How to create a hairdress­er website step by step

To be eco­nom­ic­ally suc­cess­ful, you need to be found by your clients and stay in regular contact with them. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a hairdress­er website quickly, easily, and—above all—cost-ef­fect­ively.

Why is a hairdress­er website so important?

In the age of social media, a website may not be the only way to maintain an online presence—but it is by far the most pro­fes­sion­al. Re­gard­less of business size, very few companies or freel­an­cers can operate today without their own website—and for good reason. The same applies to hairdress­ers:

• Your own website is the main des­tin­a­tion for potential clients online. It serves as a business card, image brochure, and in­form­a­tion hub all in one.
• With a hairdress­er website, you can attract new clients—including those in your local area. If you can’t be found quickly and easily online, you’ll lose revenue.
• Offer online ap­point­ment booking. When clients can schedule ap­point­ments directly on your site, it saves you from being in­ter­rup­ted during working hours.
• Showcase your services and present yourself in the right light. Unlike social media platforms, you alone control the content and design of your website.
• Share updates on changes to business hours, new services, or pro­mo­tions. This improves service, es­pe­cially for your regular clients.
• Use your hairdress­er website as the central hub for all social media activ­it­ies. Post new content on your site first, then share it on Facebook and other platforms.

What’s the best way to create a hairdress­er website?

Creating a pro­fes­sion­al business website on your own is easier than ever. With the right approach, you can launch a polished hairdress­er site within a few hours—without technical expertise and at low cost. Al­tern­at­ively, you can choose to work with an agency or a web design service.

Do it yourself

Pro­gram­ming and designing your own hairdress­er website is probably the cheapest way to achieve an in­di­vidu­al­ised online presence. The major drawback is that to build and design a truly pro­fes­sion­al, up-to-date website on your own, you need extensive knowledge of coding and markup languages. Very few people can acquire these skills overnight or ‘on the side’.

Use WordPress or another CMS

With a content man­age­ment system (CMS), you can create a hairdress­er website even without pro­gram­ming knowledge—though a basic un­der­stand­ing of HTML and CSS can still be helpful. The most popular CMS worldwide is WordPress, largely because it’s so user-friendly. There are also several other CMS options that can compete with the market leader, such as TYPO3 or Contao.

Because of its pop­ular­ity, WordPress offers a wide variety of free and paid templates that let you create your own WordPress site without worrying about design from scratch. Good internet providers can also assist you in choosing the right domain and in­stalling the CMS.

Website builders

Website builders work much like content man­age­ment systems—only they’re far more con­veni­ent and beginner-friendly. Good builders are intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to start designing your hairdress­er website without prior knowledge or lengthy pre­par­a­tion. As with CMS platforms, you select a suitable template and then build your site around it.

You can recognise a good website builder by features such as:

• A wide variety of stylish and modern templates that can be cus­tom­ised
• Simple and intuitive interface
• Numerous features tailored to the needs of a hairdress­er website—such as ap­point­ment calendars, contact forms, and social media tools
• Built-in SEO support to help your site rank better on Google
• Per­son­al­ised support from know­ledge­able experts to answer any questions you may have

Hire a web design service

Using a pro­fes­sion­al agency or an internet provider’s web design service saves you a lot of work.

With most web design services, you start by selecting an appealing template that sets the basic look of your website. You’ll also receive direct personal support when it comes to defining the site structure, creating text, and choosing images. In many cases, your hairdress­er website will be built using the provider’s website builder—but with the key dif­fer­ence that pro­fes­sion­als handle the essential tasks for you and provide one-on-one con­sulta­tion.

If you have your hairdress­er website created by an agency, the result is often even more pro­fes­sion­al and precisely tailored to your needs. However, in this case you’ll be highly dependent on your partners—and this option also requires the largest budget.

What should be included on every hairdress­er website?

Whether you create your website yourself or hire someone to do it for you, you should first think through the basics of what content your site should include and how you want to structure your hair salon website. A simple but effective site for hair stylists should include the following pages or elements:

• Homepage: The homepage is the most important part of your online presence. From here, visitors can navigate to all other pages. Provide in­form­a­tion about who you are, what services you offer, and how clients can contact you—clearly, concisely, and without over­whelm­ing them.
• Services: This section is so essential that you should already include a short, clear overview on your homepage, linking to a dedicated services page. While it’s obvious that you offer cutting, washing, styling, and blow-drying, you can set yourself apart by ex­plain­ing what makes your work and approach unique.
• Team page: On an About Us page, highlight yourself and your team. In creative pro­fes­sions like hair styling, visitors want to know who they’ll be working with. Per­son­al­ity matters: high-quality photos with perfect hair­styles are a great op­por­tun­ity to make the right im­pres­sion.
• Contact page: Make it as easy as possible for clients to get in touch. While your phone number and address should already appear on the homepage, this section should repeat the details more thor­oughly. It should also allow clients to book ap­point­ments online.
• Portfolio / ref­er­ences: Nothing speaks more about a stylist’s skills than their work. Use this section to show reference photos and highlight your successes—such as in a gallery format. Testi­mo­ni­als from satisfied clients can also be strong selling points.
• News: If you already share updates about your work on social media—or plan to—you should also include a news or updates section on your website, such as a blog. Here you can publish new content regularly and then share it via Facebook and other platforms.
• Legal pages (privacy policy and terms and con­di­tions): In the UK, a hairdress­er website must include a clear privacy policy that explains how client data is collected, stored, and used—for example, details submitted via contact forms or online booking tools. You should also publish terms and con­di­tions, which set out the rules for using the site and booking services. If you sell products online, it’s important to include in­form­a­tion on returns and refunds in line with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other ap­plic­able UK reg­u­la­tions.

