Free salon guide
Set up and optimise your Google Business Profile
It's your free shopfront on Google, the panel with your photos, hours, reviews and map. Get it right and local clients find you, trust you and book you. Here's how, step by step.
By Shika Studio · The single most important free thing for a local salon
Why this is the one to get right
- It's what decides whether you appear when someone searches "salon near me".
- It holds your reviews, your Book button, your photos and your hours, all in one place.
- It's completely free, and most salons only ever fill in half of it.
- A complete, active profile beats a bigger salon with a neglected one. This is winnable.
Step by step
- Claim and verify it. Search your salon on Google while signed in, click "Own this business?", and verify by phone, text, email or video.
- Fill in every field. Exact salon name, address (or service area if mobile), phone, website or booking link, and full opening hours.
Empty fields hold you back. Complete profiles get shown more.
- Set the right categories. Choose the most exact primary category ("Hair salon", "Nail salon", "Barber shop", "Beauty salon"), then add secondary ones for your other services.
Category is one of the strongest signals for who shows up in local search.
- Add your services and a real description. List treatments by name (balayage, gel nails, fade, keratin). Write a short description that says where you are and what you do.
Use the words clients search, naturally. No keyword stuffing.
- Load proper photos. A strong cover image, your logo, your best work, the team and the space. Add a few new ones every month.
Photos win the click, and an active profile ranks better. See our photos guide below.
- Turn on the useful features. Add your booking link (Book button), switch on messaging if you'll answer it, and enable the "from the business" Q&A.
Every extra way to reach you is another booking saved.
- Get reviews flowing, and reply to them. Ask happy clients, share your review link, and respond to every review, good or bad.
Reviews build trust and lift your ranking. Full how-to in the reviews guide below.
- Post updates now and then. An offer, a new service, a holiday closure, using the Posts feature.
It tells Google (and clients) you're open and active.
The multiplier: a proper website that names your town and services, and links to booking, makes your whole profile more credible to Google. Profile plus site telling the same story is what wins.
Keep it alive
A profile isn't "set and forget". The salons that climb are the ones that keep adding photos, gathering reviews and updating hours (especially around holidays). Ten minutes a week is plenty.
Quick self-check
- Verified? Green tick, you can edit everything.
- Every field filled? Category, services, description, hours, booking link.
- Recent photos? Something from the last month.
- Reviews recent and answered? Not thin or ignored.
- Search yourself in an incognito tab and see what a stranger sees.
Common questions
Is Google Business Profile the same as Google My Business?
Yes. Google renamed "Google My Business" to "Google Business Profile", and you now manage it straight from Google Search and Maps rather than a separate app.
I'm mobile or work from home. What address do I use?
Set a service area instead of a street address. You can hide the exact address and show the towns you cover.
How long until changes show?
Small edits often appear within hours. Some changes go through a short review. Verification can take minutes to a few days.
Do I need a website as well?
The profile does a lot on its own, but a website makes it stronger and catches the people who want a proper look before booking. It's what turns "found you" into "booked you".
Want your Google sorted for you?
We set your profile up properly, get your Book button and reviews going, and build the website that backs it all up, so local clients find you and book you without you lifting a finger.
See what we do at shika.group
Or email mah@shika.group