Episode 38: Your Google Business Profile, The Most Powerful Free Tool You’re Ignoring

 If you’ve ever said “I know I need to get my salon sorted on Google… but I have no idea where to start,” this episode is for you.

In this episode of Diary of the Search Queen, I walk you through the exact 90-day Google growth framework that helps salon owners move from invisible online to consistently booked.

Because here’s the truth most people won’t tell you:

Google isn’t complicated.

But most salons skip the foundational steps that make it work.

Before you even think about running ads, you need to make sure your Google Business Profile, website, and online presence are set up properly. When those foundations are strong, Google becomes one of the most powerful growth channels for your salon.

This episode breaks down the three phases every salon should follow to build visibility, attract the right clients, and scale consistently using Google.

In This Episode, I Cover:

• Why Google Business Profile is the most powerful free marketing tool for salon owners
• The biggest mistake salons make before launching Google Ads
• Why your website must be set up to convert before you run traffic to it
• The 3-phase Google growth framework: Foundation, Activation, Expansion
• How to optimise your Google Business Profile so Google trusts your business
• How local Google Ads attract ideal clients within your travel radius
• Why data, not emotion, should drive your marketing decisions
• What salon owners should actually track (calls, enquiries, bookings)
• How consistency on Google lowers your cost-per-click and increases visibility

The 90-Day Google Growth Plan

Foundation

Optimise your Google Business Profile, website, and reviews so Google understands and trusts your business.

Activation

Launch targeted local Google Ads campaigns to bring in more clients and fill your chairs.

Expansion

Track your data, refine your campaigns, and scale your results as your salon grows.

When these three stages work together, Google becomes a predictable growth engine for your salon.

This Episode Is For You If:

• You’re relying too heavily on word of mouth to grow your salon
• You’ve set up a Google Business Profile but don’t know how to use it properly
• You want more bookings without constantly chasing leads
• You want a clear roadmap to start showing up on Google

Want More?

Book your Free Salon Scaling Demo:

https://offer.sonjathesearchqueen.com/salon-scaling-system

Follow Sonja on Instagram: @sonjathesearchqueen

Loved This Episode?

Tag me @sonjathesearchqueen and share your biggest takeaway.

