.
An audit, for real
What I spot in thirty seconds on a beauty or hair salon's website.
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
https://votre-salon.exemple
THE BEAUTY SALON · THE HAIR SALONHome · Prices (PDF) · Contact
Your moment of relaxation
A passionate team welcomes you in a warm, friendly setting.
Book on the appFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
- 1A page title with no town and no service“Beauty and hair” doesn't locate the business. “Hair salon in Cognac: cut, colour, balayage” is clear straight away.
- 2Prices in a downloadable fileGoogle reads that file poorly and a phone shows it tiny. Prices should be written on the pages.
- 3A slogan instead of services“Your moment of relaxation” suits a spa just as well as a hotel. Name what you do and where.
- 4An image supplied by a product brandThat model shows up on other websites. A photo of a colour done in your salon shows your work.
- 5Three “All services” blocksBalayage, straightening, facial, nail polish: every service people search for needs its own name, price and page.
What your customers type
What your clients type before booking.
Six plausible searches for a beauty or hair salon, given as examples. The audit draws up the real list for your town, with volumes.
- 1“hairdresser” followed by the name of their neighbourhood or commune
- The search happens on a phone, often for the current week. The map answers. Your profile must show the right hours, recent photos and a booking button that works.
- 2“blonde balayage price”
- This person has a precise idea and wants a price range. A colour page, with your prices by hair length and photos of your own balayages, works better than a price list image that Google can't read.
- 3“beauty salon open on Mondays”
- She's looking for a slot few businesses offer. If you're open on Mondays, over lunch or late in the evening, write it on the profile and on the website: it's a reason to choose you.
- 4“facial for sensitive skin”
- She wants to know what the treatment involves and whether it suits her. One page per treatment describes the steps, the length, the products used and the price. Stick to description: no promises about a skin problem, which is a matter for a doctor.
- 5“wedding hair trial”
- She's preparing an event several months ahead. She compares photos, asks whether the trial is included and whether you travel. This service sells for more than a haircut and deserves its own page and gallery.
- 6“barber” or “men's hairdresser walk-in”
- He wants to drop in today. Say clearly whether you take walk-ins, at what times, and how much a haircut or beard trim costs.
What works
The five levers for a beauty or hair salon.
A Google Business Profile updated every week
It's your shop window on a phone. I set the categories, regular and bank holiday hours, the list of services with their prices, the booking link. You then add a few photos a week, which takes two minutes between appointments.
One page per service, with the price
Cut, colour, straightening, facial, waxing, nails, lash extensions: each service has its own searches. A short page per service gives the length, the price, the process and two or three photos. A price list published as an image or a downloadable file doesn't help Google rank you.
Your photos, not the brands'
Images supplied by manufacturers turn up on lots of other websites. Your cuts, your colours, your nail sets, photographed in your salon with clients' agreement, show your skill. I give you a simple method for taking and naming them.
Reviews, asked for at the right moment
A client is happiest walking out the door. A small card at the till or a message sent that same evening, with the direct link, is enough. I also help you reply to reviews, including bad ones, calmly and without personal details.
Bringing regulars back
A haircut comes round every few weeks, a colour too, waxing every month. I put the direct booking button everywhere your clients find you: profile, website, reminder message. Every appointment rebooked directly with you avoids a trip through a list of competitors.
What costs dearly
The mistakes I often see on beauty and hair salon websites.
Wrong hours on the profile
A client who finds the door shut on a bank holiday or during your time off doesn't always forgive you, and sometimes writes about it in a review. Updating special hours takes a minute.
One page for everything
Hair, beauty, nails and product sales on the same page: Google doesn't know which search to show you for. At least separate the main categories.
A website that sends people straight to the app
If the home page is just a button to an external tool, your website has nothing to rank. Present your services and your team first, then offer booking.
Replying curtly to a negative review
The reply is read by future clients more than by the author. A short, polite reply offering to talk it over at the salon works in your favour. A public row works against you.
The method
What I put in place for a beauty or hair salon.
Four steps, starting with what shows on a phone, because that's where your clients book.
