How to create a hair salon website step by step

To be economically successful, you need to be found by your clients and stay in regular contact with them. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a hair salon website quickly, easily, and—above all—cost-effectively.

Why is a hair salon website so important?

In the age of social media, a website may not be the only way to maintain an online presence—but it is by far the most professional. Regardless of business size, very few companies or freelancers can operate today without their own website—and for good reason. The same applies to hair stylists:

• Your own website is the main destination for potential clients online. It serves as a business card, image brochure, and information hub all in one.
• With a hair salon website, you can attract new clients—including those in your local area. If you can’t be found quickly and easily online, you’ll lose revenue.
• Offer online appointment booking. When clients can schedule appointments directly on your site, it saves you from being interrupted during working hours.
• Showcase your services and present yourself in the right light. Unlike social media platforms, you alone control the content and design of your website.
• Share updates on changes to business hours, new services, or promotions. This improves service, especially for your regular clients.
• Use your hair salon website as the central hub for all social media activities. Post new content on your site first, then share it on Facebook and other platforms.

What’s the best way to create a hair salon website?

Creating a professional business website on your own is easier than ever. With the right approach, you can launch a polished hair salon site within a few hours—without technical expertise and at low cost. Alternatively, you can choose to work with an agency or a web design service.

Do it yourself

Programming and designing your own hair salon website is probably the cheapest way to achieve an individualized online presence. The major drawback is that to build and design a truly professional, up-to-date website on your own, you need extensive knowledge of coding and markup languages. Very few people can acquire these skills overnight or “on the side.”

Use WordPress or another CMS

With a content management system (CMS), you can create a hair salon website even without programming knowledge—though a basic understanding of HTML and CSS can still be helpful. The most popular CMS worldwide is WordPress, largely because it’s so user-friendly. There are also several other CMS options that can compete with the market leader, such as TYPO3 or Contao.

Because of its popularity, WordPress offers a wide variety of free and paid templates that let you create your own WordPress site without worrying about design from scratch. Good internet providers can also assist you in choosing the right domain and installing the CMS.

Website builders

Website builders work much like content management systems—only they’re far more convenient and beginner-friendly. Good builders are intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to start designing your hair salon website without prior knowledge or lengthy preparation. As with CMS platforms, you select a suitable template and then build your site around it.

You can recognize a good website builder by features such as:

• A wide variety of stylish and modern templates that can be customized
• Simple and intuitive interface
• Numerous features tailored to the needs of a hair salon website—such as appointment calendars, contact forms, and social media tools
• Built-in SEO support to help your site rank better on Google
• Personalized support from knowledgeable experts to answer any questions you may have

Hire a web design service

Using a professional agency or an internet provider’s web design service saves you a lot of work.

With most web design services, you start by selecting an appealing template that sets the basic look of your website. You’ll also receive direct personal support when it comes to defining the site structure, creating text, and choosing images. In many cases, your hair salon website will be built using the provider’s website builder—but with the key difference that professionals handle the essential tasks for you and provide one-on-one consultation.

If you have your hair salon website created by an agency, the result is often even more professional and precisely tailored to your needs. However, in this case you’ll be highly dependent on your partners—and this option also requires the largest budget.

What should be included on every hair salon website?

Whether you create your website yourself or hire someone to do it for you, you should first think through the basics of what content your site should include and how you want to structure your hair salon website. A simple but effective site for hair stylists should include the following pages or elements:

• Homepage: The homepage is the most important part of your online presence. From here, visitors can navigate to all other pages. Provide information about who you are, what services you offer, and how clients can contact you—clearly, concisely, and without overwhelming them.
• Services: This section is so essential that you should already include a short, clear overview on your homepage, linking to a dedicated services page. While it’s obvious that you offer cutting, washing, styling, and blow-drying, you can set yourself apart by explaining what makes your work and approach unique.
• Team page: On an About Us page, highlight yourself and your team. In creative professions like hair styling, visitors want to know who they’ll be working with. Personality matters: high-quality photos with perfect hairstyles are a great opportunity to make the right impression.
• Contact page: Make it as easy as possible for clients to get in touch. While your phone number and address should already appear on the homepage, this section should repeat the details more thoroughly. It should also allow clients to book appointments online.
• Portfolio / references: Nothing speaks more about a stylist’s skills than their work. Use this section to show reference photos and highlight your successes—such as in a gallery format. Testimonials from satisfied clients can also be strong selling points.
• News: If you already share updates about your work on social media—or plan to—you should also include a news or updates section on your website, such as a blog. Here you can publish new content regularly and then share it via Facebook and other platforms.
• Legal pages (privacy policy and terms of service): In the United States, a hair salon website should include a clear privacy policy explaining how client data is collected, stored, and used—for example, information submitted through contact forms or online booking tools. In addition, most professional sites publish terms of service (sometimes called terms and conditions), which outline the rules for using the site and booking services. If you sell products online, you may also need to include return and refund policies.

