Keep your booking app. The salon website just points to it.

Covent Market Amber

A salon or barbershop website doesn't replace your booking app. Every Book button goes to the one you already use, whether that's Fresha, Booksy or Square, and each stylist or barber gets their own Book link where the app allows it. Prices go on the page as text, not as a photo of the price board.

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Will a website change how my clients book?

No. The site links to the booking tool you already pay for, whether that is Fresha, Booksy, Square or something else. Clients book the way they do now, into the same calendar. You do not switch software, and you do not keep a second calendar in step with the first.

What changes is how quickly people get there. A Book button sits on every page and stays on screen on a phone, and it goes straight to your booking page rather than to a contact form. Where your tool gives each stylist or service its own link, the site uses those, so someone who wants a fade from a particular barber lands on that barber's calendar, not on a list of everyone in the shop.

Two smaller things that matter more than they sound: a phone number that is a tap on mobile, for the clients who would rather call, and a link to your gift cards if your booking tool sells them.

Can I put a Book button on my Google listing?

Yes. Salons and barbershops in Canada can put a Book button on their Google Business Profile in two ways: connect a booking app that partners with Reserve with Google, or paste in your own booking link. Either way, the client finishes the booking in your booking tool, not on Google.

Each route gives something up. A connected app shows on your profile within a week, but the provider may charge you for bookings that come through Google, and Google's partner list does not say which apps work in which country, so ask yours before counting on it. Your own link works with any booking tool whose page lets the client finish the booking, but Google gives you no booking figures for it; those only come through Reserve with Google.

The rules that catch salons out:

Your profile has to be verified before you can add a link
The link must open a page where the client can finish the booking, not a page that talks about booking
It cannot be a social media site, a messaging link, an app-store link or a link shortener, so your Instagram is out
You can add more than one booking link and mark one as Business preferred, so it shows at the top
If an app you stopped using still shows a Book link on your profile, remove it yourself: in your Business Profile select Booking, then Remove Provider. The provider has 5 days to take the link down, and if it does not, you can report it to Google

Put the price list on the page as text, not a photo

A photo of the price board, a Canva graphic or an Instagram highlight is hard to read on a phone and gives screen readers, translation tools and search engines far less to work with than text. WCAG, the web's accessibility standard, asks for real text instead of pictures of text wherever the page can manage it (success criterion 1.4.5), and a price list always can. So each service gets a line of text: its name, a from price, how long it takes, and what moves the price, such as length, a toner or a colour consultation.

Keep Instagram for showing your work. Public photos and videos from professional accounts (18 and over) can appear in Google results unless you switch that off. But prices, hours and cancellation rules spread across captions and highlights are not one page that a client or a search engine can read, and the site is that page. Whether a salon needs a website at all is a fair question, and I answer it separately, including when the answer is no.

Behind the scenes the site describes the business to search engines as a HairSalon, BeautySalon or NailSalon. Schema.org has no barbershop type, so a barbershop gets the nearest one, HairSalon. Whatever your Google Business Profile says should match the site word for word. The things clients would otherwise phone or message to ask go on the page too, in text:

Hours, including late evenings and the days you are closed
Walk-ins: whether you take them, and when
Your address, where to park, and the nearest London Transit stop for clients who come by bus
Cancellation, late and no-show rules
Deposits: when you take one and whether it is refundable

Stylist and barber pages, and what clients can already check

Clients often book a person rather than a shop. On a Starter build of up to three pages, the team usually shares one page, with a short block per person: their name, a photo they are happy with, what they are best at, the days they work, and their own Book link where your booking tool has one. On a Standard or Pro build there is room, page count allowing, for a page per stylist or barber. When someone leaves or a chair renter moves on, their block or page comes down; on a Care plan, within two business days.

Hairstylist is a compulsory trade in Ontario. To practise, a stylist needs a Certificate of Qualification, a provisional certificate or, as an apprentice, a registered training agreement, has to appear on Skilled Trades Ontario's Public Register, and renews the certificate every year. Anyone can search that register. If a stylist wants their certificate mentioned, it goes on their page as text, and apprentices are listed as apprentices. Skilled Trades Ontario's hairstylist page does not mention barbers, so if you run a barbershop, ask them how it applies to your chairs.

One more check London clients can make: the Middlesex-London Health Unit inspects haircutting and barbering shops at least once a year and publishes the results online, where anyone can search them. Between that and the register, a careful client can check a shop before booking, so the site should say nothing about your team that those records would contradict.

Client photos: ask first, and never as a condition of the appointment

PIPEDA, the federal privacy law, covers Ontario salons. In a 2014 finding about a videographer, the Privacy Commissioner said photographers and videographers need a client's consent before posting photos or videos of them online for promotion, whether on a website or on social media, and that promoting services online counts as commercial activity under PIPEDA. A salon posting client photos is, in my reading, in the same position.

A 2025 finding said a children's swim program could not make parents agree to promotional photos of their children as a condition of enrolling. The practical lesson for a salon: ask as an opt-in, and never tie the appointment to a yes. This is not legal advice, but a workable setup looks like this:

An opt-in question in your booking or intake form, or a short card the client signs
A note of who agreed, and when
The appointment never depends on saying yes
A photo comes down whenever the client asks
For children's cuts, a parent says yes first
The gallery on your site only uses photos you supply with that consent

Which build fits which shop

Shop	Build
One-chair barber or solo stylist	Starter, $499: room for home, services and prices, and your team with Book links (1 to 3 pages)
Salon with a few stylists	Standard, $899: room for stylist pages and a policies page (4 to 6 pages)
Multi-chair or multi-service shop	Pro, $1,399: room for pages on colour, extensions, fades or nails (7 to 10 pages)
Hosting	Free on every plan
Domain name	$15 to $25 a year, paid to the registrar, owned by you
Price, hours and photo changes	Optional Care plan, $49 a month, done within 2 business days

Questions people ask

What does it cost, and do I keep paying for my booking app?

The website is a one-time $499 for one to three pages, $899 for four to six, or $1,399 for seven to ten. Hosting is free and the domain is $15 to $25 a year, paid to the registrar. Your booking app subscription stays between you and your provider; the site only links to it.

Do I have to switch booking apps to get a website?

No. The site links to the booking tool you already use, so your calendar, reminders and client records stay where they are, and clients book exactly as they do now. Where your tool has a separate link for each stylist or service, the site uses those.

What should a hair salon website include?

A Book button on every page that goes to the booking app you already use, and your price list written as text. Then your hours and walk-in policy, your cancellation and deposit rules, your team with each person's own Book link, and photos used with the client's consent. A barber website needs the same list.

Do I need permission to post a client's photo on my salon website?

I would treat it as yes, asked as an opt-in. In a 2014 finding about a videographer, the Privacy Commissioner said photographers and videographers need a client's consent before posting their photos online for promotion. In my reading, a salon is in the same position. A 2025 finding said a children's swim program could not make parents agree to promotional photos as a condition of enrolling. Not legal advice.

Can I see a salon website before I pay?

Yes, your own. None of the seven sample sites is a salon, so the honest way to see one is the free homepage preview: a twenty-minute call, then your homepage within a week, built from your services and prices, at no cost and with nothing signed.