How to create your own hairdress­er website step by step

When setting up your own hair salon website, a step-by-step approach works best. Up to this point, we’ve covered the various options for building your site as well as the key content to include for your visitors. Now it’s time to put your web project into action—and these four steps are essential.

Step 1: Choose a domain name

Every website needs a web address (domain) under which it can be accessed online. But what makes a good domain name for a hairdress­er website? Es­sen­tially, a good domain name has the same qualities as a strong brand name:

• A good domain name is easy to remember—it naturally sticks in your clients’ minds.
• A good domain name com­mu­nic­ates what you and your services are about—it sums up your website in a clear way.
• If your salon is already known under a specific name, try to use that name as your domain or integrate it into the domain.
• The shorter and clearer your domain name, the fewer typos visitors will make when entering it into the search bar.
• Avoid special char­ac­ters or accented letters, which often cause confusion.
• Think about what your clients are searching for. If you’re the only hair stylist in town, a domain like hairsalon-town.co.uk could be a good fit.
• Choose a top-level domain that fits your business. In the UK, many busi­nesses also use .com domains, as they are in­ter­na­tion­ally re­cog­nised and perceived as pro­fes­sion­al. However, .co.uk is often the preferred choice for local companies, since it signals trust­wor­thi­ness and a clear con­nec­tion to the UK market. Some busi­nesses register both to protect their brand and cover both local and global audiences.

It’s not always possible to meet all of these criteria at once. Choosing the right domain often requires balancing the different factors and making a few com­prom­ises.

Step 2: Find the right design

In a field so closely tied to personal taste and style, the question of the right website design is anything but secondary. The look of your site should reflect your identity as a hairdress­er or salon. Whether you’re working with a pro­fes­sion­al agency or creating your site yourself with a website builder, it’s important to establish the basics of your design early on—es­pe­cially colours and shapes. This way, the final result will meet your ex­pect­a­tions.

If you’re unsure about the design of your hairdress­er website, it’s best to draw in­spir­a­tion from existing templates—for example, those included in website builders. With builders, you can also start designing your hairdress­er website right away.

Step 3: Add text, images, and video

Once the structure and design of your website are in place, it’s time to define the content. While no website works without clear and concise text, for hairdress­er websites—where style and ap­pear­ance play a central role—high-quality images can make all the dif­fer­ence. Getting support from a pro­fes­sion­al pho­to­graph­er is def­in­itely re­com­men­ded.

Al­tern­at­ively, website builders and web design services often provide af­ford­able or even free stock images. Agencies and web design services can also help you create or refine your text as well as support you with search engine op­tim­isa­tion.

Step 4: Publish and optimise for SEO

Before putting your hair salon website online, carefully check all content, functions, and links for errors. Once your site is published, the main task is to promote your website. Search engines—alongside social media—are one of the main ways visitors will find your site. And more website visits generally mean more clients. That’s why you should design your hair salon website to be search engine friendly from the start and continue to optimise it. The following prin­ciples are key:

• Ensure that your site is tech­nic­ally flawless. The faster it loads, the more user-friendly it is—and the better it will be ranked by search engines.
• Most websites today are not viewed on a PC screen but on smart­phones or tablets. From the beginning, focus on re­spons­ive web design so that your site works equally well across all devices.
• Search engine bots primarily read text. Analyse which keywords your clients are searching for online and integrate those terms naturally into your headings and content. Keyword tools can help you find the right search terms.
• Never copy text you find elsewhere on the internet! Google penalises duplicate content by ranking your site lower in search results.
• Search engine bots can do little with images. Learn how to use image op­tim­isa­tion to climb Google rankings in this guide on image SEO.
• Give your website a logical structure and a clear, easy-to-follow layout. Make sure all internal links on your site work correctly.
• As a hair salon, it’s es­pe­cially important to invest in local SEO. For example, create your Google business profile and list your salon in local dir­ect­or­ies.

Search engine op­tim­isa­tion (SEO) is a spe­cial­ised pro­fes­sion­al field. Es­pe­cially as a beginner, you should approach SEO measures with care and mod­er­a­tion—and con­tinu­ously work on improving your hairdress­er website. In the long run, you’ll achieve the best results by making your site as user-friendly as possible and by applying the prin­ciples mentioned above with balance and con­sist­ency.