What I Found Auditing 20 Hairdresser and Salon Websites

Most salon websites take over 10 seconds to fully load on a phone.

I spent two weeks auditing 20 Australian hairdresser and salon websites. Capital cities, regional towns, award-winning salons, indie studios. I tested mobile speed, checked whether prices were visible, looked at booking flows, and counted how many actually showed their Google reviews.

The average mobile performance score was 60 out of 100. Only four salons published their service pricing. Fifteen had great Google ratings but hid them from visitors. This article breaks down what I found, with named examples and actual numbers.

Every Salon Website Failed Google’s Mobile Speed Test

I ran every site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Google considers 90 or above a passing score. Not a single salon website hit 90.

The average score across all 20 sites was 60.6 out of 100. The average time for the main content to fully appear (Largest Contentful Paint) was 10.5 seconds. Google recommends under 2.5 seconds.

Salon	City	Platform	Mobile Score	LCP
Strut Hair & Beauty	Maroochydore QLD	Duda	83	3.3s
Co and Pace Salons	Brisbane CBD QLD	WordPress	77	4.7s
Blow Bar Lane	Surfers Paradise QLD	Webflow	76	5.9s
Rokstar	West End Brisbane QLD	WordPress	75	4.5s
Que Colour	Sydney CBD NSW	Shopify	69	5.7s
Yots Hair	Adelaide SA	WordPress	63	8.1s
The DO Salon	St Kilda VIC	Shopify	63	18.3s
Maverick Hair & Art	Coolangatta QLD	Squarespace	59	11.9s
Kabuki Hair	Adelaide SA	WordPress	58	6.5s
Cream Melbourne	Fitzroy VIC	Squarespace	57	16.5s
Tsiknaris Hair	New Farm Brisbane QLD	WordPress	56	11.4s
Jorrells Hair	Adelaide SA	WordPress	55	8.7s
Salon HER	Darlinghurst Sydney NSW	Webflow	53	13.4s
Di Lusso Hair	West Perth WA	Squarespace	52	15.9s
Manipulate Hair	Sydney CBD NSW	Squarespace	43	16.3s
Circles of Hair	Subiaco Perth WA	WordPress	30	18.2s

Circles of Hair markets itself as Australia’s most-awarded salon. It scored 30 out of 100. Its main content took 18.2 seconds to appear on mobile, and the page shifted around so much during loading (CLS of 0.35) that a visitor trying to tap ‘Book Now’ would likely hit the wrong button.

That matters because 82% of salon bookings happen on mobile devices. According to Tooltester’s analysis of page speed data, 53% of mobile visitors leave a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. For every additional second of load time, conversion rates drop by roughly 4.4%.

If your salon website takes 10 seconds to load on a phone, a significant portion of potential clients have already tapped the back button and called the next salon in Google’s results. Speed is not a technical detail. It is the first impression your salon makes.

Only Four Out of Twenty Salons Show Their Prices

Eighty percent of the salon websites I audited hide their service pricing entirely. Some have a ‘Pricing’ link in the navigation that leads to a PDF or a page with vague ranges. Most have nothing at all.

The salons that do show prices make it easy. Manipulate Hair in Sydney lists specific prices on the homepage: $120 to $150 for cuts, $120 to $180 for colour. USFIN Atelier has a dedicated price page: haircuts from $98, bleach from $170, digital perm from $230. Tsiknaris Hair in Brisbane publishes a full pricing list: haircut and blow dry $135, Milano Wave $250.

The ones who hide pricing are losing bookings to the ones who don’t. It is not a strategy. A potential client comparing three salons will skip the one that makes them call to find out what a balayage costs.

What a Good Salon Pricing Page Includes

• Every service listed by name with a starting price or price range
• Duration for each service (so clients know how long to block out)
• A note that prices may vary by hair length, thickness, or stylist level
• A clear ‘Book Now’ button next to each service or at the top of the page
• Prices for add-ons like treatments, toners, or styling

Showing prices does not make you look cheap. It makes you look honest. Every salon I audited that displayed pricing also had a premium, well-designed website. Transparency and quality are not at odds.

