What I Found Auditing 20 Hairdresser and Salon Websites

The original salon website audit found slow mobile pages, hidden prices and booking buttons that stopped at enquiry forms.

I spent two weeks auditing 20 Australian hairdresser and salon websites, from capital cities to regional towns. I tested mobile speed, checked whether prices were visible, looked at booking flows, and counted how many showed their Google reviews.

The reported average mobile performance score was 60.6 out of 100, and only four salons published clear service pricing. This article breaks down the original findings, with named examples and practical checks for your own salon website.

No Salon Reached 90 in Google's Mobile Performance Test

I ran the sites through Google's PageSpeed Insights on mobile. In Google's performance score guidance, 90 or above is good; this score is separate from passing the Core Web Vitals assessment. No result in the original audit reached 90.

The original audit reported an average score of 60.6 out of 100 and an average Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 10.5 seconds. LCP measures when the largest visible image or text block appears, rather than when the entire page finishes loading. Google's good LCP threshold is 2.5 seconds or less; a lab result is a diagnostic snapshot, not the experience of every visitor.

What a slow score means for the booking button

Circles of Hair scored 30 out of 100 in the audit, with an LCP of 18.2 seconds and a Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) of 0.35. That layout movement is a reason to check whether the booking button moves while someone is trying to tap it; the audit did not measure mistaken taps.

A salon client should be able to check a service and open the booking diary on a phone without waiting for a large gallery or video to finish loading. Speed scores alone cannot tell you how many appointments a salon loses.

If your salon website takes 10 seconds to show its main content on a phone, test what visitors can actually do during that wait. Can they read the service menu, find the phone number and tap the booking button? Those are more useful checks than treating a score alone as a booking forecast.

Only Four Out of Twenty Salons Made Their Prices Clear

In the original audit, 16 of the 20 websites did not make service prices clear. That included menus with vague ranges or PDFs as well as sites with no visible prices; a downloadable menu is not the same as having no pricing information at all.

The original examples included Manipulate Hair's homepage price ranges, USFIN Atelier's separate price page and Tsiknaris Hair's fuller service list. Their value was making the cost discussion accessible before a client called. Check the salons' own menus for their prices today.

A potential client comparing salons needs enough pricing information to decide whether to enquire. A starting price with a clear explanation of what changes the total is more useful than an unexplained instruction to call.

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

A starting price needs context: explain what is included and what requires an individual quote. That lets a client decide whether the service suits their budget before asking for a consultation.

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.

In the original snapshot, Blow Bar Lane on the Gold Coast displayed a Google rating of 4.8 out of 5 from 156 reviews. Its homepage also showed a Facebook rating of 4.7 out of 5 from 233 reviews and ten featured client testimonials.

A visible review quote lets a visitor assess a salon without leaving its website. Link to the original review source and distinguish client feedback from awards or press coverage. The audit did not measure whether one type of endorsement produced more bookings.

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 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 receive confirmation without speaking to anyone. Phorest's online booking documentation describes booking outside salon hours and collecting deposits. The useful website test is whether your own diary lets a new client complete that process after the salon closes.

A contact form leaves the appointment unconfirmed until the salon replies. Make that distinction clear in the button label and the confirmation message.

Which Booking Platforms Australian Salons Actually Use

Phorest and Fresha each appeared on four named salons in the booking table. This shows what those salons used at the time, not which tool will suit every business. Fresha's published pricing lists paid plans, with payment and optional feature charges to check for your market.

What is the best alternative to Kitomba for premium salons?

Phorest is a candidate to compare if client retention marketing and deposits are central to your salon's website booking flow. It appeared on four named sites in this audit, but that is evidence of use, not a controlled comparison with Kitomba.

Phorest documents salon marketing features, while its booking documentation covers deposits and scheduling rules. Ask for a demonstration using your own colour-service sequence before choosing it over Kitomba; this audit did not test migration quality or rank software for premium salons.

Keep Timely, Fresha and Square Appointments on the shortlist where they fit your workflow. Compare the same tasks in each demo: a new client consultation, colour with processing time, a preferred stylist, a deposit and a cancellation. Confirm which steps work in the website browser and which require an account or app.

