As a salon or spa owner, you spare no effort to nurture guest loyalty and attract new customers. Excellent service from handpicked staff. New business from stylists with a social following. Guest referrals. These are all great ways to build a strong reputation for your brand and bring more guests through the door.

Yet, some business owners check all those boxes – and more – but often miss an important source of new customers: Google. The world's most-used search engine is also the go-to for shoppers, with 87% using it to evaluate local businesses.

It's crucial for salons and spas to stake their presence on Google – in ways that are designed to help you grow your customer base and your business. This post shows you how to leverage Google to best showcase your business, manage your reputation, and boost guest acquisition.

Let's get started!

Action 1: Claim your Google Business Profile

The first step is to claim your Google Business Profile if you haven't already. You'll be prompted to sign in and verify your business to establish yourself as the rightful owner.

Why is this important? Once you claim your profile and Google verifies it, you can freely update and complete any missing information. This small investment of time gives your salon or spa the best chance of showing up in location-based searches like "salon near me" or "Fort Worth barbershop." It also helps with branded searches, when customers (and potential customers) type your business name into the search box.

To improve your local ranking on Google, make sure the information in your Google Business Profile is "accurate, complete, and engaging." Our next section shows you how.  

Action 2: Optimize your Google Business Profile

There are three parts to optimizing your Google Business Profile. Completing all three helps your business stand out on Google.

Part 1: Edit your business information
Be consistent with other listings across the web, especially for the name of your business. Update your street address, hours of operation, website address, and phone number. Craft a description that tells searchers what makes your business unique. List the services you offer – products too. The more complete your profile, the higher your chances of showing up in local search results.

Part 2: Add and manage photos and videos
Make a great first impression with high-quality photos and videos that capture the vibe and ambience of your salon or spa. Have an Insta corner? Friendly staff? Before-and-after videos showing off your stylists' best work? Add them all here. It's also a best practice to include exterior shots to help first-time visitors find your business easily.

Part 3: View and respond to customer feedback
Here's why you should pay special attention to reviews left on Google more than any other site: it's the leader by a wide margin (preferred by 87% of consumers to evaluate businesses in 2022). Yelp (48%) and Facebook (46%) are a distant second and third. There's more on managing reviews later in the post.

To understand the benefits of claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile, let's take a look at the local listing for the Buckhead location of Van Michael Salons, a Zenoti customer. Here's the top half of their listing:

The listing gives searchers a snapshot of Van Michael's Buckhead location, including the physical address, hours of operation, salon website, and phone number. The listing even features a prominent "Book Online" button, links to photos (interior and exterior), and a map for easy navigation.

Here's the bottom half of the Van Michael listing – it's where you find some of the more "advanced" Google profile information, but the more you can supply the better. Notice the prompts for searchers to ask questions, write reviews, and add photos.

Businesses can engage with current and prospective customers through the Q&A section and reviews. Once you claim your Google Business Profile, you can monitor the Q&A in your listing to answer any questions about your business and set the tone for your brand. Get the ball rolling by asking (and answering!) a few questions you frequently hear from guests who visit your salon or spa.

Action 3: Manage guest reviews on Google

Roughly nine out of 10 salon, spa, and barbershop customers will book with a business only if it has an average rating of four stars or higher, according to a Zenoti 2023 consumer survey. This becomes even more important when you consider that Google only surfaces businesses with a minimum rating of four stars when consumers use the word "best" in their search, such as "best salon near me" or "best spa in Highland Village."

Remember that customers expect businesses will respond to reviews, both positive and negative. Doing so protects your reputation and shows prospective clients that you care for your customers. Responding to negative reviews is especially important for guest acquisition. When a new customer checks reviews and sees a complaint without a response, they're likely to take their business elsewhere.

Reputation management – it may sound like a lot. Break it down with a two-pronged approach:

1. Ask for reviews. Salons and spas can automate review requests using Zenoti software. Thank-you emails are the perfect vehicle to include a link requesting a Google review.

2. Monitor reviews. ezRepute for Zenoti simplifies reputation management, consolidating feedback from more than 200 review sites into a single platform.

When you thank guests for positive reviews and quickly address negative reviews, you build credibility and good will for your salon or spa. Both go a long way toward sending new business your way.

Action 4: Turn on Reserve with Google

See if your current scheduling software integrates with Reserve with Google. If it does, guests can book appointments directly from Google search results on desktop and mobile.

Here's how this integration helps searchers book appointments with Van Michael Salons. The illustration below shows desktop search results for "van michael salon." Clicking any of the "Schedule" buttons takes searchers directly to online booking for that location. The mobile experience is similar.

When salons and spas activate Reserve with Google in the Zenoti platform, their current and prospective guests can easily book appointments from search results that feature their business.  

With this integration in place, you'll save local customers a call to your front desk or the extra step of locating your website to book online from there. When you streamline the booking process, you give customers the speed and convenience they expect.

The 4 actions in a nutshell

Formerly called Google My Business, your Google Business Profile costs nothing and helps your spa or salon stand out in online search. The first step is to claim and update your Google Business Profile.  

Improve your local ranking by adding accurate, consistent information, a well-crafted description, and high-quality photos and videos. You'll also want to own the Q&A conversation in your listing and manage customer reviews.

To make the most of search traffic for new guest acquisition, look for salon or spa software that integrates with Reserve with Google. Guests can then book appointments with your business directly from search results.  

Get a free demo to see how this works in Zenoti.