Do hair salons and beauty studios need a website?

You can run a salon without one. Google's guidelines ask for a phone number that connects to your individual business location, or a website that represents it, and a profile with only a phone number meets that.¹

The question is where customers look before they book. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, published February 11, 2026, asked a representative panel of 1,002 US adult consumers. It found 97% read reviews for local businesses, and that after positive reviews 54% check the business's website, up significantly from 32% when it last asked in 2019. Another 24% visit the business's social media channels.² It also found the share who read reviews on Google dipped from 83% in 2025 to 71%, while Apple Maps nearly doubled from 14% to 27%.²

So people look for a salon in more places than they used to. A website is the one page you control that every one of those places can point to.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists 48% of hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists as self-employed, and 80% of barbers, out of about 670,800 jobs in 2025. Its median pay for the group is $35,880 a year.³ The handbook also says owners may be expected to arrange for advertising, and that people who open their own business may benefit from courses in sales and marketing.³ When you rent a chair or run your own shop, nobody else builds your web presence, and a yearly bill matters.

• Services and prices. The Hair salon kit's Services page has fields for six services and their prices, with a line under each about what to discuss, such as length, shape and styling.⁵

• Hours, address and a map. Put the same details that sit on your Business Profile. Google asks that the phone number connect to your individual business location and that the website represent it.¹

• Photos of your work. Use your own photos of finished work, with the client's permission.

• A way to call or book. Our Classic kits use tap-to-call links and have no form.⁵ The first look of the Hair salon kit has three on its contact page.

• Who you are. A short About page. The kit's About page has a field for the owner's first name, so clients see who they are booking.⁵

• Your policies. If you charge for late cancellations or no-shows, say so on the site and on the booking page. Square lists a cancellation policy with no-show fees on its Plus plan.⁸

• Reviews, and a way to leave one. In BrightLocal's survey, 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.² Put a line and a link where a client can leave one.

The Hair salon kit page lists three looks, six pages (Home, Services, About, Questions, Contact and Page not found), a setup page called START HERE that asks plain questions and builds the site with you, fonts included, and a license for one business and one website. It is $39.99 once.⁴ See the Hair salon kit, or the whole list of kits.

There are three ways, and you can use more than one. The first is a call or a text: our Classic kits use tap-to-call links and have no form, so nothing waits in an inbox.⁵ The second is a link from your site to a booking app. The third is a booking link on your Google Business Profile. Google says to start at business.google.com, choose Booking under Google Search, or Edit profile in Maps, click Add link, enter the address the button should open, and click Save.⁶ Each category allows up to 10 links, and some booking links come from third-party providers and can appear on their own.⁶ Google also lets you set up bookings through a provider, which it says appears on your profile within a week, and it warns that your provider might charge you for bookings made through Google.⁷

Two booking apps publish their prices on their own pages. Square Appointments lists a Free plan at $0 a month per location, for solo professionals, with an online booking site, appointment reminders and unlimited staff calendars, and card processing fees of 2.6% + 15¢ in person and 3.3% + 30¢ online. Its Plus plan is $49 a month per location and adds a cancellation policy with no-show fees, multi-staff booking and a waitlist. Premium is $149 a month per location.⁸ Vagaro's page shows $23.99 a month for one person, crossed out from $30.00, and $83.99 a month for seven or more, crossed out from $90.00. It calls both an exclusive rate for the first 6 months, and says cancel anytime with no cancellation fees.⁹ We name them only because their pages publish prices. We do not rank them.

A Classic kit is $39.99 once, plus a web address each year.⁴ For the arithmetic over three years and the sources for each price, see what a small business website costs and can I get a website with no monthly fee. To compare doing it yourself with hiring, see build your own website or hire a designer.

BrightLocal found 24% of consumers visit the business's social media channels after reading positive reviews, against 54% who check its website.² A social page is a fine place for photos, and your website can link to it. Most customers who look for more than a photo are looking for hours, prices and a way to book, and that is what a website holds.

1. Claim and verify your Google Business Profile. If it is not showing, see why isn't my business showing up on Google.

2. Put your phone number, hours and a booking link on it.⁶

3. Ask every client for a review, the same way, after each visit. How to get more Google reviews covers what Google and the FTC allow.

4. Put the same details on one website: services, prices, hours, address, photos, a way to call or book. If the site gets visits and no calls, see why isn't my website getting calls or leads.

5. Link your profile, your booking app and your social pages to that website, and the website to each of them.

Every outside fact comes from the page named in the sources, read on October 21, 2026, and each source shows its own date. Google's help pages show none. We tried Fresha's pricing page and it would not load for us, so it is not used. The kit facts come from our store page and our own kit files. We sell website kits and help businesses with their sites, so we have a stake in this question.