Google Business Profile for salons: a step-by-step setup guide

I set these up for clients all the time, and the same gaps come up again and again: the wrong category, no prices, three photos from 2021, and a phone number nobody answers. None of it is difficult to fix. Here’s how I’d do it, in order, including what Google has changed recently.

Start by searching your business name on Google Maps. There’s a fair chance a listing already exists, either because you made one years ago and forgot the login, or because Google created one from public information. If you find it, look for the option to claim or manage it. If there’s nothing there, go to google.com/business and create a new one.

Use a Google account you’ll keep forever. I’ve seen too many profiles stuck on an old receptionist’s Gmail. Keep yourself as the primary owner, and if someone else needs access (a manager, or an agency), add them as a manager rather than handing over your login.

Google needs to confirm you’re a real business before your profile goes fully live. Google decides which methods you’re offered, and for most new salon profiles that’s now a short video recorded through the app. You film your street, your signage or shopfront, your equipment and something that proves you run the place (like opening the door with your keys, or your booking system on screen). Some businesses get a phone, text or email code instead.

If you’re asked for a video, film it in one continuous take, in daylight, and don’t cut away. Show the outside first, then walk in. For a home salon, show the road, your front door and your treatment room set up and ready. Don’t film bank details or clients’ faces. If it’s rejected, reshoot with the street and signage more obvious.

This is the setting that matters most, and the one people rush. Your primary category tells Google what you fundamentally are, and it has a big influence on which searches you appear for.

Pick the most specific category that genuinely describes your main business. A few examples:

Then add secondary categories only where they describe another genuine part of your business. Google’s guidelines ask you to use the fewest categories that describe your core business, and say categories are for what you are, not every service you offer. Individual treatments belong in your services list (step 4), so don’t add a category for something you do twice a year.

The list is fixed, so start typing and pick from what Google suggests. Before you decide, search your main treatment in your town and check which primary categories the top few businesses in the map use. A free browser extension like GMB Everywhere will show you.

Google treats businesses in two ways. If clients come to you, you show your address. If you go to them, you’re a service-area business, and you hide your address and set the areas you cover instead.

Where this gets tricky is the home salon. If clients visit your home, Google’s guidelines treat you as a business that serves customers at its address, so the address is normally shown, because people need to find you. Plenty of home-based therapists aren’t comfortable with that, which is understandable. Your options:

What you shouldn’t do is list a PO box, a virtual office or a friend’s shop where you never see clients. That breaks Google’s guidelines for representing your business and can get the profile suspended. If you’re weighing up a home setup, I’ve covered the practical side in starting a beauty business from home.

For mobile therapists, set your service area to the towns and postcodes you actually travel to. Listing every town for miles around won’t make you rank in them.

Most profiles I audit skip this or list five vague services with no prices. That’s a missed chance, because this section is where you can use the words clients actually search for.

Add each treatment as a separate service, with a short description and a price (or a “from” price). Write it the way a client would say it. “Russian volume full set” and “lash infills”, not your internal code from the booking system.

Clinics need more care, because your profile counts as advertising. Botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine, and the ASA’s guidance on botulinum toxin says you can’t promote it to the public, by name or indirectly, which can include “anti-wrinkle injections” if toxin is all you offer. List a consultation instead, such as “Consultation for lines and wrinkles”, and keep prices and offers for prescription-only treatments off your profile.

Keep prices matching your website and booking system. A client who sees £45 on Google and £55 at checkout feels misled, even if you only put your prices up last week.

You can add your website link and a booking link. If you use a booking system that works with Reserve with Google (Fresha, Treatwell and Booksy all do, and they’re the ones I see most with UK salons), you can show a “Book” button that lets people book without leaving Google. Turn it on from inside your booking software. Fresha, for example, asks that your profile name and address match exactly before the button will appear.

A few details to check:

Photos are what people look at first. A profile with a cover photo of a blurry logo and nothing else looks closed, even if you’re booked solid. Here’s what I’d shoot this week, all on a phone in good natural light:

Add a few new photos every month rather than 40 at once and then nothing for a year. It keeps the profile looking current. Check customer-added photos too, and report any that aren’t of your business.

You get up to 750 characters in the description box. Use it to say what you do, who it’s for and where you are, in plain sentences. Something like: “Lash and brow studio in Chapel Allerton, Leeds. I specialise in natural-looking lash lifts and classic sets for busy women who want to wake up ready.” Mention your main treatments and your area once each, naturally. Google doesn’t allow links, prices or promotions in this box, and pasting in a list of 30 keywords reads badly and doesn’t help.