- The profile. Categories, services, prices, hours, photos and booking link are updated.
- Services. One page per category, then per profitable service, with your photos.
- Reviews. A card at the till, a template message and sample replies.
- Monitoring. I count calls, direction requests and direct bookings, at the end of the engagement or every month if we keep working together.
One-minute test
Is SEO right for you?
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
SEO you can count in euros.
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 1,100 searches a month for a hair or beauty salon in your town, 5% of visitors send a request, one request in three is signed (this varies a lot between industries), €420 per client. Click-through rates by position are rough orders of magnitude, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the maths with your own figures
What your page could bring in
Ticket no. 10th · worked example- Searchesper month, for a hair or beauty salon in your town
- 1 100
- Estimated visitsclick-through rate: 1.5%
- 0
- Possible enquiries5% of visitors
- 0
- Possible customersone enquiry in three
- 0
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
Beauty and hairdressing in Charente.
In Charente, a hair or beauty salon may be in the centre of Angoulême or Cognac, in a retail park arcade or in a small town like Jarnac or Ruffec. In town, people search by neighbourhood or by service. In a small town, they type the name of the commune and check the hours. So the work on your profile and pages changes depending on where you are.
Town centre and retail park
In Angoulême as in Cognac, people don't visit a town-centre salon the way they visit one in a retail park. They walk to the first and drive to the second. Your profile and pages need to say which one you are, with access and parking.
The village salon
In Jarnac, Ruffec, Barbezieux or La Rochefoucauld, residents search with the name of their commune. A complete profile and a few recent reviews count towards appearing on the map. But the name of the commune still has to be written on it.
Mobile hairdressing and beauty
If you travel to your clients, in villages and hamlets, your case is different. Your Google Business Profile is set up differently, with a service area instead of an address. A page listing the communes and your round days answers the question every new client asks.
Beyond Google
What AI changes for a beauty or hair salon.
Some clients already ask an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral to choose for them. For example: “I'm looking for a salon in Angoulême that does balayage on curly hair and is open on Saturday afternoons”. The AI can only answer if those details are written somewhere: on your website, on your profile, in your reviews.
A salon that displays “unisex hairdressing, all services” gives it none of that information. A salon that writes “experienced with curly hair, balayage price shown, open Saturdays until 6pm” hands it the answer. Reviews count too, because your clients describe your services there in their own words. I make sure the website, the profile and the booking tool all say the same thing, with the same prices and the same hours.
Question asked to an AII'm looking for a salon in Angoulême that can do balayage on curly hair and is open on Saturday afternoons.
Answer
Three businesses could fit:
- Our client— hair salon: curly hair highlighted, balayage price shown, open Saturdays until 6pm, photos of their work, reviews mentioning the service.
- — booking app, salons ranked by free slot, specialities not stated.
- — chain salon, standard services, hours to be checked.
Salon's websiteGoogle Business ProfileClient reviews
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
Three hair or beauty salons, three levels of help.
Three imaginary cases, none of which describes a real client. They range from the shortest format to monthly support. Many neighbourhood salons stop at the first.
A village hair salon, with no website
What it needs: an audit of the Google Business Profile, nothing more.
- Claim the profile and fix the hours, bank holidays included.
- Enter the services with their prices.
- Put a review card at the till.
A beautician working alone in her salon, reliant on an app
What she needs: a few hours of coaching at the salon, or a short training course between clients.
- Learn to post photos on the profile every week.
- Write a page per treatment together, with the length and the price.
- Put the direct booking link in the reminder message.
A manager running two salons and selling her products online
What she needs: monthly support, justified by the two addresses and online sales.
- Link each salon to its own profile and its own page.
- Rework the product pages for items sold online.
- Count direct bookings and sales every month, salon by salon.
In practice
What you get.
- An audit of your salon's Google Business Profile: services, prices, hours, photos
- A few hours of coaching to learn the routine between appointments
- A short training course, alone or with whoever runs reception
- A review card, a template message and sample replies
- Monthly support if you have several salons or sell your products online
Pricing
How much does an SEO consultant cost?