Great Google Reviews, Invisible on the Website

Fifteen of the twenty salons I audited have no customer reviews or testimonials visible on their homepage. Most of them have excellent Google ratings. They just don’t show them.

Cream Melbourne has a 4.8 star Google rating baked into their schema markup, which means Google can read it. But a visitor to the website sees nothing. No star rating, no review quotes, no social proof of any kind.

The opposite example is Blow Bar Lane on the Gold Coast. Their homepage displays a 4.8 out of 5 Google rating from 156 reviews, a 4.7 out of 5 Facebook rating from 233 reviews, and ten featured client testimonials. That is how you use reviews to book clients.

Salon	Google Rating	Reviews Shown on Site?
Blow Bar Lane	4.8/5 (156 reviews)	Yes, with Facebook reviews too
Co and Pace Salons	4.9/5 (163 reviews)	Yes, prominent on homepage
Kabuki Hair	4.8/5 (94 reviews)	Yes, testimonial section
Jorrells Hair	4.6/5 (139 reviews)	Yes, Google widget
Cream Melbourne	4.8/5	No, only in hidden schema
Circles of Hair	Award-winning	No
Que Colour	Unknown	No
Di Lusso Hair	Unknown	No

Around 70% of consumers read reviews before choosing a local business. For a service as personal as hair, that number is likely higher. If your Google rating is 4.5 or higher, that number should be on your homepage. Not in the code. On the page, where people can see it.

Most Salons Don’t Tell You Who Is Cutting Your Hair

Only five of the twenty websites had proper individual stylist profiles. The rest either say ‘Meet Our Team’ with a group photo and no names, or skip the team section entirely.

Tsiknaris Hair in Brisbane is the standout. They have nine individual team members, each with their own profile page listing their specialties, experience, and a professional photo. Bill, Chris, Dimitri, Shae, Zara, Violet, Jess, Mishka, Nina. If you are booking online, you can see exactly who will be working on your hair.

Compare that to a salon where ‘Book Now’ takes you to a generic time slot with no information about who you will see. Hair is personal. People want to know the person holding the scissors before they sit in the chair.

What a Stylist Profile Should Include

• A professional headshot (not a group photo cropped down)
• Their specialty (colourist, extension specialist, men’s cuts, curly hair)
• How long they have been cutting hair
• One or two personality details so the client feels a connection
• A direct link to book specifically with that stylist

Kawada Hair Studio has an interesting variation. Each stylist’s profile includes their Instagram handle, so clients can check their recent work before booking. It is a small detail that builds real trust.

Two ‘Book Now’ Buttons Lead to Contact Forms

Seventeen of the twenty salons have some form of online booking. That sounds good until you look closer. Two of those ‘Book Now’ buttons are misleading.

Jorrells Hair in Adelaide has a ‘Book Appointment’ button front and centre. Click it, and you land on a Forminator enquiry form. No available time slots. No stylist selection. No confirmation. You fill in your name and phone number and wait for someone to call you back. That is not online booking.

Di Lusso Hair in Perth is similar. Their ‘Book Here’ button takes you to the contact page. A contact form with name, email, and message fields. No booking system at all.

Real online booking means a client can choose a service, pick a stylist, select a time, and confirm the appointment without speaking to anyone. According to Phorest’s salon booking data, 46% of salon bookings happen outside business hours. If a client tries to book at 9pm and your ‘Book Now’ button opens a contact form, they are not going to wait until morning. They are going to book with the salon that lets them confirm on the spot.

The difference between a real booking system and a contact form is the difference between a confirmed appointment and a maybe.

Which Booking Platforms Australian Salons Actually Use

Platform	Salons Using It	Notable Feature
Phorest	Que Colour, Rokstar, Tsiknaris, Blow Bar Lane	Client retention marketing tools
Fresha	Kabuki Hair, Strut Hair, Manipulate Hair, Maverick	Free for core features, no subscription
Kitomba	Salon HER, USFIN Atelier	Built for AU/NZ salons specifically
Timely	The DO Salon	NZ-based, popular in Australia
Square Appointments	Kawada Hair Studio	Integrated with Square POS

Phorest and Fresha were the most popular, each used by four or five of the salons I audited. Kitomba is worth a look if you want something built specifically for the Australian and New Zealand market. Fresha’s free tier makes it a good starting point for salons that have never offered online booking.

