Instagram shows the work. It does not win the search.

The price list is the most valuable page you have

It is the first thing every new client looks for and the reason most of them leave a salon site without booking.

• Prices by service, and by hair length or type where it genuinely differs
• How long each service takes, because people are fitting it into a day
• Which product lines you use — clients search by brand and are loyal to them
• Stylist-by-stylist booking, since clients follow people, not premises
• Parking, and whether there is a wait
• A booking link that opens WhatsApp with the service already filled in

Textured and natural hair is the underserved search

Braids, locs, silk presses, relaxers and natural-hair care carry enormous South African search volume and are served badly by generic salon sites. If you do this work well, a page for each service is one of the clearest opportunities in this whole list — the demand is there and the competition is thin.

Photograph your own clients

Stock beauty imagery is instantly recognisable and quietly insulting to a client whose hair looks nothing like the model. Your own before-and-afters, with permission, on real clients, do more work than any amount of design.

This is a visual business and the photos have to be yours

Nothing kills a salon site faster than stock photography. Clients are trying to work out whether you can do their hair, their skin, their nails — and stock images of models tell them nothing. Phone photographs of your own work, with permission, outperform professional shoots of strangers every time.

• Your own work, on your own clients, with their permission
• A price list — this is the most-searched thing in the industry
• How to book, and whether you take walk-ins
• Which textures, techniques or brands you specialise in
• Parking and where exactly you are, which matters for a repeat visit

Specialisation is what gets found

“Hair salon” is impossibly competitive and vague. “Locs”, “silk press”, “bridal makeup”, “acrylics”, “barber fade” are each their own search with their own customer, and each deserves its own page. Salons that split their services this way pick up work that never reaches their generalist competitors.