And if this episode helped you see Google differently, please leave a 5-star review so we can help more salon owners scale their businesses with the power of search. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Everything we do is based on data, but as salon owners are so busy cutting hair and styling hair and cutting colour transformations, it's next nor near impossible that they even have a clue what we even do. So, our goal as an agency is to make it very, very easy for our salon owners to understand what we're doing because you'd be surprised that most of our salon owners they don't check their email regularly, like most business owners. They are better on text and they aren't as text savvy as most of our business owners because they're not, they don't spend time on computers, they spend time serving their clients. Welcome to Diary of the Search Queen, the go-to podcast for salon owners ready to ditch the algorithm and get found by their dream clients on Google. I'm Sonia Petutsky Raymond, aka Sonia the Search Queen, founder of The Search Republic, and after helping salons generate millions inclined bookings, I'm here to show you how to create a reliable, low-stress lead flow without living on your phone. Ready to stop chasing and start filling chairs with ease? Let's go! Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Diary of the Search Queen. This week's episode is the 90-day Google growth plan for salon owners. So what I want to speak to specifically comprises of three different phases, which is your foundation, your activation, and your expansion. So I'm going to talk you through to that. But what I want to first start with is if you've been meaning to get your Google sorted with your salon, then this episode is completely for you because this is exact roadmap to show you how to do just that. So I often hear from salon owners I have no idea where to start with Google, but today is all about helping you be very much empowered when it comes to what to do when it comes to Google. Now, when we're talking about the three different approaches, there is no point launching ads to a website that is not set up to convert. Now, what we want to do is making sure that all of our foundational elements within our business is completely transparent to your online user. So when I speak about foundational elements, I'm talking about your Google Business profile, making sure all of the information is up to date and that you're giving Google exactly what it wants, you're actively getting regular reviews, so it's up to date and it's consistent, and Google is seeing that oh my god, people are having an amazing experience on this website, they must be amazing. And then also it's looking about when my ideal client comes on the website. Is my website a website that I'm proud of? Now we are our own worst critic. I have seen dogs dinners of websites, and I have seen websites that are sexy but don't convert. You'd be surprised that even websites that aren't that great when you make the fun of the few little tweaks that we recommend before we switch ads on, it changes the game completely. So when I speak about the changes, we're speaking specifically about the conversion tracking metrics. We want to make sure we're tracking phone calls, email inquiries, booking forms, all of those sorts of things. But if there is no functionality within the website in order to do that, well then we're not setting ourselves up for success, and we don't want to be doing that. So we want to make sure all the foundational elements are all up to date before we even consider doing paid ads. Because I get asked by so many salon owners what is the best approach in order to get my salon on Google. They think it's Google Business Profile, but it's absolutely not just Google Business Profile, it's a combination of a few factors. But specifically, if you need more bums on seats, Google Ads is the way to do that for you. And then after that, if you have more spend and you have more marketing budget, because we've made you so much more revenue because of the ads that we're running, then we can look at really ramping things up by adding SEO to the piece. But first and foremost, start with your Google Business profile and your website, making sure everything's up to date and it's something that you're proud of that reflects your brand. Now, next part of that would be the activation phase, which is basically launching your local ads, targeting your ideal clients within your local area. So you can start with a very, very small targeted campaign if you wish. Depends on where you're at with your salon owner journey. If you're turning over like five to ten grand a week, which works out between 20 or 40 grand a month, I'd be suggesting that you just start with a very basic Google Ads campaign, a very small campaign initially to just get more bums on seats, and as the salon scales, then you can add all the bells and whistles with all the different campaigns. But to get it off the ground and generate some revenue, you'll be starting with a search-only campaign. The thing is, if you can figure out exactly where your clients come from and how far they're willing to travel, then you can actually target people within that radius so you can get more of your similar clients that are already come to you because they're in that local area, and we can link the ads then to the Google Maps listing to make sure you're showing up in the map section as well, the map pack. That when people are searching in that area, or they may not even be specifically in close proximity to your salon, they could be 10 to 15k's away, but your competitor is in that area, you could actually surpass your competitor because your ads are linked to the specific area that you want to target, so it's a very, very clever way to actually strategize and get more clients through your doors and more bums on seats. Now, the one thing about ads, and this is something that is so underutilized, is looking at the right things to actually track. So when it comes to salons, we measure actual appointments booked into the calendar and we actually have a live dashboard. Data is king, this is not based on emotion at all, it's based on data. Everything we do is based on data, but as salon owners are so busy cutting hair and styling hair and cutting colour transformations, it's next nor near impossible that they even have a clue what we even do. So, our goal as an agency is to make it very, very easy for our salon owners to understand what we're doing because we'd be surprised that most of our salon owners they don't check their email regularly, like most business owners, they are better on text and they aren't as tech savvy as most of our business owners because they're not, they don't spend time on computers, they spend time serving their clients. So it is it is one of those things that we educate our salon owners, we hold their hand, we don't make them feel stupid or anything like that because the amount of salon owners that come to me, I feel so shape, but like no, you're just amazing at your craft, and that's where your energy should always be placed on what your craft is. They just outsource to people like us that actually understand what we're talking about, but we can also bridge the gap with how much we know and actually educate them in a language that they understand. But the things just to come back to the stuff that we need to track these phone calls, email inquiries, forum fills, and with all of that data, we can actually optimize the campaign for a better result based on what kind of nature of inquiries are coming through. So it's really really important to think about those three stages when you're thinking about I want to really knuckle down and get my Google game off the ground. You really really need to look at the foundational elements like I just discussed, which is website, Google Business Profile, then the activation of the ads, making sure that you can launch the ads in the local area, figure out your radius, and then to wrap that up is the expansion. So measure the results for fine and scale from there because the data is what gives you the information, but you also need to understand what the data means. I'm most selling owners don't, so you actually need somebody to educate you in that space. But we need to just be very, very focused on consistency and showing up and doing what Google wants us to do because when we do, Google rewards us by us paying less cost per click, they love us, they show us to more of our ideal client, we have more clients coming through the door, and everyone's happy. So I really want you to commit to really knuckling down and committing to your 90 days of action and help you scale your salon. And if you can't do that on your own, you know where we are. We're more than happy to help you. We are a salon owner-specific agency that's dedicated to helping salons scale at length, and we've done so for so many clients across Australia and New Zealand. You can spend another year hoping word of mouth will grow your salon, which we absolutely know it won't, or you can make the next 90 days your Google growth era. It's up to you. But thank you so much for tuning in today. It was so lovely to have you on listening to this episode. If today's episode spoke to your salon soul, then hit subscribe so you don't miss the next round of strategy and support. For more help filling your books without the burnout, then check the show notes and you'll find a link to the Search Republic where we build simple Google strategies that actually work. And if we're not already connected, come and say hi to me on the gram at Sonia the Search Queen, and I'd love to hear what landed for you today.