Digital

AI search strategy

In 2026, understanding Google and AI-driven search optimisation is essential for keeping your beauty business at the top of clients’ search results, explains Kate Woods

Each month in 2025, as many as 100,000 people typed “beauty salon near me” into Google. Just as many people were searching for “facials near me”, while up to a whopping one million people were searching “massage near me”.

For every person searching “near me”, thousands more are typing the name of their town – “microblading in Manchester”, “gel nails Brighton”, “day spa London”. Those are potential clients who know what they want, they just don’t know where they should go for it.

Salons, spas or clinics looking to get those potential clients through their doors should make getting to the top of Google a business priority.

Get on the Google Map

Many clinic owners assume the Google Map is all about their website, but the Google Business Page (GBP) has the biggest impact, alongside a number of other ranking factors.

One of those – which you can’t change – is your physical location. Google has its own centre point for every town, and businesses closer to that centre have a higher chance of appearing at the top. But with a bit of time and strategy, you can still make a meaningful difference:

• Claim your listing and make sure every field is complete. Check that you’re using the correct categories.

• Google reviews are a salon’s best friend. Aim for quality and quantity. Positive reviews that include the treatment name are invaluable.

• Don’t “set and forget”. Keep your business description, opening hours and photos up to date.

• Get into the habit of adding posts to your GBP. These can be reworked social posts or simple clinic updates.

• Make sure your website reflects the categories and services on your GBP.

• Pay attention to how people interact with your profile. The more engagement you attract, the better you tend to rank.

• Build reputation signals elsewhere online – local business links, press mentions, directory listings and citations all support your prominence.

Organic search results

Below the Map Pack, Google switches from where you are to what your website says. This is where many salons fall short because they don’t give Google the right information to understand exactly what they do, or match the searcher’s query.

To give their website the best chance of ranking in the coveted top three organic results, salons should:

Create treatment-specific pages. Avoid marketing names like "skin rejuvenation" or "Glow Lift" and use the exact words people search for: microneedling, lash lift, chemical peels, lymphatic drainage, laser hair removal. If you work with brands consumers recognise – Environ, CACI, Elemis – make that clear too.

Answer the questions clients actually ask. What is it? Who is it for? How many treatments do I need? Is there downtime? How much does it cost? Pages that answer these directly tend to rank for more queries. Adding an FAQs section is a simple way to achieve this.

Include strong location signals. If you want to appear for “beauty salon Hull”, your site must say “beauty salon in Hull” in places Google can read – page titles, headers and body copy.

Make sure your site is well-structured. Clear page titles, descriptive headers, internal links between related treatments and basic schema all help Google understand your salon.

Ensure your site is mobile-friendly and fast. Most beauty-related searches happen on phones. Use Page Speed Insights to check loading times – slow sites often fall down the rankings. The winning combination is a website that looks good enough to stop people hitting the back button and structured well enough to tell Google exactly what you do and where you do it.

How AI has changed searching

Being found online isn’t just about Google anymore. Instagram and TikTok have become search engines and AI is now transforming the landscape entirely. You’ll have noticed “AI overviews” appear in your search, but you may not realise that people are also using AI platforms such as ChatGPT to directly ask where they should go for their treatments.

AI search doesn’t behave like Google at all. Instead of showing a list of links, people ask AI direct questions:

• “Where should I go for sports massage?”

• “Who’s best for builder gel in my area?”

• “Which clinic is safest for laser?”

AI tools then scan the internet and build an answer, often recommending a specific salon or spa (and a backup plan) by name.

Interestingly, ChatGPT prioritises medical aesthetic practices over beauty salons for advanced treatments and will only show a salon or beauty therapist if they can demonstrate exceptionally strong signals.

There are some things that salons and beauty professionals can do it they want to overcome this or try to be cited, if appropriate for their salon.

• Reference qualifications and safety mechanisms.

• Reference individual team members who are specifically trained and focused on that treatment.

• Have proof that you excel at it, either visually or through testimonials (preferably both).

• Publish content that educates about the treatment e.g. whether it will hurt, how long it will it take, what downtime they'll experience.

• Chat to your developer about whether you have the right schema in place.

To appear in AI recommendations, salons need to give it the exact trust signals it looks for. Some of these overlap with Google, but others are more safety-led:

Visible qualifications and safety info: AI prioritises providers who show training, devices, modalities, contraindications and aftercare. It wants reassurance that you know what you’re doing.

Consistent information across the web: Mismatches make AI wary. A salon’s name, address and phone number should always be used consistently and it’s essential that the website and GBP have the same information. Client sentiment AI is looking at what’s being said about your clinic all over the internet – not just Google reviews.

Build your profile: That could mean working with local businesses to be featured as a business they recommend, working with a PR to get featured in trusted publications or entering awards to develop your trust signals.

The way consumers find beauty treatments is changing fast, but the core message is simple: clarity wins. The businesses that take this seriously will keep showing up – whenever and however – someone searches. And in a competitive market, that’s what puts you in front of the people already looking for exactly what you offer.

KATE WOODS Kate Woods runs Kor Digital and has been working with hair, beauty and aesthetics businesses since 2007. She’s built a reputation for honest, practical guidance – helping owners get found online, and make better use of their websites and marketing.