Illustration of a salon website being built from blocks, with puzzle pieces for plugins, a key and a gear

Your own salon website: why WordPress is a smart choice

Many salons are very visible on Instagram or Facebook. Beautiful photos, enthusiastic comments, and now and then a new client through a message. Still, there’s a downside: the account isn’t really yours. The algorithm decides who sees your posts, and clients searching for you on Google struggle to find you there.

Your own website is your shop window, your price list and your reception in one, and it’s entirely yours. In this article you’ll read why WordPress is a smart choice for it, what it brings you and what it asks of you.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is software for building and managing websites. Over 40 percent of all websites in the world run on it, from small salons to big brands. The software itself is free and open source: nobody owns it, so you’re never tied to anyone.

7 benefits of WordPress for your salon

1. You own it. Your website, your texts, your photos and your client data live on your own hosting. Want to move to another host or web designer one day? You simply take everything with you.

2. No commission, no lock-in. You pay for hosting and possibly for extensions, but not per appointment or per client. The busier your salon, the better that works out.

3. Extend it with plugins. Plugins add features: online booking, a contact form, a newsletter or even an online shop for your products. You only pick what you need.

4. Easy to find. WordPress is built with search engines in mind. With an SEO plugin you set titles and descriptions, and multilingual sites are very doable.

5. Your own style. There are thousands of themes, and with the block editor you build pages without coding. Your colours, your fonts, your photos: your website feels like your salon.

6. Make changes yourself. A new price, different opening hours around the holidays or a new colleague? You change it yourself, without calling a web designer every time.

7. A huge community. Help is easy to find, and almost every web designer knows WordPress. You’re never on your own.

What does WordPress ask of you?

To be fair: your own website is a little more work than a social media account. You need:

  • a domain name, such as yoursalon.com;
  • hosting, often from a few euros a month, usually with WordPress pre-installed;
  • maintenance: updates and backups, which you can largely automate;
  • a bit of time to set it up, or a web designer who does it for you.

For most salons that’s very manageable, especially if you have it set up properly once.

How to get started

Pick a hosting company with WordPress pre-installed and register your domain name there. Choose a calm, beautiful theme. Start with a few pages: a homepage, your treatments and prices, your team and a contact page. Then add online booking, so clients can book in the evening and at weekends too.

Online booking with ChairIt

ChairIt is a free WordPress plugin made for hair salons, barbershops, nail and lash studios, beauty salons and dog groomers. You install it via the Plugins menu, or from the plugin page on WordPress.org. Then you add your booking form, price list, team and opening hours to your pages with blocks.

The opening hours block showing whether the salon is open now
One of the blocks: opening hours, showing whether you’re open right now.
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In short

Social media are great for being seen. Your own WordPress website makes sure clients can also find you, read everything about your salon and book straight away. Two things that go together perfectly.

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