What are the costs of a new salon website?

Young blonde woman smiling and looking at her reflection in a mirror while sitting in a salon chair discussing the costs of a new salon website

Whether you’re venturing into the hair and beauty industry for the first time, or want to build a new and improved website for your current salon, it’s important that you get each feature of your website right. Considering salons are so popular – hair and beauty businesses have a much higher survival rate after five years compared to other businesses – you’ll want to build a website which stands out. 

Whilst it might be a popular field to work in, the competition is fierce: in the UK, 12 new salons open each week. Nevertheless, this isn’t to say that the market is completely saturated; there are endless ways to draw in new clients

To capture their interest, however, you need to build a website which has a fantastic web design and is easy to use, as word of mouth isn’t solely enough to drive in customers. Whilst some use a website builder – such as Go Sitebuilder – for their salon website, you may want to build a site from scratch. We’ve broken down the costs of a new salon website to give you some idea as to where to begin. 

1. Web host

When building a site, you’ll need a web host for your website. Web hosts are essentially companies that rent out their services to host websites on the internet – a bit like renting out a chair in a hair salon for a freelance hairdresser to use. 

There are different types of web hosting options available, depending on the amount of control you want over your site. Shared hosting is great if you’re just starting up a salon business: it’s the most affordable option (costing around £5 a month) as your server space is shared with other sites, and it is relatively simple. However, due to the shared space with other websites on the same server, your site could become slow, and you also have little control over the server itself. 

Dedicated hosting gives you complete control over the administrative server and you don’t have to share your server space. However, this is a much more expensive option, costing anything from £40 to £100 a month, which is why it might only work for you if you already have a thriving salon business with spare cash to put into building a website. 

VPS hosting is a more advanced version of shared hosting, but cheaper than dedicated hosting, as whilst you still share servers, you are given your own resources which aren’t shared with other sites. 

2. Domain name

Your domain name is the name of your website: it’s the address people use to search for you on the internet. It must be distinctive to you, as not only does this characterise your salon brand, but it also prevents confusion, as customers could click on to the wrong site if you had a very similar domain name to another salon. A domain name normally costs between £8 to £10 a year.

3. Web design 

This is where it gets a little more complicated. Part of the attraction surrounding salons is the appeal of the aesthetic. You’ll want to reflect this in your website: a low-quality web design can give the impression that your salon is tacky and has poor standards. You’ll want to have a stunning web design so that you stand out; a professional and sophisticated website can elevate the image of your salon business even higher in the minds of potential clients. 

Unless you have extensive coding knowledge, you’ll need to get into contact with a graphic designer to take charge of the web design element. This can seriously eat into your budget: the price of a free-lance web designer can range from £15 an hour, to over £100 an hour, depending on their level of expertise.

4. Ecommerce platform 

One of the ways you can make your salon stand out online in a competitive market is by selling your own products. If you have any beauty or skincare products which you sell in your salon, why not sell your products online? With an ecommerce website, you can reach out to more people, and your products can act as an advertisement of the high-level services that you provide. 

Unfortunately, the cost of an ecommerce website can be incredibly expensive: ecommerce platforms don’t come cheap, and even website builders charge you quite a bit extra if you want to sell products online. 

If you don’t want to go through all these steps just to get a website up and running, Go Sitebuilder offers all of these – a web host, domain name, ready-to-go web designs for salons, an integrated ecommerce platform – and more!

If you don’t have endless amounts of time spare to build a website from scratch, and are worried that the prices could quickly and uncontrollably mount up, we suggest you try Go Sitebuilder: our free 14-day trial means you can experience all we have to offer, without having to spend a penny!

8 best beauty salon websites for design inspiration 2020

Woman choosing hair color in dye catalog in one of the best beauty salon websites for design inspiration in 2020

The most successful beauty salons have stunning websites that entice more customers to come through their doors. Given that it takes most website visitors only half a second to make a judgement on your website, making a good first impression is incredibly important. From portraying your beauty services to consolidating a brand image, a well designed website can significantly help your beauty business. 

We’ve picked out some of the best beauty salon websites for web design inspiration so you can design the best website for your salon.

Find your Brand and Stick to it

website with woman and hairdryer
Source: drybar

This homepage for drybar clearly tells the visitor what services the beauticians at this beauty salon offer. There is a simple design, incorporating only three colours: grey, yellow and white, which creates a cohesive website design and makes the site – and brand – more memorable. There is a clear call to action on the homepage, which is easily achievable with a website builder, so the visitor knows what services are offered within moments of clicking on the page.

Keep it Simple

website with woman cleaning face
Source: HEYDAY 

The website for skincare fanatics, Heyday keeps a minimalist web design, something easily achieved through a website builder. A high quality image with a plain background gives the site a professional look, and the call to action is prominent on the page without being brash. This web design shows how a simple idea executed well gives your website a sleek, stylish feel. We wrote a blog on how images enhance your website to help you make your images work for you.

Use Marketing Tools

Empty information form for toni&guy
Source: TONI&GUY

The hair and beauty salon TONI&GUY have created an incredibly effective website for many aspects of web design. One of the useful aspects of many website builders is the ability to create a pop up which can portray a message to visitors as soon as they enter the website. This is what the web designers at TONI&GUY have used, giving an opportunity for visitors to subscribe to their emails as soon as they enter the website. This means that even if your visitors don’t buy anything, you can follow up with an email to showcase your services.

Key Messages 

website homepage dark background white text
Source: NineZeroOneSalon

The beauty salon Nine Zero One has created a web design which incorporates stunning images and quotes trying to encapsulate the ethos of the salon. This quote on their homepage is large and creates high impact, it also is effective in separating this salon from others in the business.

Bright Colours

green background website screenshot
Source: BLEACH

Bleach London have come up with a unique website to draw visitors in. The use of bright colours and bold graphics represents their beauticians mission to create new and interesting hairstyles in their beauty salon. Use this as a starting point for web design inspiration, and think about what colours best represent your beauty salon. 

Create an Aesthetic

website screenshot of Naf salon
Source: NAF!Salon

Featured in Vogue’s best beauty salons in the UK, NAF! Salon’s website is a visual masterpiece. A clear aesthetic of pastel colours and bold writing, easily achievable through a website builder, matches cohesively with the photographs of the salon. There is a bold mission statement above the name which is reflected throughout the web design and website, in gorgeous nail art photographs and high quality videos. 

Link your Instagram

hands with nail art
Source: Pastille

One way to showcase your beauty services is to link your instagram to your website. This allows you to share images easily across both platforms simultaneously. The talented nail beauticians at Pastille have done exactly that by showing their best designs on their website. Obviously this means your instagram should be regularly updated so that your website stays up to date with the latest beauty trends. 

Effective Organisation

dropdown menu for Treatwell website
Source: Treatwell

Treatwell is a service which connects beauty salons with clients. There are thousands of salons and services provided at Treatwell, which means their website must be intuitive and easy to navigate. Their clear web design and use of menus and blogs makes this possible; although there is a large variety their navigation doesn’t look overcrowded as each one opens a drop down menu with more information. This allows visitors to connect with beauticians and beauty salons in their local area without getting overwhelmed with information.

So if you’re ready to start designing your beauty salon website, take a look at Go Sitebuilder’s ready to go templates. Creating a captivating website design couldn’t be more simple. Try Go Sitebuilder today; our free 14-day trial gives you the ultimate freedom to design the perfect website for your beauty salon!