Field notes

What a new client sees when they search for your salon on Google

Before anyone calls or walks in, they look you up. On a phone that’s a small card: your name, a few photos, your hours, a couple of buttons and some reviews. That card is your front door. Here is how to look at it the way a stranger would, and how to fix each part.

First, look at it like a stranger

Open Google on your phone, signed out of your owner account if you can, or in a private tab. Search your shop’s name and “New Port Richey.” Then search the way a new client would, like “barber near me” or “hair salon New Port Richey,” and see where you show up. Now go through the seven checks below, one at a time.

1. Hours

What they see: “Open now” or “Closed,” right on the card. If it says open and your door is locked, that person is gone, and they may leave a review about it.

Fix it: In your Business Profile, edit your hours (Google’s steps for editing hours), including lunch breaks. Add special hours for holidays and days you’re off. Then make sure your booking page and Facebook page say the same thing.

2. The website button

What they see: A Website button. Tap it and one of three things happens: a page that works on a phone, a page that’s slow or out of date, or nothing at all.

Fix it: Tap your own button from your phone. The page should show what you do, roughly what it costs, your hours, and how to book, without pinching and zooming. If you don’t have a page like that yet, our free homepage preview is built for exactly this.

3. The booking button

What they see: A Book or Appointment button if you’ve added one. If you haven’t, they have to guess how to book with you.

Fix it: Google lets you add a booking link to your profile (how to manage your business links). Paste in the page where a client can actually book, then tap it from your phone to test it. If you book by call or text, the number on your profile matters most: check that it’s right and that someone gets back to it. (Here’s how to work out what unanswered calls cost you.)

4. Photos

What they see: The first few photos decide whether this looks like their kind of place. Dark, blurry or years-old photos say the shop isn’t being looked after, even when it is.

Fix it: Add real photos of your work and your space, taken in good light. Get a client’s okay before posting a photo with their face in it. Remove old photos that no longer look like your shop. A few new ones every so often beats a big batch once.

5. Posts

What they see: Your latest update, with its date. A post from a long time ago can read as “nobody’s minding the shop.”

Fix it: Post when something changes: holiday hours, a new stylist, a look you’re proud of. One short post with a photo is plenty. You don’t need to post every day.

6. Review replies

What they see: Your stars, and underneath them whether the owner answers. A reply tells a stranger someone is home, and that you take feedback seriously.

Fix it: Reply to your reviews, newest first. Google’s own advice is to keep replies short, personal and not promotional (Google’s tips on getting and answering reviews). For a bad review, stay calm, don’t argue, and offer to sort it out by phone. We wrote scripts for all of this in how to ask for Google reviews without being pushy.

7. Questions people have

What they see: Google has been retiring the old public Questions & Answers box on business profiles. Its developer interface was switched off on November 3, 2025, and what shows on a profile now can differ from one phone to the next. So you can’t count on a Q&A box to answer for you.

Fix it: Put the answers where clients and Google can find them: your website, your profile description and your services list. The usual questions are price range, walk-ins or appointment only, parking, whether kids are welcome, and your late and cancellation policy. Write each in one plain sentence.

The checklist, to keep

• Hours are right, with holiday hours set and the same everywhere.
• Website button opens a page that works on a phone.
• Booking button or phone number gets a client to you in one tap.
• Photos are recent, bright and really yours.
• Posts show something current.
• Review replies are in, short and personal.
• Common questions are answered on your site and in your profile.

Also look at your shop’s name, category, address and phone number. They should read exactly as they do on your sign and your booking page.

When it’s time for a second pair of eyes

Our free Missed-Call Test checks your public Google profile along with your phone, and you get the notes in a short report. You can see a sample report first.