Get your Hair Salon Online
Most salon owners don’t realize the amazing benefits that getting your hair salon online can bring to a fledgling business. Social networking is becoming a universal medium for the sharing of news, ideas, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and so on. Because of the vast numbers of users who take part in social networking it has an almost unlimited potential for small businesses – or at least the ones who know how to use it.
Because of the ubiquity of the internet, and then fact that 80% of all Americans are online, small businesses can no longer ignore the internet as a way to get themselves into the minds of potential clients.
So how do you get yourself online, and where do you get hair salon websites from?
There are many ways to get yourself online. The first is to use webs.com to create a free website. The free website will get you off to a great start, but if you want to get serious about leveraging the power of the internet then you must get your own website with your own domain. Purchasing that through webs is a bad idea due to the fact that they host so many free websites and there service generally fluctuates from reliable to unreliable. It’s also pricey.
The absolute best way to set up a website, though may involve a fair amount of learning, would be to buy a hosting package from HostGator, or similar hosting company and then use fantastico to install WordPress.
WordPress is a great content management system that started off as a blogging platform and soon developed into a mainstay of the internet. Once fantastico automatically installs WordPress for you, you can then log in and use it as you would a blog. Better yet, WordPress has lots of plug-ins and plenty of room to customize the website how you like. There are thousands of free themes available and better yet, if you want your website to look a little more unique, there are relatively cheap premium themes that will give you a touch of exclusivity. Beauty salon websites are often catered to in those theme archives.
The final option is to hire a web designer, but we are now reaching a point in the internet where most people, if sufficiently motivated will be able to learn how to install and use WordPress in a matter of days, or find alternatives that also do not require any technical knowledge. Other options include solutions based on homestead or website tonight.
To be honest, your online hair salon site shouldn’t take a lot of work. Writing is the biggest problem, but since content can be bought for around a dollar per 100 words, outsourcing shouldn’t be too tough. If the right writer is hired, the articles could be done within a day. About 6 should be enough.
Once your website is up and running it’s a great idea to go to facebook and create a facebook page that you can point to your website. You will find that with a little encouragement your friends and clientele will happily ‘like’ your company’s page, and promote both your page and your website. Social media is a tool that has amazing potential and multiplies the power of word of mouth significantly.
In order to make this possible, it is a good idea to add interesting content to both your hair salon website and facebook page. The more interesting content you have then the more reason visitors have to come to your sites, and return again another time.
In addition to word of mouth, you can also use a variety of other online marketing methods such as you tube videos and banner adverts, although as your marketing reach increases you may find yourself reaching people who aren’t close enough to use your services. Rather than being a bad thing, you can always monetize your website with adverts and affiliate offers. These are good, but should be done in moderation. A good beauty salon website will attract return visits.
When it comes to having unique and original graphics made for your sites, and for your online adverts it’s actually possible to have these made very cheaply through sites like fiverr.com and tenbux.com where people offer their services for five and ten dollars. It’s a great way to quickly get your hair or beauty salon online until such times as your business is running and you can invest in a web designer. On such sites there are many writers, web developers and graphic artists who can help you with whatever step you get stuck at. Some even claim to offer whole websites for five dollars, though the quality may be questionable.
Promoting Your Website Once It’s Online
So once you have your site up and want to promote it, what do you do? The first thing you want to do is integrate your site with facebook. This will involve creating a facebook page and then placing a link to the page on your website through the facebook page widget. Because hair salons are very geographically localized then facebook is a good source of traffic from friends and friends of friends who are sure to be in your area.
You would also be interested to know that 20% of all searches performed in Google are for local content and local businesses, and that works out at about 3 billion searches each month for local services such as salons, doctors. Use the google keyword tool to find local keywords and then write posts on your website or blog that targets these keywords. There are many guides online that teach you how to do this, use article marketing to create links back to those articles. Also use social monkey to create strong social backlinks.
