What a Salon or Barbershop Website Needs (It Is a Short List)
A salon or barbershop site has one job, which is answering the questions you already get all day by phone and DM. Here is what earns a place on it and what you can leave off.
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The short answer
A salon or barbershop website needs to answer three questions before anyone calls. What does each service cost? When are you open, and where? How do I book? That means a services page with starting prices and a booking button on every page that opens the tool you already use, plus hours and a map that match your Google listing. Four or five pages covers it.
Count the messages you got last week. "How much for a gel fill?" "Are you open Sunday?" "Can I get in Thursday after work?"
Most of them are one of three questions, and they arrive while your hands are busy with a client. A good website answers all three before anyone reaches for the phone. That is the whole brief. Everything else on the page either supports those answers or gets in their way.
The three questions your site has to answer
How much?
Put every service on the page with a starting price. "From $45" is fine. "Prices vary" sends the question straight back to your phone.
A price on the page does two useful things. The client who sees it and still books has already agreed to it, so there is no awkward moment at the chair. And the client who was hoping for half that price finds out from the page instead of from you on a Saturday morning.
Add how long each service takes. A client fitting an appointment into a lunch hour needs to know a full set takes ninety minutes before booking it.
When are you open, and where?
Your hours, written out, matching your Google listing exactly. When the two disagree, somebody finds out at a locked door.
Holiday hours go up a week ahead. A map goes on the contact page, plus the one sentence that saves a phone call: "Upstairs, use the side door," or "Free parking behind the building." A home studio can show the neighbourhood and say the full address comes with the booking confirmation.
How do I book?
One button, near the top of every page, that opens the booking tool you already use. Fresha, Booksy, Square, Jane, whatever your clients already know. Your site sends people there. It does not need a second booking system of its own.
Next to it, a phone number that dials when someone taps it. Plenty of regulars will still call, and the ones who do should never have to copy a number by hand.
What else earns a place
Photos of your real work and your real space. Your own, taken on your phone, recent. A stock photo of a model in a white salon tells a client nothing about your chair. Ten good pictures of actual cuts or sets or colour work do more selling than any paragraph.
Who does the work. A small team page with a photo of each stylist or barber and what they are known for. Add a link that books with that person if your booking tool supports it. People choose a person before they choose a salon.
Your policies. Cancellation window, deposits, late arrivals, kids. Written once, calmly, on the site, so the conversation never has to happen in the moment.
Reviews. A link to your Google reviews, or a few short quotes you have permission to use. The link carries more weight, because the reader knows you did not pick them.
Gift cards, if you sell them through your booking tool. December traffic is real and a link is all it takes.
What it does not need
Most salon sites carry things nobody uses. You can leave these off without losing a single booking:
- A blog you will never update. An empty one dated two years ago looks worse than none.
- A full-screen slideshow that hides the booking button until it finishes.
- A popup asking for an email address before the visitor has seen a price.
- A long "Our Story" page. Two warm sentences about who you are, on the about page, are enough.
- A chat widget nobody answers.
Four or five pages covers it: home, services and prices, team, contact with hours and a map. The booking button sits on all of them.
It has to work on a phone
Close to half of all web traffic in Canada comes from phones, according to StatCounter, and the person looking for a haircut tonight is often standing somewhere with only a phone to search on. Google also ranks your site by its phone version. Open your own site on your phone and look at the first screen. Can you see what you do and how to book without scrolling? Does the phone number dial when you tap it? Does the price list fit the screen without pinching?
If any answer is no, that is the first thing to fix, ahead of anything on this list. For the general version of the same idea, here are the five things every local business home page needs.
Keep it current, or it works against you
The price list goes stale first. You raise a price in your booking tool in January and the website still says the old number in June. Then a client holds up their phone at checkout.
Make one rule and keep it: when a price, an hour or a service changes in your booking tool, the website changes the same week. If somebody else looks after your site, that should be one message to them. If every change needs a quote and a two-week wait, the site will drift. A drifting site sends the questions back to your phone.
If you already have a Facebook or Instagram page doing most of this, it is worth reading what a social page cannot do for you before you decide you can skip the website.
Common questions
What pages does a salon website need?
Four or five: a home page, a services page with starting prices, a team or about page, and a contact page with your hours and a map. A booking button and a tap-to-call number belong on every one of them.
Should a salon put its prices on its website?
Yes, at least a starting price for every service. Prices on the page cut down the "how much" calls and messages, and the clients who book have already accepted the price before they arrive.
Do I need online booking on my website if I already use Fresha or Booksy?
You need a booking button, and it should open the tool you already use. Building a second booking system into the site splits your calendar in two and gives clients one more login. Link to the one you have.
Should each stylist or barber have their own page?
For a small team, one team page works better, with a photo of each person and what they are good at, plus a link to book with them directly. Separate pages make sense once you have enough staff that clients search for someone by name.
How many photos does a salon website need?
Enough to show your real work and your real space, which for most shops is ten to twenty current photos you took yourself. Swap them out a few times a year so the work on the site matches the work in the chair.