Just qualified? What your first website really needs

This is what I’d tell a friend who’d just finished her training and was staring at a blank page. Which pages to have, what to put on them, what to leave for later, and the mistakes I see over and over again on first websites.

Instagram is brilliant for showing your work and letting people get to know you. I’d never tell you to stop using it. But it does a different job from a website, and relying on it alone leaves some big gaps.

Think of Instagram as the shop window and your website as the shop. People wander past the window, and the website is where they actually walk in and book.

Six pages, or sometimes fewer if you combine a couple. That’s it. Here’s what each one needs to say.

Within a few seconds, a visitor should know what you do, where you are and how to book. “Lash lifts and brow lamination in a private studio in Didsbury” does that. “Welcome to my little world of beauty” doesn’t. Under that, add a few photos of your work, a short line about you, two or three reviews and a book now button.

Every treatment you offer, what it involves, how long it takes, how long results last and how much it costs. Note patch tests and deposits next to the treatments they apply to, and make sure the price you show is the full price, with no booking fee added at checkout. Please show your prices. A page that says “DM for prices” loses people who are browsing at 11pm and want an answer now. If you’re still working out your numbers, do that before you build this page, not after.

Your face, your name, your training and why you do this. Keep it warm and fairly short. People are letting you very close to their face or body, so they want to know who you are. A clear photo of you, smiling, does a lot of heavy lifting here.

This can be its own page or simply a button that goes straight to your booking system. More on that below.

How to reach you, your opening hours and where you are. If you work from home and don’t want your full address public, give the area and send the exact address in the booking confirmation. Add a line about parking and access, because “where do I park?” is the question every home-based therapist gets asked. One thing to know: the UK e-commerce rules generally expect a business that takes bookings online to give a geographic address somewhere on its site, so have a think about how you handle that in your terms or policies page rather than leaving it off altogether.

Your cancellation and no-show policy, deposit rules, late arrival policy and anything treatment-specific like patch tests or age limits. Some age limits are the law rather than your choice. Botox and fillers can’t be given to under-18s for cosmetic reasons in England under the Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act 2021, for example. Writing your policies down early saves so many awkward conversations later. Link to them from the booking process too, so clients have seen them before they pay.

A first website tries to do too much far more often than too little. You can happily skip these for now:

If there’s one feature worth getting right from day one, it’s this. Clients book when it suits them, which is often late at night or on a lunch break. If they have to message you and wait, a good number will book someone else.

Pick a booking system made for beauty businesses. Fresha, Booksy, Timely and Square Appointments are common choices, and they all let you take deposits or card details when someone books. Check how each one charges, as some take a monthly fee and others take a cut of each booking or charge for new clients they send you. Before you commit, check two more things: that it can hold consultation and consent forms securely, and that you can export your full client list if you ever move. Your client list is the most valuable thing in there.

Then link your website to it properly. Either embed the booking widget on your booking page, or make every “book now” button on your site go straight to your booking page. Not to your Instagram. Not to a contact form. Straight to the place where they choose a time and pay a deposit.

This is the one that stalls most new therapists. You want a website, but you haven’t got a portfolio. Here are your honest options.

Two rules for your own results photos. First, don’t retouch or filter the treated area. The ASA treats before and after photos as a claim about what you can achieve, and its beauty advertising advice is clear that editing them can make them misleading. Keep the unedited originals. Second, get written permission from every client before their face goes on your website or socials, and keep a record of it.

Your domain is your web address, like serenebrows.co.uk. Buy it as soon as you’ve settled on your business name, before someone else does. A few tips:

Then set up an email address on that domain, like hello@serenebrows.co.uk. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both charge a modest monthly fee per mailbox, and it looks far more professional on your booking confirmations than a Hotmail address from school. Ask whoever sets it up to add the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your domain too. They prove your emails really come from you, and Google’s sender guidelines expect them, so without them your emails are far more likely to land in spam.

Most of your visitors will be on their phones, often having just tapped the link in your Instagram bio. So design for the phone first and check the desktop version second, not the other way round.

On your own phone, check that the text is easy to read without zooming and stands out clearly from the background, the book now button is easy to tap with your thumb, your phone number is tappable and the pages load quickly. Big uncompressed photos are the usual reason a beauty website feels slow, so resize them before you upload.

You don’t need to become an SEO expert to give a first website a fair chance on Google. Get these right and you’re ahead of plenty of established salons.

That’s plenty for now. Once you’re established and want to go further, that’s when proper SEO work starts paying for itself.

Your website will almost certainly collect some personal information, through a contact form, your booking system or analytics. That means you need a privacy policy explaining what you collect, why and how people can ask you to delete it. If you use advertising cookies, like the Meta pixel, you need to ask visitors for consent before they load. Since February 2026, simple analytics used only to improve your own site can be exempt from consent, as long as you tell people about it and give them an easy way to opt out. The ICO explains the conditions, and if you’re unsure, asking for consent is the safe option.

The ICO has guidance for small businesses that’s written in plain English. Most small businesses that hold client details also need to pay the ICO data protection fee, which is £52 a year at the lowest tier, and the ICO’s fee checker tells you whether it applies to you. I go through this along with everything else to check before going live in my website launch checklist.

It depends on your budget, your time and how much you enjoy fiddling with design.

Squarespace, Wix and similar builders let you make a site yourself for a monthly fee. They’re a sensible starting point if money is very tight and you’re comfortable with a bit of trial and error. The catch is time. Getting it to look polished, not just finished, can take far longer than people expect, and it’s easy to end up with something that looks a lot like everyone else’s.

A template designed for beauty businesses gives you the structure, layouts and look already done. You swap in your words, photos and prices. It’s the middle ground: a professional result for a one-off cost and a lot less guesswork. If you’d like to see what that looks like, I make templates for beauty and wellness businesses.

A fully custom website, built around your brand and your goals, is a bigger investment. For most people it makes more sense once you’re booked up, know exactly who your clients are and are ready to grow, maybe into a clinic, a team or training. That’s when a bespoke website earns its keep.

Yes. Working from home makes a website even more useful, because clients can’t walk past and see your salon. A website shows them your space, your prices and your policies before they book, and helps you show up on Google for local searches.

Start with a home page, treatments and prices, about, booking, contact and location, and your policies. That covers everything a new client needs to decide and book. You can add a blog, extra treatment pages or a shop later.

It varies a lot. A DIY builder is usually a monthly subscription, a ready-made template is a one-off cost plus hosting and domain, and a bespoke site is a bigger investment. Remember to budget for your domain, email, booking system and the ICO fee too, as those running costs carry on whichever route you choose.

You can at the very start, and it’s better than nothing. But booking pages give you little control over how you look, say very little about you and don’t usually help much on Google. A simple website that links to your booking page does both jobs.

If your site collects any personal information, through forms, booking or analytics, then yes. It should explain what you collect, why, how long you keep it and how people can contact you about it. If clients fill in consultation forms, remember that health details need extra care. The ICO’s small business guidance is a good place to start.