Test the whole journey before replacing the booking system

• Open the booking link on a phone as a new client, without a saved login.
• Check whether a colour service needs a consultation or patch test before a time can be confirmed.
• Read the deposit and cancellation terms before the final confirmation.
• Verify the confirmation message identifies the service, stylist, salon address and appointment time.
• Test rescheduling, and ask what happens to existing future appointments if you switch providers.

A contact form can be appropriate for a complex colour correction. Label that action 'Request a consultation' so the visitor knows they are waiting for a reply rather than holding an appointment.

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 were reported as scoring between 30 and 77 on mobile, a 47-point gap on the same platform. Theme choice, image sizes, scripts and hosting are things to investigate, rather than causes established by this comparison.

That is a 47 point gap on the same platform. It comes down to theme choice, plugin bloat, image sizes, and hosting.

The four named Squarespace results in the speed table ranged from 43 to 59. That is a reason to investigate these builds, rather than proof that every Squarespace salon will be slow. The published table does not include scores for all six Squarespace sites counted in the original platform summary.

The WordPress results ranged from Circles of Hair at 30 to Co and Pace at 77. A platform label cannot explain that gap by itself: images, scripts, hosting and the page layout need separate testing. This audit did not isolate the performance cost of individual plugins.

What the Top Salon Websites Actually Get Right

Co and Pace, Tsiknaris Hair and Blow Bar Lane each offered something useful to a potential client. Here are the specific details that stood out in the original audit.

Co and Pace Salons, Brisbane

Co and Pace scored 77 on mobile with zero Total Blocking Time in the lab test, a measure of long tasks blocking the main thread during the test window. That does not prove the page never froze for a visitor. Its navigation used familiar labels, and the audit recorded a visible Google rating and an owner bio.

The familiar menu and visible owner bio are useful benchmarks for salon web design in Brisbane.

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

Across these examples, the useful patterns were visible service information, recognisable team members and evidence from past clients. Speed still needed work: Blow Bar Lane's recorded LCP was 5.9 seconds, so it would be misleading to call all three fast.

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.

• Mobile speed: aim for a good LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, then test whether the booking controls respond
• 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

The best starting material is often a question stylists already answer in the chair. Check technical advice with the person who delivers the service, and get permission before publishing client photos or stories.

Useful search engine optimisation for salon websites starts with pages that answer real client questions. A publishing schedule alone cannot guarantee that a salon will outrank a competitor; service pages, local relevance and the quality of the answers also matter.

The booking checks I would add to this salon website audit

The original audit focused on speed, pricing, reviews, team profiles and booking destinations. The checks below extend that framework; they are not extra findings about the 20 salons.

Make the salon easy to find after the appointment is booked

Show the salon's street address, opening hours, phone number and a directions link as readable text. For a salon inside an arcade or upstairs, explain the entrance and access rather than leaving the client to interpret a map pin.

Compare those details with the salon's Google Business Profile. Google's business representation guidelines call for an accurate real-world location, appropriate hours and a phone number or website for the individual location.

A developer can also use LocalBusiness structured data to describe the business to Google. That does not replace visible contact details or guarantee a search enhancement.

Keep real hair results visible without slowing the diary

Pair a transformation photo with the service name and the stylist who did the work, with the client's permission. A prospective colour client needs to judge relevant work, not scroll through an unrelated wall of images.

Compress gallery files and keep the booking button available while images load. Add useful image descriptions, readable text contrast and visible keyboard focus, then try the service menu and booking flow using only a keyboard. Check that cookie banners and sticky buttons do not cover the diary on a small screen.

Use HTTPS throughout the hand-off, and explain where booking details go. Link the privacy information and cancellation terms where a client is about to submit their details, rather than relying on a footer they may never reach.

Keeping service menus, booking links and software working is part of ongoing website management, especially after a booking provider changes its integration.

The gallery should also have a clear job; why I stopped building homepage sliders explains the trade-offs when rotating images compete with the booking button.

Need a Salon Website That Actually Books Clients?

The original 20-site audit found modern designs alongside practical obstacles: slow main content, unclear pricing, hidden reviews and misleading booking labels. Those are specific things a salon can investigate without guessing whether the whole website needs replacing.

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 or sends booking clicks to an enquiry form, start by checking that journey yourself. Fix the point where a visitor gets stuck before commissioning a complete redesign.

Frequently Asked Questions

Photos, updates and the path to an appointment