Spa+Clinic Team 
Your website should be your premium marketing tool for attracting new clients into your salon or spa, writes Pam Stellema.
The fact is that websites can no longer be the basic brochure type structure that everyone started out with many years ago. Today it’s vital that it’s created and maintained in such a way that it gets found by the search engines such as Google.
If your website is not turning up on the first page after a search, chances are you are losing business to your competitors who are. This means action needs to be taken if you want to seriously grow your salon or spa.
But first, let me explain about search engine optimisation, how it affects the way your website gets ranked and in turn how this impacts on your business.
Good SEO ensures your website gets ranked on the first page after an internet search using keywords by the person searching. This is very important because it’s how potential new clients find your website. Good SEO means more people finding you, and this in turn means more people coming to your business.
That’s the ‘why’…the ‘how’ is a little more complicated. You can do some of it yourself (if you have a website where you can access the back-end) or pay an expert to do it for you.
There’s not just a once-off website makeover to consider; regular content is also an important aspect of good SEO. Google want to find the freshest and most up-to-date material for its customers, and websites that show they are doing this tend to rank higher on the list.
The Eight Essentials for Search Engine Optimisation (and as a result, gaining more new clients):
#1. Create a blog for your website where you can add short and informative articles each fortnight.
#2. The page titles on each page of your website should have keywords that include the location of your salon or spa.
#3. The page titles should be different for each page. For instance if the page is about facials he recommends that the title should include both the spa name and something along the lines of ‘rejuvenating facials from Beautiful You in Top Ryde, Sydney’.
#4. The image filenames should include a keyword. For example: rejuvenating-facial-from-beautiful-you-top-ryde.jpg
#5. Your images should also have ‘alt’ tags completed with keywords.
#6. ALL the pages on your website should have links to other pages of the site with keywords: eg’ Looking for anti-aging skin treatments in Top Ryde? Click here.
#7. Keywords should be used in the headlines of each page text (h1 or h2 tags).
#8. Keywords should be used throughout the text on the site.
So, if you’ve been a little complacent about your website, now is the perfect time to kick start it all over again. Your website might just need a few tweaks to get it back on track and make it the best marketing tool for your salon or spa.
Pam Stellema is the principal business coach and mentor for SalonSavy Specialist Coaching, which is based on the Gold Coast, QLD. salonsavy.com.au