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
- The size of the site: ten pages or ten thousand
- The competition on your queries
- What you can do in-house, and what needs producing for you
- The pace you want
Fancy a game?
Insert a coin.
Quote platforms, directories, comparison sites: they swim between you and your customers. Take the coin and slide it into the machine.
Slide it into the machine
JAWS OF THE WEB
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Credit: 0
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds. No sharks were harmed, only their commission.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO.
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
SEO, beauty and hairdressing: your questions.
I already have a booking app. Do I need a website?
The app manages your diary; it doesn't make you known outside its own list. A well-kept website and profile bring in people who chose you before booking. The two can work together, with a direct link to your diary.
I work alone and my budget is small. Where should I start?
With the Google Business Profile. An audit, a few hours of coaching or a short training course are enough to set it up and learn to maintain it. If your diary is full of regulars, SEO isn't your priority: keep an accurate profile, that's all. Monthly support is for businesses with several addresses, selling products online or wanting to grow wedding hairdressing.
Should I show all my prices?
Yes, as far as possible. In this trade, price is one of the first things people look for. For variable services, a “from” price with what makes it vary is enough. The same prices should appear on the website, the profile and the booking tool.
My photos are already on social media. Why put them elsewhere?
Your posts reach people who already follow you. A Google search comes from someone who doesn't know you yet and wants an appointment. The same photos can serve both: I show you how to reuse them on the profile and the website.
How can the website bring clients back?
By making rebooking really simple. A direct link in the reminder message, a visible button on the profile, a page reminding people of the recommended frequency for each service. I don't manage your client list: I make sure every path leads to your diary.
Am I allowed to publish a before-and-after photo of a client's colour?
For a cut, a colour or a nail set, yes, with the person's written agreement. Be more careful with anything to do with skin or figure: don't attach any promise of results. If in doubt about a service, have what you're allowed to write checked.
I also sell products. Do I need an online shop?
Not necessarily. A shop takes stock, shipping and time. A page presenting the ranges available in the salon and offering in-store pick-up is often enough. Online sales can come later if the demand is there.
I have two salons. Do I need two websites?
One website is enough, with a complete page per salon: address, team, hours, photos. Each salon does, however, have its own Google Business Profile, linked to its page. This set-up stops the two addresses competing with each other.
An unfair review is pulling my rating down. What should I do?
Reply calmly, without giving any details about the person. If the review breaks Google's rules, it can be reported, with no guarantee it'll be removed. The reliable way remains to collect new reviews regularly, which put that one in context.
How long before I see my diary change?
A fixed profile fed with photos often makes a difference within a few weeks. Service pages settle in over several months. I don't promise rankings. With ongoing support, we look at calls and bookings together every month.
See also
Other industries
ConstructionJewelleryDigitalManufacturingSmall businesses & SMEsPlumbersElectriciansRoofersMasonsSolar panelsHeat pumpsAir conditioningJoinersPrivate clinicsHair removal centresAesthetic medicine and surgeryLocksmithsPool buildersKitchen fittersEnergy renovationOpticiansHearing aid specialistsAccountantsLawyersRemoval companiesLandscapersRestaurantsBarsCaterersEvent agenciesCoachesHypnotherapistsSophrologistsGarages and body shopsEstate agentsProperty surveyorsDriving schoolsNotariesArchitectsFuneral directorsHotels and B&BsBathroomsPainters and decoratorsTilersConservatories and pergolasCarpentersFaçade specialistsStoves and fireplacesAlarms and CCTVGyms and studiosBrokersPhotographersWines and spiritsCar dealershipsTraining providersRecruitment firmsCleaning companiesSoftware publishersFloristsBakeries and patisseriesWine shopsTravel agenciesCampsites and outdoor staysPrintersCommunications agenciesHauliers and logistics firmsWellbeing professionalsNaturopathsWellbeing massage practitionersYoga teachersWellbeing training providersSophrology schoolsHypnosis schoolsCoaching schools
Support services
SEO consultant in Charente
30 minutes · video call · with me
Be the one they remember.
Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
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