How to create your own hair salon website step by step

When setting up your own hair salon website, a step-by-step approach works best. Up to this point, we’ve covered the various options for building your site as well as the key content to include for your visitors. Now it’s time to put your web project into action—and these four steps are essential.

Step 1: Choose a domain name

Every website needs a web address (domain) under which it can be accessed online. But what makes a good domain name for a hair salon website? Essentially, a good domain name has the same qualities as a strong brand name:

• A good domain name is easy to remember—it naturally sticks in your clients’ minds.
• A good domain name communicates what you and your services are about—it sums up your website in a clear way.
• If your salon is already known under a specific name, try to use that name as your domain or integrate it into the domain.
• The shorter and clearer your domain name, the fewer typos visitors will make when entering it into the search bar.
• Avoid special characters or accented letters, which often cause confusion.
• Think about what your clients are searching for. If you’re the only hair stylist in town, a domain like hairsalon-town.com could be a good fit.
• Choose a top-level domain that fits your business. In the United States, most companies use .com as it’s considered the most trustworthy option.

It’s not always possible to meet all of these criteria at once. Choosing the right domain often requires balancing the different factors and making a few compromises.

Step 2: Find the right design

In a field so closely tied to personal taste and style, the question of the right website design is anything but secondary. The look of your site should reflect your identity as a hair stylist or salon. Whether you’re working with a professional agency or creating your site yourself with a website builder, it’s important to establish the basics of your design early on—especially colors and shapes. This way, the final result will meet your expectations.

If you’re unsure about the design of your hair salon website, it’s best to draw inspiration from existing templates—for example, those included in website builders. With builders, you can also start designing your hair salon website right away.

Step 3: Add text, images, and video

Once the structure and design of your website are in place, it’s time to define the content. While no website works without clear and concise text, for hair salon websites—where style and appearance play a central role—high-quality images can make all the difference. Getting support from a professional photographer is definitely recommended.

Alternatively, website builders and web design services often provide affordable or even free stock images. Agencies and web design services can also help you create or refine your text as well as support you with search engine optimization.

Step 4: Publish and optimize for SEO

Before putting your hair salon website online, carefully check all content, functions, and links for errors. Once your site is published, the main task is to promote your website. Search engines—alongside social media—are one of the main ways visitors will find your site. And more website visits generally mean more clients. That’s why you should design your hair salon website to be search engine friendly from the start and continue to optimize it. The following principles are key:

• Ensure that your site is technically flawless. The faster it loads, the more user-friendly it is—and the better it will be ranked by search engines.
• Most websites today are not viewed on a PC screen but on smartphones or tablets. From the beginning, focus on responsive web design so that your site works equally well across all devices.
• Search engine bots primarily read text. Analyze which keywords your clients are searching for online and integrate those terms naturally into your headings and content. Keyword tools can help you find the right search terms.
• Never copy text you find elsewhere on the internet! Google penalizes duplicate content by ranking your site lower in search results.
• Search engine bots can do little with images. Learn how to use image optimization to climb Google rankings in this guide on image SEO.
• Give your website a logical structure and a clear, easy-to-follow layout. Make sure all internal links on your site work correctly.
• As a hair salon, it’s especially important to invest in local SEO. For example, create your Google business profile and list your salon in local directories.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a specialized professional field. Especially as a beginner, you should approach SEO measures with care and moderation—and continuously work on improving your hair salon website. In the long run, you’ll achieve the best results by making your site as user-friendly as possible and by applying the principles mentioned above with balance and consistency.