WordPress Runs 40% of Salon Websites but Speed Varies Wildly

Eight of the twenty salon websites run on WordPress, making it the most popular platform by a wide margin. Squarespace comes second with six. Then Shopify (two), Webflow (two), Wix (one), and Duda (one).

But platform choice alone does not determine speed. The eight WordPress sites scored between 30 and 77 on mobile. That is a 47 point gap on the same platform. It comes down to theme choice, plugin bloat, image sizes, and hosting.

Platform	Count	Score Range	Average Score
Duda	1	83	83
Webflow	2	53 to 76	64.5
Shopify	2	63 to 69	66
WordPress	8	30 to 77	58.6
Squarespace	6	43 to 59	53.5

Squarespace was consistently slow. Every Squarespace salon scored between 43 and 59. None cracked 60. If you are on Squarespace and your site feels sluggish, it is not your imagination. The platform carries overhead that is hard to optimise away.

WordPress had the widest range because it is the most configurable. A lean WordPress site on good hosting (like Co and Pace at 77) is fast. A WordPress site with WooCommerce, Elementor, and a dozen tracking scripts (like Circles of Hair at 30) is a disaster.

What the Top Salon Websites Actually Get Right

A few salons stood out from the pack. Not because they had the fanciest design, but because they got the basics right.

Co and Pace Salons, Brisbane

Scored 77 on mobile with zero Total Blocking Time, meaning the page never froze during loading. Clear navigation: Home, About, Price List, Gallery, Blog, Contact, Book Appointment. No creative labels, no confusion. They display a 4.9 star rating from 163 Google reviews right on the homepage and feature owner Justin Pace with a proper bio.

Tsiknaris Hair, Brisbane

The most complete salon website I audited. Nine individual stylist profiles. Full pricing list. A blog with regular content. Comprehensive service pages with descriptions. The only thing missing was customer reviews on the homepage, despite being an award-winning salon operating since 1994.

Blow Bar Lane, Gold Coast

The strongest social proof of any salon in the audit. 156 Google reviews and 233 Facebook reviews displayed prominently, with ten featured client testimonials. A unique concept too: it is a salon and cocktail bar. The website leans into that personality rather than playing it safe.

The Pattern Across the Top Performers

The pattern across these three is straightforward. They do not try to be clever. They show their prices or make them easy to find. They tell you who works there. They prove other people trust them. And their sites load in a reasonable time on a phone.

Navigation matters too. Co and Pace uses standard labels: Home, About, Price List, Gallery, Blog, Contact, Book Appointment. Compare that to Manipulate Hair in Sydney, which uses ‘Experience’, ‘Love’, ‘Give’, ‘See’, ‘Meet’, ‘Welcome’, ‘Find’, and ‘Book’. Clever? Maybe. But a first-time visitor should not have to guess that ‘Love’ means gift cards and ‘Meet’ means team bios.

• Fast mobile load: under 5 seconds for main content
• Visible pricing: either on the homepage or one click away
• Real reviews: Google rating and client testimonials on the homepage
• Stylist profiles: individual pages or sections with photos and specialties
• Real booking: an actual booking system, not a contact form dressed as one
• Clear navigation: standard labels, logical structure, ‘Book Now’ always visible

Half of These Salons Have No Blog at All

Eleven of the twenty salon websites have no blog. The nine that do mostly have thin content: three to five posts, last updated months ago.

A salon blog is not about writing essays. It is about showing up in Google for the questions your potential clients are already searching. “Best balayage for dark hair.” “How often should I get my hair cut.” “What is a keratin treatment and is it worth it.” These are real searches that a salon blog can answer.