While you’re in there, go through the attributes too: wheelchair access, accessible toilet, payment types, women-owned and so on. They’re quick, and they answer exactly the questions people have before booking.

Wrong hours are one of the quickest ways to earn a one-star review. Set your regular hours, and if you work by appointment only, say so clearly.

Then use the special hours feature for bank holidays, Christmas, and any weeks you’re away. Google often prompts you before bank holidays to confirm your hours, so keep an eye on the emails. If you add late evenings before Christmas or extra Saturday slots in wedding season, put those in too. Clients do check.

Google Business Profile lets you publish short updates, offers and events, with a photo and a button. They won’t transform your rankings on their own, but they make your profile look alive and give people a reason to book now.

Good post ideas for a salon or clinic:

Reusing your Instagram content is fine, as long as the button goes to the right treatment page. The same advertising rules apply, so no offers on prescription-only treatments. My beauty salon marketing ideas article has plenty more to post about.

The old public Questions and Answers section, where anyone could ask and answer questions on your profile, has been phased out. Google has been replacing it with an AI feature in Maps that answers people’s questions using your profile, your reviews and your website, and it’s rolling out unevenly, so what you see may differ.

So make sure the questions clients always ask (parking, patch tests, card payments, cancellation policy, whether you see under-18s) are answered clearly in your services, attributes and description, and on a proper FAQ section on your website.

Reviews are part of how Google decides who to show, and they’re a huge part of whether someone picks you. In your profile you’ll find an option to ask for reviews, which gives you a short link and a QR code. Save the link somewhere easy: your phone notes, your aftercare message, your booking system’s follow-up, and a QR card at reception.

Send it to every client, not just the ones you think loved it. Google doesn’t allow selectively asking for positive reviews, and UK consumer law has tightened up on fake and cherry-picked reviews since April 2025. Reply to every review, briefly and kindly. My guide on how to get more Google reviews covers the scripts and the rules.

Your profile has a performance section showing how people found you, what they searched for, and what they did next (calls, website clicks, direction requests, and bookings where you have the booking button). Have a look once a month and jot the numbers in a simple spreadsheet, because Google only keeps a limited history and the trend is what matters.

The search terms are the most useful part. If lots of people find you for “HydraFacial” but you barely promote it, that’s worth acting on. If nobody finds you for your main treatment, your categories, services or website need work.

These are the ones I see most when I audit a new client’s profile.

“Glow Studio Best Lashes Brows Facials Harrogate” might seem like a clever shortcut. It’s against Google’s guidelines, competitors can (and do) report it, and it can get your profile suspended. Your profile name should match your real-world name, the one on your sign and your website. Extra words that aren’t part of it don’t belong there.

Moved premises, rebranded, or started a fresh profile because you couldn’t get into the old one? You may have two. Duplicates split your reviews and confuse Google. Search Maps for your current name, old name and phone number, and ask Google to merge or remove any extras.

A brow specialist listed as “Hairdresser”, usually because someone picked the first suggestion that came up. Go back to step 2 and check yours.

Google and the public can suggest changes to your hours, phone number or even your category, and some can go live without you approving them. Check the notifications on your profile and reject anything that’s wrong.

Prices drift, photos date and reviews go unanswered. Put 15 minutes in your calendar on the first Monday of each month to add photos, post, reply to reviews, check your hours and look over your performance numbers.

Your profile and website work as a pair. Google reads your site to understand what you do and where, and lots of people click through before they book. For the bigger picture, including service pages and local directories, read how to get found on Google in your local area. And if you’d rather hand it over, looking after Business Profiles is part of my SEO service.

Yes, it’s completely free to create and manage. You’ll get offers to pay for Google Ads, which can show you in sponsored spots, but the normal profile and its map listing cost nothing.

Yes. If you’re mobile and travel to clients, set up as a service-area business and hide your address. If clients come to your home, Google’s guidelines normally expect the address to be shown, so think about whether you’re comfortable with that before you start.

Once verified, it usually appears within days, though video verification reviews and extra checks can take longer. Showing up high for competitive searches like “facials near me” takes longer and depends on your reviews, website and how close the searcher is.

The usual causes are a business name with extra keywords, an address that doesn’t match where you see clients, or a batch of changes that triggers a review. Fix anything that breaks the guidelines, then appeal through Google’s Business Profile appeals tool with evidence such as a utility bill, business registration or photos of your signage and premises.

Not in the old way. Google has phased out the public Q&A section and is moving to AI answers drawn from your profile, reviews and website. The best thing you can do is make sure those are accurate and answer the common questions clearly.

Yes. Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile, and you now manage it mostly from Google Search or Maps rather than a separate app. Any guide that mentions “GMB” is talking about the same thing.