Google Business Profile for Salons: A Field-by-Field Setup Guide

When someone searches your salon's name, or "nail salon near me", the panel Google shows with your photos, hours, rating and buttons is your Google Business Profile. For a lot of new clients it is the first impression and the last step before they book. It is free, and many salons leave half of it empty.

This guide goes through the profile field by field, with what to put in each one for a salon, barbershop, nail studio, lash and brow studio, spa or massage practice.

Claim and verify your profile

Go to business.google.com and search for your business. If a profile already exists (Google sometimes creates one from public information), claim it. If not, create one. Google then asks you to verify that you run the business, and offers one or more ways to do it, such as recording a short video that shows your location, your signage and that you manage the business.

Verification matters. Google says verified businesses are more likely to show up in local results, and only a verified owner can manage what the profile says.

Business name and category

Use your real business name, exactly as it appears on your sign and your website. Google's guidelines do not allow adding keywords, locations or taglines to the name. "Glow Brow Studio" is right. "Glow Brow Studio | Microblading and Lamination Downtown" is not, and profiles that stuff keywords into the name risk suspension.

Your primary category is one of the strongest relevance signals you have. Google's advice is to choose categories that are as specific as possible while still describing your main business, and to use as few as you need. You choose from Google's list; you cannot invent your own.

Add a few secondary categories only for services that are a real part of your business, like a hair salon that also runs a busy nail station. Skip categories for something you offer twice a year.

Address, hours and service area

• Address with your suite number, matching your website exactly. If you travel to clients and do not see them at your own address, hide the address and set a service area instead.
• Regular hours that match when you actually take clients.
• Holiday and special hours set a week or two ahead. Wrong holiday hours are a quick way to earn a one-star review.
• Phone number that someone answers, or that goes to a voicemail you check.
• Website pointing to your own homepage.

Services and prices

Google lets you list services on your profile, with an optional description and price for each. This is relevance in plain sight: a client searching "brow lamination" sees that you offer it, and Google has the words to match.

• Use the names clients search for: "Gel manicure", not "Signature Shine Ritual". Put your creative name in the description if you love it.
• Add a price or a starting price where you can. "From $65" is more useful than nothing.
• Write one or two sentences per service: what it includes, how long it takes, who it suits.
• Keep the list in step with your website and booking tool, so prices never disagree.

Your booking button

There are two ways to let people book from your profile:

• Connect a booking provider. Google works with selected booking providers. From the Bookings option on your profile you choose your provider, and Google says it can take up to a week to appear. Clients then book through that provider.
• Add a booking link. Paste the link to your own booking page as a booking or appointment link on your profile. It works with any booking tool.

Either way, test it from your own phone as if you were a new client. If the link opens a marketplace page that also shows other salons, consider linking to a page that shows only your business. Our guide to choosing salon booking software explains how marketplaces and their new-client fees work.

Photos that make people book

Photos are where a beauty business can outshine everyone. Clients want to see the work, the space and the people. Add a good set when you set up the profile, then add a few more every month.

• Your work: close, well-lit photos of finished results, by service. Daylight near a window shows color more truly than a ring light.
• Your space: the front door and sign (so people recognize it when they arrive), the stations, the shampoo area, the treatment rooms.
• Your team: a friendly photo of each stylist, barber, tech or therapist.
• Before and after: only with the client's written permission. Our Instagram guide for salons covers getting consent.
• Short videos: a quick transformation or a walk through the salon.

Posts and offers

Business Profile posts are short updates that appear on your profile. There are three kinds: updates (news, a new service, a new team member), offers (with dates, and an optional coupon code and terms) and events (with start and end dates). Updates and events can carry a button that links to a page where clients can act, such as your booking page.

• Post a new service or a seasonal look with a photo and a Book button.
• Run a dated offer, like a gift card bonus for the holidays. Our salon promotion calendar has ideas for every month.
• Introduce a new team member with their photo and specialties.
• Share an event, like a bridal trial day or a charity cut-a-thon.

Google archives posts after six months unless you set a date range, and it may reject a post that has a phone number in the text it cannot connect to your business. Keep the phone number in your profile, not in the post.

Questions clients ask

Google used to show a public Questions and answers section on profiles. It has been replacing it with answers generated for people who ask about a business in Maps, drawn from information such as your profile and reviews. Whatever your listing shows today, the lesson is the same: the answers come from what you have written down.

• Put your common questions and answers on your website's FAQ page: parking, price ranges, how long services take, walk-ins, patch tests, children, accessibility.
• Fill in the profile description, the services and the attributes that apply to you, such as wheelchair accessibility.
• Keep everything consistent, so the facts Google finds agree with each other.

Reviews and replies

Reviews live on your profile and feed both your ranking and a new client's decision. Ask every client, make it easy with a short link or QR code, never offer anything in exchange, and reply to every review. Our guide on getting more salon reviews has scripts and Google's rules.

A 20-minute monthly profile routine

1. Check your hours, phone and booking link. Set upcoming holiday hours.
2. Add five or so new photos of recent work and any new team members.
3. Publish one or two posts: a service, an offer or an event.
4. Update services and prices if anything changed, on the profile and the website together.
5. Reply to any review you have not answered.
6. Run your free health report to see how your listing compares with salons nearby.