Kabuki Hair in Adelaide has a blog covering hair care tips and treatment guides. The DO Salon has a ‘Hair Health Journal’ with articles on styling and products. These are not massive content operations. They are a handful of genuinely useful posts that help the site rank for more keywords.

Topics a Salon Blog Can Cover Without Much Effort

• Before-and-after breakdowns of colour transformations (with client permission)
• Answers to common questions: how often to trim, balayage vs foils, how to maintain colour at home
• Seasonal hair care tips: humidity, sun damage, winter dryness
• New treatment announcements: what it is, who it suits, how long it takes
• Stylist spotlights: introduce a new team member, share their specialty

None of these require a professional writer or hours of research. They are the same conversations stylists have with clients every day, written down.

Good search engine optimisation starts with content that answers real questions. A salon that publishes one helpful article per month will outrank a competitor with a prettier website and no content.

Need a Salon Website That Actually Books Clients?

Most of the 20 salon websites I audited look good enough. The designs are modern. The colours are on brand. But they fail on the things that turn a visitor into a booking: speed, pricing transparency, social proof, and a real booking system.

If your salon website is slow on mobile, hides your prices, does not show reviews, or sends ‘Book Now’ clicks to a contact form, you are losing clients to the competitor who gets those basics right.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do hairdressers really need a website if they have Instagram?

Yes. Instagram is a marketing channel, not a business asset you own. If Meta changes the algorithm tomorrow, your reach disappears overnight. A website gives you a permanent address on the internet that you control. Around 61% of clients compare at least three salons before deciding, and that comparison happens on Google, not Instagram.

How much does a salon website cost in Australia?

A DIY build on Squarespace or Wix costs roughly $200 to $500 per year in platform fees but demands your time. A professionally built salon website on WordPress typically costs between $2,000 and $6,000 depending on features, number of pages, and booking system integration. Ongoing hosting, domain, and maintenance usually adds $50 to $150 per month. Prices are approximate market guides and vary by scope. Contact KC Web Design for a tailored quote.

Should I show my prices on my salon website?

Yes. Hidden pricing is the fastest way to lose a potential booking. When someone is comparing three salons on their phone, they will skip the one that requires a phone call to find out what a balayage costs. Even a starting price or a price range is better than nothing. All four salons that showed pricing in this audit had well-designed, premium websites.

What is the best booking system for Australian salons?

Fresha is popular because the core features are free. Phorest offers strong client retention marketing tools and was the most common in this audit. Kitomba is built specifically for Australian and New Zealand salons. Timely is NZ-based and widely used across Australia. The best choice depends on your salon size, POS needs, and budget.

How often should I update my salon website?

Portfolio photos should be refreshed every one to two months. Service pricing should be updated whenever it changes. Blog content once or twice a month keeps the site active in Google’s eyes. A stale website signals a stale business.

What photos do I need for my salon website?

At minimum: your salon interior (clean, well-lit, welcoming), a headshot of each stylist, 10 to 15 before-and-after transformations, and product displays if you sell retail. All photos should be original. Stock photos of models with perfect hair damage credibility instantly.

Does a salon website need a blog?

It helps. Eleven of the twenty salons I audited had no blog at all, which means they only rank for their brand name. A salon that publishes one useful article per month on topics like ‘best balayage for dark hair’ or ‘how often should I get a trim’ will pick up search traffic that competitors with no content will never see.

Can I use Wix for my salon website?

You can, but the one Wix salon website I tested was impossible to audit properly because Wix relies so heavily on JavaScript rendering. That means search engines may struggle to read your content too. WordPress and Squarespace are more common choices for Australian salons. WordPress gives you the most control over speed and functionality.

What makes salon clients leave a website?

Slow loading (53% of mobile visitors leave if a page takes longer than 3 seconds), hidden pricing, no online booking, stock photos instead of real work, and confusing navigation. One salon I audited uses creative nav labels like ‘Experience’, ‘Love’, and ‘Give’ instead of ‘Services’, ‘Team’, and ‘Gift Cards’. Clever, but a first-time visitor should not need to guess where to click.