5 Must Haves For Successful Esthetician Websites
Having worked with our fair share of entrepreneurs in the beauty business, we get a lot of questions about what makes a beauty business website not just work, but help the business thrive. Whether you’re an esthetician, a salon owner, or a waxing business, we’ve put together some of our must have elements that make a beauty business website do the heavy lifting of selling your brand to new and potential customers. So without further ado, here are our five must haves for a successful beauty business website.
Branded Design
Whether you’ve been in business for a decade or are just starting your beauty business, you MUST recognize the importance of branding. All too often we see sites that simply don’t represent the brand in a positive way, whether its because the site is obsolete or because the design simply doesn’t match the brand. This makes it a lot harder to convert website visitors to clients, as the disconnect can confuse and even distort their perception of your brand in unhelpful ways.
We’ve listed this first because, in our opinion, it is one of the most important factors in growing your business because your brand IS your business.
High Quality Photos
Whenever we begin working with a new website client in the beauty industry, we always start with the recommendation to invest in a set of high quality photos of them, their team, their space, and, as a bonus, their clients being serviced. The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” applies here. When a potential new client visits your site, it may be your one and only shot to turn them into a paying customer. Low quality cell phone photos are simply not going to cut it. A professional photographer will not only ensure the shots are high quality, but that the composition shows your space in the best possible way. Just like you might have an eye for creating a perfectly symmetrical eyebrow, they have the eye for capturing a space.
Providing these as a tool for whoever is designing your beauty business website will make a significant difference in the end result of your site.
Pricing
Do you like answering the same questions over and over again? Neither do we! That’s why we always recommend our beauty business site clients always include a pricing menu on the site. Your visitors will appreciate the information as they peruse your site and go through their decision making process. It will also avoid a long and drawn out bath and forth that can sometimes transpire from pricing inquiries, helping you avoid the “negotiators” who sometimes are looking to haggle with you.
Save yourself some time, strengthen your price presentation, and help turn them into booked clients on their first visit with a well designed and organized pricing section.
Scheduling
Providing an intuitive and easy to use scheduling tool for your beauty business site is a critical component of converting your site visitors. If they’ve already been sold by your branding, design, and photographs of your space, here is where you can close them.
Creating as few barriers to entry as possible is the name of the game here. Ideally, an integrated, on site solution is the best strategy, but in the end, as long as it is simple this will help. We’ve helped clients integrate a number of booking solutions including Vagaro which is one of the most popular in the beauty industry.
Regardless of what scheduling solution you choose, you’ll have a serious advantage over competitors who don’t have one.
SEO
Ensuring your site is optimized for search engines is important for attracting incoming, search-driven site traffic. Word of mouth is king in the beauty industry, but there’s no reason not to attract new mouths to spread the good word of your business through search engines. If your site was built years ago, or was a DIY site, it may need some serious help on the SEO side of things.
A localized SEO strategy will help bring new visitors based on relevant searches, something our clients in the beauty business benefit from when they work with us.
The bottom line…
Your website isn’t just a place for clients to get information, it’s an extension of your brand. Treat it as such and you’ll reap the rewards as your business ages and grows. Ignore it and it will do the opposite.
If you’re looking to build a site that competes aesthetically, strategically, and functionally, we’d love to start a discussion about how we can help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you create a successful esthetician website.
