HOW TO INCREASE VISITORS TO
YOUR HAIR SALON WEBSITE
YOUR WEBSITE IS THE HUB
In this module, we discuss the external factors/outliers, those you can control that drives activity to your hair salon web site.
NOTE: Offline material such as business cards, posters, brochures, signage, take one’s etc. should carry your web site address and phone number of the salon.
Like any small business, MANEreviews does not have resources to actively engage with all outliers/factors that contribute to digital flow. Instead, we prioritize what we deem important at this stage of our growth i.e., content, social and social communities, search/SEO, eMarketing and mobile. We discuss all factors/outliers below.
1.CONTENT
Content, is one of the organic (free) ranking factors that you can “see”, “feel”, “touch” but above all else, you can control that makes your hair salon business known on the web.
What is content? Offline, we think of content (or contained in) as: content in a book or when cooking, content in a jar. In the online world, content describes:
Authored content – This is where articles you, your employees, your hair stylists, your writers supply you with words you have asked them to write. They are fresh, they are original, unique to you. The articles are owned by you. The most highly read content is written to entertain and/or educate. Try creating how-to guides, write solutions for something or lists that help readers.
Third party content – This is where articles are located on the web that have been written by an outside source. You’ve researched on the web, located articles written by someone else and, if needed, you have asked for permission to use on your web site or social media channel or you are asking to link to the article located elsewhere.
Web content – Here the term is used to mean static content on your web page, blocks of words that are permanently built into the design of the web page.
Content Tabs – Create a content tab on your web site (usually the tabs run at the top of your home page). When this tab is clicked, the user will see your authored content or 3rd party content populating the page. An example of another useful tab is a Public Relations (PR) tab. Tag and add your photos there and your press releases. Keep updating with new photos and releases. Press, bloggers and other journalists/writers are always looking for photography they want to use and will download your business shots if they are professionally done and serves a purpose for their article. If they use, they usually tag your hair salon business, in their article – that translates to free publicity for the hair salon which attracts visitors to your site. This is also brownie points with Google, as they favor sites that frequently have fresh content, have visitors to the site, see routine tagging the photos and a see constant upload of new photography.
2. E-MARKETING
Your regularly done campaigns “talk” to your dream clients and exiting clientele. Then should always have a call to action that links to a page on your web site. Drives ranking and visitors to your hair salon web site.
3. SEARCH/SEO
Search or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important aspect of flowing visitors to your hair salon site. Here are some of the organic (free) behind the scenes ranking factors that gets your web site found by the browsers. Keep check, rechecking, and updating to ensure optimized for best possible results:
Your keywords,
Your directory listings you’ve populated on the Internet,
Your page descriptors, meta titles and meta tags,
Backlinks,
HTML site maps and set up,
Photo tags also called alt tags also called alt text,
Social media buttons on your site visitors click to link over to the social channels
Your mobile web application.
4. ONLINE MEDIA
This term is holistically used when grouping all forms of online advertising. Return to DIY Marketing Module Summary and see Module “Why Paid Advertising” for more.
5. MOBILE
Having a paid ad campaign on a mobile platform improves your hair salon site ranking and visitor activity to your hair salon web site. Browsers, such as Google, now use mobile and web versions of your site (providing the mobile and desktop versions are compatible) together for indexing and ranking and to better help your hair salon dream client find you.
6. BLOGS/BLOGGERS
A blog is a short journal article displayed on a website in reverse chronological order. Most are not more than 500 words. Some websites are just blogs, others, such as hair salon web sites, are multifunctional. If you wish to blog and have a fully functioning web site, then add a tab to the top of your home page and called “Blogs”, then post your authored and 3rd party articles in that space.
Besides writing a blog, you may also want to find blogs to link to from your web site.
Blogs help your web site rank in search engines. Some blogs are generic in the subjects they write about while others stay focused on a category. By staying focused on the hair industry for your blog, you can easily be seen as an expert in your field.
ps: it is not recommended to do anything that sends your visitor to another site, once you have them on your site, kept them there for as long as possible or at least enough time whereby they become familiar with what your hair salon business offers.
7.SOCIAL
This is social media, everyone! We will talk about free and paid social media in separate modules. Return to DIY Marketing Module Summary and see Module “Why Paid Advertising” for more.
8.ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND FORUMS
Reaching out and finding online communities to actively engage with is often not used enough to help your ranking and to build awareness for your salon. These communities are where users not only share information, but form discussion groups based on mutual interests. Find your online hair salon communities and forums that fit to your target market BUT also within your trading area (how far a dream client would drive to your location). Such communities can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Digg, Reddit etc. to name a few. It is more difficult to find local ones. There are consumer ones and and those used by professionals.
Usually if there are some locally focused communities, they are more generic and not directly about the subject of hair. Often times you must forgo the hair sector and instead focus on finding local communities that might have the most potential for building awareness for your business. Don’t just join, add to the discussion. This is a great idea for hair salon marketing. The good news is everyone has hair, wants to remove hair or wants to grow it back.
To be certain there is not a local hair community to market your hair salon, before looking for a community more generic, try Googling “online communities for hair”, and see the results. There are good reasons for consumers to want to find local online communities for hair. They might connect for a free beauty consultation, tutorials on hair, receive products to try or read content to stay ahead of hair trend and news. Keep watching and looking, it might be worthwhile.
If there is nothing, best then to join communities that are generically “local business” focused and spend some of your time on there seeking to respond on behalf of your salon.
Click here to go back to DIY Marketing Modules summary page for more modules. Continue to keep checking in as new modules are always under construction.
WHY DO WE DO THIS SINCE IT FEELS LIKE A LOT OF WORK FOR NOTHING?
· To reach a very targeted salon business dream client (in your geo-targeted area and wants hair services offered)
· Engagement or communication with new dream clients
· Convert a dream client to a loyal client, a new “bum in seat”
CLICK HERE to go back to DIY Marketing Modules summary page. Keep checking in, other modules currently under construction.
To see our complete collection
of DIY Marketing Modules
