How visible is your beauty business online? Can people find you easily and what do people do when they visit your website? Do your prospective customers engage with you on social media? What impressions do people get when they try to learn more about your business?
Here is what I learned from the perspective of a consumer when looking for a beauty business online, and my suggestions for you to help your beauty business stand out.
- Get professional photos of your business and proudly display them on your website, Facebook, Instagram, Google places, and True Local business listing.
- Make sure your website is up to date. It has to look fresh, clean and must be easy to navigate. Fancy slideshows, music, and graphics are not necessary, they can slow down the website and frustrate the user experience. It's easier to just hit the back button if the website is too slow.
- Have social links clearly displayed so people can connect with you on social. Your social posts should be about you and your business. Make it fun, engaging, relevant, interesting, educational and informative. Give value and be generous with your information, for every promotional or sales post you do, you need to give four info-valuable posts.
- The blog on your website is essential for SEO (search engine optimization) and to keep your clients engaged, informed and educated. SEO means how high up does your business display in Google search results. Top search results give the impression of the business being more popular. When you are competing with dozens of beauty businesses online, first impressions make a huge difference. Make sure your blog has weekly updates to keep Google happy.
- Include personalized posts on social media and on your blog. People would like to get to know you and your staff, to make that connection. It’s a great way to break the ice and to build rapport so when your new clients come to see you, there is already an element of trust and connection.
- Your website’s home page is the front window of your business online. Make it easy to read, uncluttered, beautiful, fast, and tell a story of why customers should choose your business.
- Share great content on your blog and social media, useful information, interesting tips, and more information about treatments. Your social media needs to be updated at least twice a week and your blog weekly. Google loves content and displays websites with fresh and engaging content higher in search results.
- There is nothing worse than trying to read information on mobile devices that is designed for a large screen. Your website must be mobile-friendly. Google gives preference to mobile friendly websites and "punishes" those that and not optimized for mobile by displaying that website further down in search results.
When was the last time you tested how your business visibility rates online?
During my research, I googled “beauty salons” and the area where we plan to stay. Over 100 beauty businesses were listed near the area I was looking at. Pages and pages of search results. So I refined the search results to “spas” and of the 100, only 9 came up on Google. Eventually, I refined my search to 7 spas who had a website, and I looked at these to determine where I would like to go.
Of the 7 websites I have visited, 3 look tired with old information, poor quality images or no images of the salon whatsoever. Only two websites had interior and exterior images of the salon/spa and both were blurry and of poor quality. Other websites I looked at had fresh and bright stock images which made the website look attractive, but it's clear they were stock images which tell me nothing of the beauty business itself.
I was looking for something I felt I had a connection with, so displaying a gallery of salon images on your website is essential. I wanted to see the reception and the rooms as well. I was looking for an example of where I and my husband would be relaxing and enjoying our treatments.
Next, I checked out the location of each spa on Google. I wanted to see where the spa was located and how the salon/spa appeared from the outside on Google and if any of the spas had customer reviews. Out of the 7 places I was researching only one had excellent images on Google. Images of the spa interior, and exterior and also had some customer reviews. The rest of the spas were not listed on Google business.
I then looked at the salons' social media pages, most were on Facebook and some on Instagram which was great. It helped me get to know the business a little better to help me decide where I would like to go and visit. The social pages had nice images of motivational quotes, and some products, but no images of treatments or interesting beauty related content. Nothing to tell me about what the spa offers, except specials which were now irrelevant as they were posted before Christmas.
Social media management and managing your online presence in this competitive market is essential to make sure your business rate highly on Google. Promote your business online and let people know what you offer and where customers can find you. Long-gone are the days when all you needed was to place a single listing every year in the Yellow Pages for people to find you. Today, people search online and on their mobile devices so it is important that your business is highly visible online with fresh, new and interesting content.
Let me help you with creating an engaging online presence to boost your Google ranking. Email me for a price list.
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